604 Foodtography

Thursday June 21st was the grand opening of Minami in Yaletown, a sister restaurant to Miku, owned by Aburi Restaurants Canada, which in turn stems from Toro Corporation (in Japan!)

The location previously housed Goldfish Seafood & Chops.

Beautiful murals painted by Japanese artist Hideki Kimura adorn the walls inside.

There are also two private dining rooms available for use.

With the crowd quickly building in numbers, it was time for showtime, and the kitchen did not disappoint. They got the food out fast and in turn was well spread throughout the restaurant by the servers. Kudos!

Since I’m not 100% sure of what each dish is called, some won’t have any captions.

Shiso Mojito Watermelon and Citrus Cured Scallops

Aburi Salmon Oshi Sushi

Beef Carpaccio

Chicken Nanban

Taking a little break from the food, here’s some of the kitchen staff hard at work.

Okay, back to to the food.

Bennett all ninja like ready to grab some sushi.

These yellowtail and scallops nigiri sushi were one of my favourites, and whenever I saw some available I quickly popped them in my mouth.

Seigo Nakamura, CEO and owner of Minami, gave a speech.

You may have noticed a lack of pictures of alcoholic beverage pictures in this post so far, which would be highly unusual for me. Fear not, I was happily drinking all while taking pictures one handed. Drinks ranged from Sapporo to wine, Pimm’s Cup, and two cocktails, Sake Spritz, sake with Aperol and lychee spritz, and Shiso Mojito—shochu (a Japanese spirit), green shiso leaves, and lime.

A traditional Japanese sake ceremony followed the speech where the barrel was opened and shared amongst guests.

I shared the evening with great company like Sandra and Queenie

and the ever expressive Rick.

Taking a look at how Fred Lee works.

Sean, you’re my hero.

For the last picture, I will let your eyes feast on this. Amongst the Aburi hamachi (yellowtail) with avocado sauce lay 4 Wagyu beef with foie gras nigiri. ‘Nuff said!