A restaurant that lets the ingredients do the talking.
It’s fair to say Mikihito Nagai is revered in Margaret River, his restaurant frequently on the lips of locals tipping their favourite places to eat in a region world-renowned for its food offering. Booking ahead to experience this sought-after Japanese dining theatre is wise, and a spot at the counter is prime real estate. The team in the open kitchen, in trademark workwear and flat caps, prepare delicate specialty tempura and other dishes with a focus on local ingredients, bringing the best of Western Australian produce into focus through a Japanese lens.
With a choice of set menus, including one for kids, you’ll work through up to 23 dishes and bites in a sitting. First up, a simple amuse bouche of sliced Bravo apple from Manjimup with sancho pepper, followed by oshizushi (pressed sushi) using Shark Bay crab, effortlessly elegant in its restraint. There’s local venison for the tataki, and grass-fed amiyaki Blackwood Valley Beef. In matching drinks, there’s a considered non-alcoholic offering, a sake match, and a list that takes in wines from small-batch Margaret River producers. Note the rare sighting of Kyoho, a grape native to Japan but grown in the Swan Valley by Bella Ridge Estate. At the centre of all this is Nagai, greeting and farewelling guests with trademark charm – a warmth that lives on past dinner and no doubt what keeps the restaurant front of many minds.
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