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  • 5
  • Strange lady, excellent food.

After finding Morpho closed when it was meant to be open, we headed to Mikoan. As other reviewers have said, it is the sort of place you wouldn't know is there unless someone told you, and even knowing that you're looking for a tiny door between two shops, with a long corridor leading down to the place... you might walk by a few times and miss it. When we arrived, the door to the corridor to Mikoan was closed. We couldn't open it, but the handwritten signs showed it was a vegetarian eatery, so we asked a lady in the shop next door. She also tried the door and looked confused, and could not tell us anything in English. I called the phone number on the door, and someone answered but did not speak. After saying 'Hello' a few too many times, a lady came down the corridor, opened the gate, put a sign outside, and lead us in. When we reached the end of the corridor, the lady opened a door and shut it, leaving us outside. My girlfriend thought it was very rude, but we opened the door and followed the lady in. The place had no people in it, but was full of so many things everywhere. She pointed to stools at the end of the bar and we sat. We noticed that classical music (Western, not Japanese) was playing. She handed us English menus that had 'lunch set' and 'dinner set' (with no explanations), and some drinks. The lady then proceeded to feed her cat at the other end of the bar -- I mean, the cat stood on a stool and ate from a plate on the bar, like a customer! Anyway, although she could not really speak any English other than 'Menu has no meat, no fish, no eggs, no butter', we had read the reviews and knew the food was vegetarian, so we ordered the dinner set for two, and a couple of beers (she has Yebisu and Guiness on tap). WOW! She came out with two trays full of small traditional Japanese dishes, and everything was different, except for the rice and miso soup on each. She said 'share', and we did. The food was really excellent! Fantastic! While we were there, two Japanese men came in. One spoke good English and said he was from Kyoto and had never travelled outside of Japan. The lady finally smiled and laughed as she chatted with the locals. I asked the English-speaking man to translate our appreciation of the wonderful food! We paid 1000 Yen each for the dinner, and 550 Yen each for the beer, so about 3000 Yen (roughly $30 Australian/US). This is expensive for Japan, but really it was well worth it for us to sample such fine Japanese food.


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