Miki's Open Kitchen — Restaurant in Margaret River

Visited on the 7th September.

Miki's Open Kitchen has developed a bit of a reputation through many online recommendations and kind comments from locals, so our expectations for a great experience may have been inflated to a degree, which may have resulted in a little bit of a let down when we had dinner there recently.

Miki's Open Kitchen is trying to do many things, perhaps too many things. You can tell there is a team of passionate people all trying their best to put a cohesive experience together, but all in all, the elements of the food, drinks, service and atmosphere didn't really come together.

We had the complete tasting menu, and a wine pairing, as well as a Miki's pairing to go along with our food.

First off, the food, while diverse and rather tasty, lack any sort of central theme or inspiration. The courses are all mostly bite-sized, served mostly in groups of 5 courses on each plate. With 23 'courses' There are definitely some standouts, but there are equally as many forgettable dishes, I left almost wishing I had more of the good, and skipped half of the menu instead. Some favourites of the night being the very first course, a tempura fried medjool date, the amiyaki pork fillet and the final two 'desert' courses.

Which brings us to the beverage pairings. This is where I think they completely missed the mark. With so many diverse courses being served at the same time, any attempt at wine pairing was bound to fall face flat. Many of the courses being served did not go well with the wines at all, and the ones that did were few and far between. Besides the wine pairing, our other pairing choice, Miki's pairing also failed to deliver as many of the cocktails/drinks did not seem to reflect the flavours of the food on the table, often overpowering the many more subtle foods.

Service-wise, the only way we could describe it would be: rushed but polite. Aside from the lovely greeting by Miki himself before seating, you could tell that while everybody was doing a good job, they were rushing to get the courses out the door. All in all our 23 courses lasted a little more than an hour and a half, along with 5 different wine/drink pairings. There was never really a moment to enjoy the moment or talk about the food, the moment one table got up to leave, everybody else in the restaurant followed. This is of course because they serve two seatings every evening. If you are looking to have a relaxed dinner/atmosphere and take your time, this probably isn't the place for you.

All in all, the experience was rather average. There were things that stood out, but it was all mostly a muddled experience I would not be able to recall vividly without referencing photos and a menu of the night. Though the price is not quite expensive enough to warrant anything more negative (about 180 per person, plus drink pairings, is not quite top dollar for a high end restaurant), perhaps its reputation as a must-visit restaurant in the area has skewed mine and many visitor's...

Too expensive, nothing special. That's how I would summarise my dining experience at Miki's. Also be prepared to go home hungry and your wallet burnt 😆 though the latter one was kinda expected, so for those who haven't been here, please consider this carefully.

My 1st dining experience was a few years ago in 2021 just after covid happened. I came with my Cape to Cape (C2C) hiking group together, as part of our package with a hiking company. I really wanted to try Miki's because of all the good reviews I read, but back then, it was impossible to get a table due to covid and everyone's travelling locally. You'd have to wait at least 3 months. But when I found out that I could eat here if I booked C2C walk with that company, I booked the walk straight away...without thinking about any physical preparation whatsoever for the walk 🤣 (and for which I paid the price dearly). So yeah it's fair to say I walked the entire C2C just because I wanted to eat at Miki's! LOLOLOL 🤣🤣🤣 At that time, I actually thought Miki's was really good. Our entire group loved it so much and we had lovely times. I also felt the food was adequate and unique and I thought it's worth it.

Which was why...I really wanted to come back again.

So when my mom came to visit Perth last year, I thought why not go back to Miki's and treat my mom to sth special. BUT unfortunately, the 2nd time wasn't as good as the 1st one. We were still hungry afterwards! I also paid extra for the sake pairing. Though it's nice, but we felt like there's nothing really special and no dish really stood out. We understood it's a degustation menu and understood the concept of small meals, but usually at other places, the main dish (like the noodles or the rice or the meat session) would come in bigger portions so that we'd feel fuller. But not at Miki's. For ex: the main dish for us on that night was the udon noodles, which they said they made themselves. They could and should have given us bigger portion, but nope...all we got was a couple of strands of noodle. We thought...seriously?! Everything was small portions from start to finish.

So yeah, it's definitely a very different experience compared to the 1st one I had. My mom said ~ 'First and last time for me' 🤣 and I agree with her. I don't think I'd come back again anytime soon. Twice is enough...unless of course if someone's paying LOLOLOLOL 😆 Too expensive, nothing special. But since I had one good experience, I...

We went there for some japaneese food without knowing what to expect. First night was completely full so they asked us to book a table if we want to eat there. So we did and next day we had dinner there. The one star is not for the place itself, but for the food and for the way they sell it. First of all we were asked by a guy at the entrance to take seats around the kitchen bar, even though we've booked a table. We asked to have the table that we booked and he agreed, but he also gave us a look (?!) After seating we were welcomed by a guy that told us who will serve us and brought sparkling water at our request. We asked this guy for the wi-fi password and his answer was: "I don't know if we have, I will come back at you with an answer". The answer was "no wi-fi" even if we could have seen they had. The women serving us was so fake in smiling that we literally thought she has a problem of talking with clients. In the end she only brought us one dish, the other four were brought by another waiter. The food: we choose the small menu with some japaneese beer and I can say the beer saved the day. The first dish was great (pictures attached are in chronological order). Second dish started to decline the standard that this restaurant pretends it has: the scalop was only tempura, they brought a cheryy tomato cut in half with some white sauce and called it a dish, the rice soup was actually a fish soup without the fish, very smelly and very bad, the cake was just like some pudding from your regular supermarket. For the main dish I choose the pork and my partner the ranking cod: both were awfull. The pork was three pieces of meat biloed and the put a bit in oven with a soupy sauce and vrey greasy... seemd like they run out of ideas with this dish, just bad taste and horrifing presentation. The cod was more awfull: it was a bit smelling, full of a white heavy sauce and in small rice tempura overfried and they added oil like it was oil for this dish, not fish. Overall: the food is trash. P.S.: if one wants to go to toilet here they will be provided with a key and will need to go in the parking lot behind the building and find the bathroom... for 65AUD/person the small dish that we choose (without drinks) this restaurant should have been closed by...