Minami Restaurant – Grand Opening Party

Last week, I went to Minami Restaurant’s grand opening party. Minami is the sister restaurant of Miku, which is among the best Japanese restaurants in Vancouver.

The evening began with the Kagami Biraki ceremony, which is the opening of a cask of sake using a mallet, conducted by owner Seigo and two of his guests. Minami offers a large variety of sake on the menu; they even have someone on staff who specializes in sake.

Seigo-san spoke about the philosophy behind his restaurant group and the three main pillars: food, atmosphere, and people. We heard about his quest for the mural artist and the custom-made porcelain.

He talked about his passion for delivering high quality of food, as well as his vision in providing top-notch service through his knowledgeable staff. Everything was demonstrated at this grand opening event.

I was very impressed by how efficient the staff were. Cooks and sushi chefs pumped out food like a machine; servers were attentive, knowledgeable about each item and were able to describe them to guests.

My favourites, hands down, were Aburi Salmon Oshi Sushi, Ebi Fritter and the assortment of Nigiri Sushi. I also liked the two sake-based cocktails, especially Pacific Pimm’s.

That said, the overall quality of food was excellent, especially considering that this was a grand opening party and party this size tends to get a little crazy and quality couldn’t be maintained because you have to make a massive amount of food and serve a big flock of guests within a short amount of time. It was never an issue here, so you know this is not an ordinary Japanese restaurant. Kudos to all the staff at Minami.