THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Minako Organic Japanese Restaurant Awards

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Minako Organic Japanese Restaurant Restaurant Review:

You might not notice tiny Minako as you walk by, and you certainly wouldn't expect to find an organic, home-style Japanese restaurant so sweet and well-intentioned on this dingy corner of the Mission. The mother (chef) and daughter (host-server) team behind Minako have truly created a serene and welcoming environment in which diners, from groups of friends to individuals, can enjoy the nourishing menu that ventures well beyond choice sushi and specials such as hamachi jaw with mint sauce. If you can pass up the fish, there are plenty of vegan and vegetarian dishes, including vegetable nigiri. A vegetarian "unagi" nigiri is made from soybean threads and finished with a sweet, barbecue-style sauce. Homemade tofu is topped with a sesame sauce and artfully surrounded by a fence of green beans tied with a green onion. Soups, such as the beef and potato, arrive in a billowing cloud of aromatic steam. Pot stickers, plump with ginger-infused fillings, are paired with a piquant dipping sauce. Artful presentations only add to the evidence that heart and soul is put into every dish.