If there’s one piece of advice about this Japanese-inspired favourite, it’s book in advance.
Few restaurants have the pull of Miki’s Open Kitchen and you’ll rarely, if ever, see it quiet. A Tuesday night in spring, their second sitting after 8pm (in a town that dines early) is almost fully booked – every seat at the raised counter enclosing the open kitchen is filled, the larger tables also occupied. The demographic is hard to pick, such is the spread of old and young, local and visiting; those having travelled from outside the state talking about the cellar doors they’ve tasted at and the beaches where they’ve taken a dip. Mikihito Nagai presides over the room, greeting guests and, on occasion, jumping into the kitchen, yet his brigade of flat-cap-clad chefs work with quiet efficiency. The brief isn’t to replicate something you’d find in Japan but to reflect the produce of the South West. Starting with 10 or 11 elements plated clockwise, you are eating your way through the regions, from land and sea. Pickles and ferments, a small piece of Bravo apple with sancho pepper perhaps giving freshness, a divine bite of Shark Bay crab, fresh asparagus tempura battered, or a small bowl of wagyu tail soup.
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