LAST NIGHT was date night, and the boyfriend made a surprise reservation for us. I guessed that it was going to be a Mexican spot (because we have Mexican food about 3 times a week), but it turned out to be our other fave: sushi. I hadn’t been to Mirai before, and neither had he, so it was a perfect surprise pick!  

We went to the Gold Coast location, on Mies Van Der Rowe, and were lucky enough to snatch up a parking spot on the street. That area has very limited parking, unless you valet at one of the surrounding hotels or restaurants. Anyway… the restaurant itself is so cute! Very intimate, extremely well laid out and decorated. From the entrance it already reminded me of trendy, little restaurants in NYC, and the inside vibe was just the same. I loved it. I’m not sure what the capacity is, but there were maybe 8 dining tables, and 10 seats at the sushi bar. Like I said, very intimate. 

The menu seems small, but there are enough dishes in each section to choose from. For drinks, I had the Lychee Martini and the boyfriend had a Tokyo Mule. Drinks were on point. We started with the Shrimp Togorashi as an appetizer, without really knowing what a “seven spice sauce” was going to be. 

SHRIMP TOGORASHI

Turns out to be SO amazing! Peppery, a little spicy with the consistency of a thai chili sauce. I mean, we dunked those butterflied shrimp in the extra sauce as much as we could, and if we were ordering any other cooked foods, I would’ve told the server to leave the plate with extra sauce on the table. They should bottle it; and I would buy it. 

After the appetizer we went with a few sushi and nigiri options. ALL were excellent. However, I feel like the Tuna Tuna Salmon roll was something unlike I’d ever had at a sushi spot before. 

TUNA TUNA SALMON

The menu describes it was a “poached salmon roll, topped with thinly sliced tuna”. I’m not sure what “poached salmon roll” means, but the rice was SO delicious, silky almost… I’ll go back to Mirai for this roll alone. 

KANI NIGIRI

NIGIRI TRIO X2 

The nigiri was obviously of highest quality, so we thoroughly enjoyed it as well. We skipped dessert, as they only had two gelato options. 

…To be honest, we discussed other dessert stop options as we finished our drinks at Mirai… and ended up getting ice-cream donuts from Firecakes. Talk about a good call! YUM.

We were happy and full after our date night and will gladly go back to Mirai again and again. 

A few PROs and CONs though… 

PROs

+ Beautiful, intimate space 

+ great date night spot

+ high quality ingredients

+ excellent food and drinks

CONs

+ Intimate space 

What’s not so great about this intimate space is that the tables are very close to each other, and we spent the first half of our dinner forced to listen to the neighboring tables conversation – two 30-something finance execs bragging about themselves and their money. The boyfriend and I ordered drinks, sipped them, and then could finally have our own conversation once the guys had left. Lots of eye-rolls at our table. 

+ Pretentious service

I’m not sure if our server was just trying to be overly professional and formal, but it came across as pretentious and condescending. Each course was delivered along with eating instructions – um, thanks. The lady server who happened to deliver something to our table, however, was very nice. We’ll ask for her next time. The rest of the staff were very nice – from bussers to hosts. 

+ Parking

Limited street parking available, so valet is the best choice. We were lucky to find a spot. 

And lastly, because we’re cheesy and love it, US. 🙂 

All pics were taken by the boyfriend, who is getting very good with food pics!