The Minami Zen Lunch is the offering for Taste of Yaletown for a pretty affordable price: $25. The difference between the normal Zen and this one is that comes with dessert and is slightly cheaper in price.
We were one of the first to the restaurant, so our food came fairly quick! We started off with some miso soup – which is very nice with the mushrooms, seaweed and its light, not too salty taste.
Our Zen box included: their lightly seared tuna, miso marinated tofu salad, Saikyo miso baked sablefish and braised Fraser Valley pork cheek. Every component of the Zen box had it’s own delicious flavours that were distinctive but complimentary to one another. I particularly enjoyed their sablefish which is served with coconut creamed kale, wasabi shoga relish with a yuzu-miso sauce. The sablefish was buttery and tender, very meaty when you slice into it with your fork. But the coconut kale really amplified the depth of this dish by giving the diner a different texture and slightly sweet taste.
The Zen lunch always comes with Aburi sushi – all of which, as the name implies are torched to deliciousness. We had the salmon oshi, ebi oshi, sunset roll and some nigiri. My favourite will always be their salmon oshi but I was really surprised with their ebi oshi, which did not taste like ebi at all! It was very soft, not chewy at all and full of flavour. I might have to order this again on it’s own during my next visit.
Finally, dessert. We had the Spiced pumpkin brownie ice cream. This was a nice way to round out the end of the meal while embracing popular flavours of the season.
I’d definitely recommend checking out Minami for the Taste of Yaletown event but also just as it is!
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