City Restaurant Week: Mikimotos

By PATRICIA TALORICO

I couldn't really tell how the City Restaurant Week menu was going over with the Wednesday lunch crowd at Mikimotos Asian Grill & Sushi Bar.

I suspect that most people come to Mikis for the fresh fish and interesting Pan-Asian dishes - and, frankly, they don't really care about a bargain meal.

It's simply a fun place to eat. The food is consistent, the dining room modern, the service very good, and, during my visits over the years, I have seldom found the dining room empty.

Yesterday was no different. (And I'm very glad we made a reservation.)

The City Restaurant Week menu ($15 for two-courses) is pretty straight-forward: You get a choice of a beef lettuce wrap consisting of shaved, lightly seared filet mignon, crispy shallot and nuoc cham dipping sauce or a sea scallop dumpling over shredded carrot and radish in truffle soy dipping sauce or shrimp summer rolls with vermicelli, spring vegetables, lettuce and peanut and key lime dipping sauces.

The second course: Create Your Own Maki Platter.

Whoa. Back up a minute. Make your own maki - as in play sushi chef for the day? Does that mean getting behind the sushi bar and wrestling with sharp knives, raw fish, nori strips, rice, wasabi and sesame seeds?

(Hey, I'm off the clock! Don't put me to work. I'm going out to lunch so someone else makes my meal.)

Relax. This isn't a roll-your-own operation. A server will hand you a piece of paper and you circle a selection of fillings and fish which include several offerings such as salmon, tuna, cooked shrimp, wasabi mayonnaise, vegetables, avocados, etc. The sushi chefs will then take the selections and create a platter. Now, that's pretty cool.

A crab "salad", tossed in a mayonnaise based dressing, comes on the side. I took a couple of lackluster bites, but it didn't really pique my interest. I did enjoy the first course beef lettuce wraps - I'm pretty sure there were four on a plate - and I'll never turn down nuoc cham, the Vietnamese dipping sauce that's made with salty (and some say stinky) fish sauce.

So how does the restaurant week lunch special compare with the regular menu offerings?

Well, my pal looked at the Restaurant Week specials and decided she didn't feel like eating any sushi. She opened the regular menu and ordered the shrimp miso soup ($5) and the lettuce cup chicken ($11).

Her lunch was one buck more than my $15 City Restaurant Week meal.

Just an FYI: We each got a drink - Diet Coke ($2) and iced tea ($2). Refills are free. Total bill: $35, not including tip.