Vancouver’s Best Japanese: Miku Aburi Sushi Gourmet Cuisine

Aburi Select - Chef's selection of aburi, roll & oshi sushi

Words cannot illustrate the beautiful and distinctive creations emerging from Miku Restaurant’s open-air kitchen. Pictures and video help (you must watch this), however, a dining experience at Vancouver’s best sushi eatery is the only way to truly grasp the marvelosity of its product. And yes, new vocabulary does transpire in light of fare so noteworthy.

Pictured above is the beautifully crafted Aburi Salmon Oshi Sushi, Miku’s house specialty, and frontrunner of the several dishes I swooned over during my entertaining lunch sitting at the sushi bar. Made with local salmon pressed and dressed in the chef’s special sauce and topped with jalapeno and cracked pepper, these mouthfuls changed my definition of sushi. A few long pleasurable moment, free of conversation with eyes shut, was required to focus on the flavors and textures in my mouth.

Aburi Chirashi Tart - A layered tower of spicy tuna & avocado, topped with aburi salmon, ebi, hotate & tobiko

The exquisiteness, artistic undertone, and authenticity of each dish stem from the roots of its creators. Miku is the North American restaurant debut of Japanese owner Seigo Nakamuria and his head chef, Keiichiro Nireda, an ‘Aburi’ master who honed his craft in Miyazaki, Japan, the capital of the unusual style of lightly flame-seared ‘block form’ sushi.

This mammoth roll (left), which, until my trip to Miku had only appeared in dreams (where all things edible were magnified to a gigantic proportion), is over five inches high, equally wide, and one of the most inventive Japanese dishes I’ve seen.

Seabreeze Roll - Maguro & avocado topped with house made nori sauce & shiso leaf

Click here to read more about Miku and to check out sushi chef Kazuhiro Hayashi’s ‘To Die For Face’ – or jet asap to what will become your new favorite restaurant. #2-1055 West Hastings Street is the spot. You should try their patio.