Minami is always a top pick for me for Dine Out Vancouver. In my opinion their $35 lunch menu is a great deal and never disappoints.
I used to frequent their sister restaurant Miku a lot more, but in recent years I’ve started coming to Minami more. I find the ambiance to be less boisterous, the food execution is better, and the service is much friendlier.
Their Dine Out Lunch menu features – Minami Zen (each dish is detailed below), Minami Signature Sushi Selection and Genmaicha Mousse.
The meal starts with a miso soup that has little bits of mushroom, large chunks of tofu and copious amounts of seaweed.
The salad was a pretty standard starter. I couldn’t really taste the shiso in the goat cheese, nor did the beets taste pickled, but the salad was a bright and fresh way to start the meal.
Three thick slices of tuna sashimi with a delicious sesame crust. This was very delicious, and I wished there was more!
This was my favourite dish from the entire lunch. The portion of salmon was generous and packed with flavour. It just melted in my mouth and all of the components worked so well together. The tomato relish wasn’t absolutely necessary in my opinion, but it didn’t detract from the dish either.
I’m a huge fan of the farro salad, and I am definitely ordering this in it’s entree size the next time I’m at Minami.
I’m not a huge fan of pork belly, but even I had to marvel at this large unctuous piece of meat. It was practically glistening! The overwhelming flavour of this dish is definitely pork. I couldn’t taste any of the yuzu or smoked truffle teriyaki if I was eating the dish as a whole. Probably my least favourite, but only because I’m not a fan of the protein.
Minami’s aburi selection never disappoints and this was no exception. Some of their most famous pieces on one plate. Delicious as always.
I don’t believe this dessert is on their regular menu, but it should be! I was positively stuffed by the time dessert arrived, but once I had one bite I knew I had to finish it all.
The dessert wasn’t too sweet and the genmaicha flavour was very prominent. I loved all the textures (the soft sponge, the fluffy mousse and the crunch from the crisp).
Overall I had a great experience at Minami. I would recommend this Dine Out menu to everyone wanting an elevated lunch experience. It was crazy busy when I went, so I would encourage you to make a reservation sooner rather than later!