10350 109 Street NW, Edmonton

A little while ago I went to Mikado because my brother was in town. We only had a quick hour before I had to go catch a movie so we went mostly out of convenience. I probably haven’t been to Mikado in a couple of years. For sushi options, I usually opt for Sushi Wasabi or Ichiban. Mikado has two locations, one downtown, and one on the south side. There’s a few designated parking spots in front of the restaurant, but they share a small lot with Harvey’s and Canadian Brewhouse, so it gets pretty full. Luckily, there’s a giant parking lot right beside that belongs to Best Buy (or Ex. Future Shop), which is always empty.

For food, my brother is a pretty big eater (and so am I), so we got beef tataki, BBQ squid, dynamite roll, red rose roll, mango tango roll, and Mikado Tuna tartare. A lot of food! Even before coming, I knew that this was going to be a relatively expensive night. It’d almost be better if we went to an AYCE given the shear amount of food we can eat.

One of the appetizers that we always get is beef tataki. We are both big meat-eaters so this is an obvious choice. It’s lightly seared beef served with sweet red onions and seaweed with a ponzu sauce. It had a pretty substantial sear on it, and it was kind of smoky which gave it a nice flavour. A theme of tonight is going to be, decent, not mind blowing, and doesn’t justify the price. That quintessentially describes how I feel about Mikado. The best Beef tataki that I’ve ever had was probably at Sushi Wasabi, which is kind of tough to beat!

We also got the BBQ squid. This is a whole grilled squid served with a creamy sesame sauce. I’m pretty critical of squid. I think one of the reasons that it gets such a bad wrap is because a lot of the time, it’s served overcooked and ends up being too chewy, so people don’t like it. It was actually not bad here, the sauce was a bit rich and heavy for my taste, but over all a decent dish if you’re trying to gateway yourself into eating more squid.

Our last appetizer was the Mikado Tuna Tartare. This is tuna with marinated red onion and scallions served with a bit of spicy sauce. Nothing too special about this dish. Overall was tasty, but I think I would rather just eat straight up sashimi.

The rolls were also nothing special. The dynamite roll comes with tempura shrimp, avocado, cucumber, spicy sauce, chopping scallop, tobiko, and mayo. This is also a good way to transition into eating sushi, because there’s actually no raw fish in it. I usually never get this roll but my brother wanted to try it. Not bad, but again, not amazing.

Our next roll was the red roll rose which is a BBQ eel and avocado roll wrapped with red tuna on the outside. Probably my favourite thing of the night. I love everything in this. BBQ Eel, delicious. Avocado, also delicious. Tuna? Good. Overall a good roll, but 20 bucks for one measly roll with 4 pieces? I don’t think so.

Mango Tango was our last roll. BBQ eel, cucumber, and red pepper wrapped with mango and avocado. I usually like a little bit of sweetness in my food. The mango was a bit on the sour side, but still overall was a good roll.

Overall, my experience at Mikado was decent. The food was decent, and everything about the restaurant is pretty nice. The service is good, and everything is fine. My only qualm with this restaurant is how expensive it is compared to other places. If I wanted to pay around this price, I’d rather go to Japonais Bistro.