by MARK SLUTSKY

Though it’s far from the fanciest or most expensive, I’ve always felt that Mikado St-Denis is the best sushi joint in town. Even the Mikado on Laurier can’t seem to match the St-Denis location’s always-fresh-tasting fish and warm, friendly service.

With an L-shaped front room and a couple of pleasant tatami rooms (for large groups) in the back, Mikado can accommodate quite a few customers, but always feels cozy. Credit must go to the restaurant’s décor, which is pleasantly low-lit and neutral, with lots of light, earthy tones. They also seem to redecorate every once in a while, but never drastically enough to change the restaurant’s overall feel.

On a recent rainy night two friends and I were seated in a comfortable booth at the front of the place, underneath big, tinted picture windows. To start, one of my pals and I each ordered the miso soup ($1.95), and my other friend had the green salad ($2.50). We also ordered a bottle of sake ($22), which arrived lickety-split. The miso soups were great; my buddy commented that it was the best he’d had in the city. Served in a small wooden bowl painted black on the exterior and red within, the soup was light and savoury. Cubes of tofu, little slips of seaweed, and thinly sliced, nutty-tasting mushrooms floated in the broth, making for a very satisfying appetizer. The green salad went over well too—a sizeable portion of lettuce, cucumbers, carrots and the like, topped with a sesame vinaigrette.

The tempura appetizer platter ($6.25) arrived at pretty much the same time as the appetizers. Served in a little ceramic boat-shaped dish, it consisted of shrimp, eggplant and carrot, all coated in that tasty batter and accompanied by the familiar tempura sauce. Every piece, and the shrimp especially, was tender and flavourful, while the thick batter was not so greasy.

Shortly thereafter, the sushi arrived on a thick wooden slab. We’d ordered a couple of pieces of sushi proper (by which I mean just the fish and rice combo) and a large amount of maki, because Mikado’s maki is really out of this world. Because we all love it so much, we had two Kamikaze rolls ($5.25), which are indescribably delicious. I’ll try anyway, though: the Kamikaze roll is your traditional seaweed-on-the-outside roll, with salmon, avocado, a little bit of tempura batter and an even littler bit of Japanese mayonnaise on the inside. The ingredients come together like magic, with the tempura giving the roll a little crunch.

Another favourite was the maguro, or red tuna sushi ($4.95), which was simple and beautiful—two rectangles of rice, each with a perfect little strip of velvety tuna on top, which, like all good fish, had a subtle and rich flavour. The “specialité du chef,” the Rainbow maki ($9.50) was also a hit, though a little overwhelming. Wrapped around the outside of the roll were thinly sliced strips of smoked salmon and avocado, with flying fish roe, crab and tuna on the inside. A tasty combo, though the taste of the smoked salmon overshadowed the other flavours.

The one real dud of the night was the ama-ebi, or sweet shrimp sushi ($3.95), which, like the maguro, was a two-piecer. The shrimp was weirdly gooey, as my friend put it, and left a very unpleasant, almost bitter aftertaste (strange for a dish billed as “sweet”). That taste was quickly washed away by the Spider maki ($9.95), a crisp combo of deep-fried soft-shell crab, ginseng, avocado and cucumber, with long tendrils of breaded crab reaching spookily out of each end piece.

For dessert, we all split the charming Picasso, a painter’s palette-shaped dish with little balls of sorbet (cassis, vanilla, green tea, mango, passion fruit and raspberry) in each paint indentation. It was a wonderful way to end a meal at this supremely pleasant restaurant.

Mikado St-Denis
Address: 1731 St-Denis (at Ontario)
Phone: 844-5705
Hours: Tues–Thurs, 5:30–10:30pm; Fri–Sat, 5:30–11pm; Sun–Mon, 5:30–10pm
Best features: The Kamikaze maki roll
Alcohol: Yes
Vegetarian friendly: Yes
Credit cards: Yes, but no Interac
Wheelchair access: One step up
Price: $15–$25 per person before tax, tip, and sake
Rating: ***1/2 out of ****