"To eat is human, to stuff, divine," said Marchall Effron.
After making and breaking plans to go out to eat with my friend Ellen, we finally were free from the hellish claws of Biochem and decided to celebrate surviving yet another midterm by checking out a restaurant neither of us has gone to before. Minato, a Japanese restaurant with its sister restaurant Caf Viet on N. Charles St., was the victim of my review, which could either make or break their business-the time will soon come when all restaurants will bow down to my deciding words. As it turns out, Minato is safe for now.
My friends Ellen,my sushi expert, and Matt, my Japanese-food virgin, joined me in my quest for good Japanese food. Since I have suddenly acquired a taste for sushi and it was a Friday night, we had to do something.
When we arrived, we were seated almost immediately by a friendly staff. And don't let the waiters intimidate you. Even though Ellen thought they looked like Asian gangbangers, with their black clothes and long ponytails, the service was quite excellent, with water glasses always full and every accommodation available on the menu. There is not only a Japanese menu, but a Vietnamese one as well. That day, we came for Japanese. The Japanese menu consists of an extensive sushi bar and entrees, both vegetarian and non. There are also noodles and combination dinners, called Minato Bento Box, where you select one dish from four different columns, with five choices in each column. Ellen's picks were the sashimi Moriawase, including five different types of sashimi and a red snapper roll for $12.50. Matt and I chose the Bento boxes, choosing different selections from each column. The Bento Box comes with a choice of sushi, a choice of appetizer and a choice of two entrees. I also ordered the Rock-n-Roll, $10, from the sushi bar.
While we waited for our meals, we observed our surroundings. There are low ceilings, cool silver walls, IKEA-esque lights and neon liquor advertisements adorning the walls. Alongside of them are pics of celebrities that patronize the restaurant, most notably, Nicholas Cage. There's a "jazz club" feel to the restaurant, mellow and unpretentious, but with some touches of the Orient: geisha dolls, Japanese screens and lanterns and stone fountains throughout the restaurant. We took in the sights, especially those of the nearby tables. Looking at the dishes of the other diners, we became aware of how hungry we were. All of our dinners came with miso soup and rice. The miso was quite good - the best I've had in a restaurant - with a light broth that's not pasty or chalky, full of tiny cubes of tofu, shreds of seaweed and scallions. The light flavor served to further stimulate our already piqued senses. Our food came out well paced after the miso soup and was truly breath-taking. The precision itself was enough to remember this restaurant because we were not trying to guess the meat and/or meat-substitute which is normally produced at one of our dining halls. For the Bento dinners, each dish was separated in compartments in an authentic Bento box, with garnishes of ginger and a hill of wasabi and different sauces drizzled over the offerings. In my box, I preferred the salmon/avocado rolls and the ebi yaki, the shrimp accentuated by a light sauce and grilled scallions. In Matt's box, the calamari could rival the best of Little Italy. Minato's version is dusted lightly with rice flour, giving it a subtle crunch that won't tear up the roof of your mouth and is very tender and grease-free. I was slightly disappointed with the tonkatsu and red snapper. Though both were impeccably fresh and crunchy, to me they were pretty bland.
So, with that all said, the main quibble was with the size of the portions. We were both not that full by the time we finished our Bento boxes, and had I not ordered another hand roll, Ellen would have been sashimi-less, which would have pissed her off quite considerably. In her combo, the fish were several slices of salmon, tuna, red snapper, mackerel and yellow-tail, each type arranged on mounds of spun radish, with wasabi and pickled ginger, placed in a fish-shaped platter. She declared the pieces large, fresh, tender and well cut, something that is evidently important for good sashimi. The main problems with her meal were with her second roll, the red snapper and the side of rice. The fish in the roll was not of the same quality of the sashimi and the roll itself was not tightly bound; having to constantly re-wrap the roll took a little away from the dining experience.
The last sushi we tried was the extravagantly priced, but also portioned, Roc Roll. This is what eventually filled us up. The roll, about six large pieces, alternated large salmon and tuna and avocado pieces on each piece, making for a beautiful, edible pattern. Each fish slice encased a roll of rice, seaweed and a purported filling of tempura fried eel and squid. Okay, the roll was great, with each slice huge and bursting with quality ingredients, but if it's suppose to have a tempura fried inside, it should. This roll did not, and had no crunch what so ever. And though purists will want to stone me for wanting bastardized sushi that's tempura fried, screw them, I love the crunch in a roll. So, it was another little let-down, but that didn't stop me from eating all of it. As we finished our meals, we scoped out the clientele, seeing if the average Hopkins student would fit in. Well, aside from some people at the bar, the diners were of your average N. Charles ilk-some business people, students like ourselves and families.
