Mister Miyagi, Liverpool

Now you may think I’ve gone nuts and started addressing you as a Sensei and I’m in fact ‘Daniel-San’ the Karate Kid! (although I did used to do Karate!) You’d be wrong anyway as this is the name of ‘Mister Miyagi’, the latest restaurant that has sprung to life amongst the infamous Bold Street of Liverpool.

Mister Miyagi, as you may have already guessed, is a Japanese restaurant that produces some very exciting dishes and was the place we decided to finally embark upon yesterday evening.

One of the advantages of living in the centre of Liverpool is that we don’t have to make a special trip into town to come to these places, and can go when you’re expecting it to be somewhat quiet away from the weekend crowds.

Yet walking into Mister Miyagi on this Wednesday evening we encountered an almost full restaurant with a terrific atmosphere. I suppose I was expecting nothing less. I’d already been told by a number of work colleagues and friends just how great it was, and so my expectations were already on the high side.

Usually this isn’t a good thing as I’m often disappointed with the reality, but not on this night!

Even before we walked in I had confidence in the restaurant as it all begins at the Booking stage. They took mine via Twitter earlier in the day with no hassle whatsoever. Many restaurants along Bold Street refuse to take bookings due to the popularity of walk-ins, however I always feel secure in the knowledge that I know I’ll be eating where I want to eat, and a booking certainly provides this. 

 

The Service
This can often make or break a meal out. You could put wonderful food on our table, plate upon plate, and if the service isn’t up to the standards we’ve come to expect, we still wouldn’t be returning.

Thankfully this was no such place. From the moment we walked in we were made to feel welcome whilst they organised our table.

The waiting staff were friendly, were there when we needed them and nothing was too much trouble. This is exactly how it should be, they remained professional from start to finish and we couldn’t really ask for anymore than that.

 

The Food
Oh the food! Here’s what we ordered:

Hot & Sticky Korean Chicken Wings with Black Sesame
Mr M’s Tempura Asparagus, Courgette, Broccoli
Fried Crispy Duck Gyoza with Hoisin
Black Pig Gyoza with Black Plum Chilli Jam
Mr M’s Famous Karate Katsu Curry with Pineapple & Chill Egg Fried Rice
Mixed Yakitori Sharer

Yes, I know it’s a lot of food but we wanted to be thorough!

Did we get lucky with the ordering or was it all just cooked to the highest of standards? I’m going with the latter. I honestly wouldn’t hesitate to re-order any of those dishes again.

The flavours were well put together. You could tell the menu had been thought through and they hadn’t just plonked the Japanese dishes together just for the sake of it.

 

If I had to say anything negative about the menu it would have been ‘where do you start?’ There was a lot to choose from and my concern was ‘do we order a few small dishes or one large one each?’ – thankfully the waitress clearly explained what others usually do and this turned out to be good advice. 

So all in all it was a wonderful restaurant experience with the only regret being not trying the Cocktail menu (due to Dry January reasons!) however this makes a perfect excuse to return at the beginning of February, if we can wait that long! 

 

Adam