Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards 2012

The Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards is one of the most talked about, anticipated culinary events of the year and yesterday was no exception.  Over 700 guests including foodies, chefs, restauranteurs, front of house staff and sommeliers gathered at the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel to celebrate the best of the Vancouver culinary community.  Guests indulged on endless amounts of savory and sweet plates from the Sheraton, Two Rivers Specialty Meats, The Roaming Dragon and many more.  The event was truly a special celebration of Vancouver’s diverse, skilled and passionate restaurant industry.

The event hosts, Fiona Forbes and Michael Eckford of Urban Rush did a fantastic job at leading the awards ceremony.  The definite highlights of the night, were Kingyo’s crew chugging the bottle of wine and of course, Hawkworth Restaurant’s sweeping win.  Manager, Gary Hutton and Media and Community Relations, Erica Pang attended the event, to represent Miku Restaurant as it was nominated in the Best Upscale Japanese category.   Although we didn’t come home with gold, we are completely honored to in the same category as Tojo’s and Zest.  A heartfelt congratulations to all the winners — all very well deserved!  Special thanks to Lisa Nakamura Ngyuen of BC Business ‘The Social List’ for picture number 2!

For a full list of all the winners, check out Vancouver Magazine.

Miku Celebrates the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival

SakuraB Bento Box (April 5th)

We are excited to announce Miku Restaurant’s collaboration with Tojo’s and five other local Japanese chefs from: Shuraku, Zest, Zen, & Toshi’s Sushi for a limited-edition bento box.  Each chef has created a special dish that best represents the season of the cherry blossoms.  Our head sushi chef, Kazuhiro Hayashi has created the ‘Sakura Oshi’ which consists of ebi and hotate pressed with house made ume sauce.  The bloom of the cherry blossoms represent an important custom in Japan called hanami, literally meaning ‘viewing flowers.’  It’s said that the origin of hanami dates back to more than one thousand years ago when aristocrats enjoyed looking at beautiful cherry blossoms and writing poems.  Nowadays, people all over world enjoy this tradition while feasting on a picnic style meal.  Treat yourself on April 5th with SakuraB bento box and enjoy an afternoon lunch underneath a delightful cherry blossom tree!

> To view the full menu and to pre-order your SakuraB bento box, please click here (SOLD OUT!)

Hanami Select (April 5th-April 28th)

To celebrate the return of cherry blossoms this spring, Miku Restaurant will be featuring the ‘Hanami Select’ from April 5th-April 28th.   The dish will be inspired by the beauty of the delicate petals of a sakura tree and the fresh flavors of spring.  The dish is an assortment of flavors, featuring a Sakura roll filled with salmon, ebi, kanpyo, yamagobo, spinach, sakura denbu rice topped with pickled sakura blossom and wrapped in daikon.  The selection also includes 3 pieces of Aburi saba, maguro and hotate sushi, Aburi beef, wasabi heirloom potato and spring pea salad and a snow crab and shrimp cake miso tartar.  It will be available during dinner service for the price of $30.

> To view all restaurants featuring a Sakura Menu during the festival, click sakura map.
> For more info on the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, visit the official website or JapanFairVancouver.com

Dine Out Vancouver 2012

“Ten years makes for one great restaurant festival! Eat your way through 17 days of culinary events, choose from hundreds of sensational restaurants and stay at a hotel at a fabulous rate. You’re about to experience the tastiest 17 days of the year!”

We are proud to announce that Miku Restaurant will be participating in the 10th Annual Dine Out Vancouver from January 20th to February 5th, 2012.  Head sushi and kitchen chefs, Kazuhiro Hayashi, Kazuya Matsuo and Shinya Ogahara along with executive pastry chef, Chris Janik have created an exclusive menu to showcase an assortment of flavors they have to offer.

To view our $38 Dine Out menu, please click here.  To make a reservation with us, please call guest services at (604) 568-3900 or visit OpenTable. Thank you and we looking forward to seeing you!

Growing Chefs! From Farms to Forks 2

On Sunday October 24th, our pastry team, Chris Janik and Makiko Kanda participated in Growing Chefs! From Farms to Forks Gala at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts in Granville Island.  Among the list of other participating restaurants included: Maenam, Vij’s, Refuel, Tableau, La Brasserie and more.  Each restaurant were paired with a local B.C. grower and producer to create a dish that celebrates the best of the season.  Our pastry team partnered with Apple Lane Orchard and prepared the classic dish, Tarte Tatin — passion fruit poached gala apples on a cookie crust, apple cider glaze, ginger cinnamon cream and marzipan leaf.   The gala was hosted by CBC’s Margaret Gallagher and Fred Lee who guided guests through the classroom kitchens where restaurants served their creations.  It was a wonderful event full of delicious food and happy people committed to supporting local food and sustainability.  The highlight of the night?  A quote from a 10 year old volunteer who said “food is better to eat than to play with.”

For more pictures of the event click here

Proceeds from the night went towards Growing Chefs! a local non profit with two main goals: to support and encourage the development and growth of urban agriculture and to provide an avenue for chefs and growers to engage in the community and to support food sustainability.  They also run a classroom gardening program where they bring local chefs to elementary school classrooms to get kids excited about growing, cooking and eating healthy food.  That is truly the best gift you can ever give to a child.  To learn more about Growing Chefs! please visit: http://growingchefs.ca/

Passions Gala – Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation

Written by Erica Pang

On Sunday September 11th, Vancouver food and wine lovers gathered for the 8th annual Passions Gala to raise funds for the Dr. Peter Aids Centre — a hospice providing care and support to people living with HIV/AIDS.  24 of  the city’s top restaurants participated in the fundraiser including:  Hawksworth, Cibo, Market at the Shangri-la, Ensemble, Provence and many more.  At Miku restaurant, we are pleased to support this great cause.

Nathan Fong founded the Passions Gala in 2003, and has grown the event from its humble beginnings as a small cooking class. Today, it has earned the reputation as “Vancouver’s Best Small Gala,” and this year was no exception. The Dr. Peter Aids Centre transformed into an elegant space, adorned with red lanterns, fresh flower arrangements and twinkling lights.  The event was hosted by Global TV’s Sophie Lui and Jay Janower with CBC’s Fred Lee as the auctioneer.  The musical duo, Sangre Morena and their flamenco guitar serenaded the crowd with beautiful and fiery Latin tunes.  One of the highlights of the event was the participation of the city’s top chefs, where they got to showcase their signature dishes.  It was a extravagant culinary feast!  Upon entering the building, guests were greeted with poutine from the food cart Fresh Local Wild and sushi from Mr. Hidekazu Tojo himself.  The food was endless and every dish did not cease to amaze.  My personal favourites were the Sloping Hill pressed pork with peach compote from Hawksworth and the scallop ceviche with nahm jim sauce from Maenam.  It was a spectacular night filled with good food, good wine and good company.  A gracious thank you and congratulations to Nathan Fong and the Dr. Peter Aids Centre!

The Dr Peter Aids Foundation was founded in 1992 with a mission to provide comfort care for people living with HIV/AIDS.  To fulfil their vision, a day health program was established in 1997 at St Paul’s Hospital in Downtown Vancouver.  The lease was only a temporary agreement, and in 2001 the foundation successfully completed a $9.8 million campaign to build a new four storey building at 1100 Comox Street.  In 2003, the construction was complete.  Today, the Dr. Peter Aids Centre provides care, programs and services to over 350 Day Health Program participants and 50 residents annually.

For more information or to donate please click here.

Miku’s 2nd Annual Beach BBQ Party!

You thought Miku Restaurant food was good? A Miku BBQ is pretty amazing too!

If you’re visiting Miku today, you might notice some staff with bad tan lines and sun-kissed cheeks. That’s because we were out on Spanish Banks beach yesterday for the 2nd Annual Miku staff party. Head Chef Takuya Motohashi put away the Aburi blowtorch and replaced it with a Webber BBQ to grill up hamburgers, ribs, and corn on the cob. Everyone else also contributed by bringing in their summer favourites like: coleslaw, pizza, fruit salad, chocolate chip cookies and quinoa salad.  Of course, it wouldn’t be a complete Miku experience without Japanese BBQ staples like the onigiri rice balls and chicken karaage (with our chicken nanban sauce!)

The sun dried up the wet sand from the night before, as barefooted Miku boys and girls played beach volleyball and soccer, while some bathed in the sun. With a major dose of new staff joining the team for patio season and Miku’s expansion to L.A., we couldn’t have asked for a better way to kick start a great Vancouver summer.

2011 patio opening and charity launch party

Miku Restaurant’s 2011 patio opening and charity launch party was a massive success! Yes, it was Friday the 13th, and we thought we’d be short of luck, but the sun shined brightly and the rain seemed to stop just for our special day.

Chef Takuya with the sushi, kitchen and pastry team created hundreds of amuse-bouche sized servings of Miku’s classic specialties and items from the summer menu. The bar poured non-stop wine and glasses of Jesse Duron’s original sake-gria, and the entire evening was accompanied with the beautiful voice of local jazz singer Jaclyn Guillou.

The 250 people guestlist included Miku Restaurant regulars (by regulars, we mean people who visit us 3 to 4 times every week!), hotel concierges, media, bloggers and twitterers, and of course, our friends and family. After the event, our owner, Seigo Nakamura, proudly told us he’s never used so much English in his life!

We were also very excited to have the Vivreau North America team join us: Drew Hamilton (CEO), Marc Hermen (Vice President), and Wes Dirksengale (VP of Hospitality Sales). Since February, our Vivreau water charity initiative has raised $3000 for Japan Red Cross Relief fund, and this event raised another $400.

Bernadette Woit from the Canadian Red Cross accepted the cheque for our initial donation; Miku Restaurant will continue to raise money for Japan through our sales from our in-house purified Vivreau sparkling and flat water this summer. Our goal is to reach $10,000; once we achieve our target, we will find a local charity initiative to support.

Below are just some of the photos from the evening – you can see more on our Facebook page, or by posts from bloggers/writers like VanFoodster, GoMunch, and Denyse Johnson for Inside Vancouver.

A special thank you to Dan Poh for event photography, and to all our generous sponsors who made this event successful: Angela & Gabriel’s Flowers Inc. Asahi Breweries Ltd. Trialto Wines Granville Island Brewery, That’s Life Gourmet Ltd. Fine Wines & Premium Sakes Tangled Vines Blue Note Wines

2010 Where to Dine Awards: Miku wins!

Thank you to all our guests who voted for us to be the winner of the Best Japanese category. It’s only been two years since Miku Restaurant opened, and we are honoured to be recognized by the people of Vancouver at the 2010 Where to Dine Awards. The news arrived to our owner, Seigo Nakamura, in Japan via Twitter, and he is ecstatic. Opening in Vancouver was not an easy project, and his concept of Aburi Sushi took a bit of time to catch on. He admits it could’ve been much easier to just change the menu to the more familiar bento boxes and dynamite rolls, but he says Miku was a complete ‘gamble on his vision.’ This award means so much to Seigo and the entire Miku team.

Abbey Pires (Project Manager) and Lisa Nakamura (PR & Communications) attended the event alongside head sushi chef, Takuya Motohashi, who accepted the award at the event held at Blue Water Cafe in Yaletown. Takuya rushed back to the restaurant to tell the entire team, and yes, it feels good to know we’re doing something right! Thank you Vancouver, and thank you to WHERE Magazine. Congratulations to all of the nominees and winners – we are so lucky to be part of such an amazing foodie city.