Ginza Midai — Restaurant in Perth

Ginza Midai

The hidden gem within Ginza Nana Alley. A 12-seat, reservation-only oden kappo headed by chef Midai Hatakeyama and his team.

Located centrally between the skewers and ramen, the entrance is round the corner from the vending machines and through a sliding door.

Reservations are via messaging on their instagram. They have little other online presence. Staff speak Japanese with limited English which may explain why I couldn't find a phone number. It wasn't difficult to secure a response within 24 hours and a mid-week late evening booking.

Starting with a well curated sake list, Hakutsuru Nisiki is a quality, lighter styled floral and sweet Junmai Dajinjo perfect for a Summer day.

Oysters were small, but fresh served in ponzu, daikon radish. Chef is fond of his spring onion which I find mildly overwhelming. I can still taste the spring onion hours later.

Sashimi half-portion available for lone diners. Seared Red Snapper, Scampi, Otoro Tuna, scallop and a fish I did not recognise, wrapped in Spring Onion. Be warned if you have after dinner plans where an aversion to onion may be an issue. Fresh and nothing else to fault. The snapper was my favourite, with a strong unami and taste having been seared.

Ethime Premium Sumakatsuo Sushi was interesting. Aged, fatty mackerel, layered on shiitake mushroom and rice. Chef recommends generous wasabi to cut through the richness. Then seared with a charcoal for added unami and aroma. Delightfully simple, yet rich aged fatty Mackerel flavours. It didn't look like much but was a tasty, filling morsel.

Kuroge Wagyu Sukiyaki with egg yolk sauce. A simple sweet soy broth, a few mushrooms and coriander. Generous slices of marbled Wagyu to cook medium rare, then dipped in a rich, egg yolk sauce. I would have suggested a side of soba or ramen to go with this as well as an extra bowl to make the most of the broth, much of which was left in the bowl. The highlight of course is the melt-in-your-mouth Wagyu although the whisked Egg yolk sauce was too rich when combined with the highly marbled beef.

Seafood Chazuke with Oden Dashi Broth I suggest as an in between or to be served with the last mains. Rice. A bowl of sashimi and ikura. Dashi broth. Mix. The Dashi broth is hot and lightly cooks the sashimi. Delicious stuff and probably the most affordable thing on the menu at $10 !

Grilled Kuroge Wagyu Steak with Sansho Sauce is indulgent. Lightly grilled, mostly medium rare/rare cubes of Wagyu on a sansho sauce. Rich. Very, very rich. Especially when there is a cube of foie gras surrounded by a buttery, buttery mash potato.

The ice-cream is a special flavour. Slightly icey but a flavour I don't recall ever having had before. And subtle. It was a special so I won't spoil it. But it's a vegetable that is often found in tempura.

So would I return? I've had Omakase at Haku Omakase (#IYKYK). Egawa-An. Used to eat regularly at James Parker. Nobu.

I'd love to see interesting dishes I haven't experienced elsewhere evolve to feature more on the menu. The Ehime Premium Sushi being one example. Unfortunately several interesting dishes like the Lobster Tempura or Snow crab were sold out.

Variations of Wagyu, Sukiyaki even when the beef is high quality gets expensive, but tiring fast.

Ordering from the mains menu is not cheap. I may have ordered enough for two people ... but very rarely would I spend $350 on a meal for one person. That's Michelin starred dining pricing. #ymmv

I can only wish this place all the very best. I enjoyed my meal. I will of course try out other things in their menu. It is still very early days.

(photos have had no...

Ginzai Midai is a lovely quaint restaurant nestled in Ginza Nana Alley. If you’re unsure how to find it amongst all spots there, never fear, a very helpful lady kindly greeted us and showed us the way.

Due to my own silliness I messed up terribly when ordering and mistakenly thought that I was able to choose the ingredients of the ‘Assorted Oden.’ Please note: this is chef’s selection, if you want to choose, that is a separate order. This meant that my friend and I accidentally ordered double the amount of food, and were very confused when the assorted oden arrived. Fortunately the staff were incredibly forgiving about my foolishness, and even remade the oden as to how I had thought I had ordered it, without extra charge. They were very polite and did not make us feel bad for the mistake, despite how guilty I felt, which I really appreciated.

The oden was delicious, both my guest and I adored the taste of the broth. My soft boiled egg was delightfully cooked to just the right level of runny, and whatever sauce was on the daikon was absolutely divine. I wasn’t a massive fan of the crunchy texture of the tsukune, but that’s a personal preference and I know to order something different next time. In fact, I know exactly what I’m ordering: the truffle omelette, because something else did and it looked fantastic.

I was slightly sad they were out of the tea that I wanted to try, but the sencha they offered me instead was great, so I wasn’t that fussed about it. I complimented the beautiful teapot and one staff member kindly told me where I could find one of my own, which I thought was so lovely of him.

The atmosphere was intimidate and peaceful. A little hot, but it’s always hard to get the temperature right in winter when it’s naturally so cold. I always feel quite out of place in ‘fancy’ restaurants, but this was nice and cosy enough that I feel safe enough to return, providing that I didn’t mess up enough that they don’t want me too!

Thank you...

The price is what really hurt the experience for me, $161 is just too expensive for what we got even if it was still enjoyable. The oden was a highlight in its simple good quality, the chicken, beef and other vegetable ingredients were cooked well, though $45 is too steep for what should be more reasonably priced street food. If you're going to charge that much at least elevate the flavour in some unique or interesting way in my opinion. The biggest disappointment was the dashi omelette smothered in truffle for $35, which was just a small serving of egg omelette in plain broth with unseasoned truffle shaved on top, resulting in a disappointingly bland dish for the price. The saikyo miso grilled fish with seasonal vegetables ($36) was slightly overcooked (texture was not as melty as it could be) and a bit on the bland side. The umeshu selection was delicious at least and we enjoyed the beef tendon bowl as it had good seasoning and the beef was tender.

I've come back to use my Ginza Nana stamp credit, and this time the experience was better but still very expensive at $178 for 3 dishes, however I think this place excels at cooking beef dishes more than anything else. We had the wagyu steak which was easily the highlight (you'd hope it would be for $98!) cooked beautifully medium rare and served with delicious mashed potato and fried greens. The beef tongue was cooked well too and the mushrooms had a gorgeous smokey flavour. The sea urchin in the tuna rice bowl was very fresh with a lovely neutral slightly briny taste, my first time trying sea urchin. Minus the Ginza Nana Alley credit of $119 that I'd earned during the promotion, our $178 meal ended up being $59, extremely reasonable so I was really happy about that, it would have still been too...