Miga and Jade Restaurants

Korean-Japanese Restaurants



Miga Restaurant.

You know, somehow I recognized the owner of this place. I suppose if you’ve been in Ottawa as long as I have, and eaten at as many restaurants, even though these Koreans all look the same, they start to look the same…

Anyway, I didn’t confirm, but I am sure he was the previous owner of Seoul House. And his kids have grown and started to help.

Lunch was $50 all in for two…That’s pretty expensive in my book, especially for a Korean greasy spoon. Would have been much cheaper at Arum’s, but then my son, who I went with... the sushi fiend, liked the taste at this place better than Arum. And I must say he has more delicate taste than I.

For a place that calls itself Mi Ga, which loosely translated is The House of Taste (or Mi), the miso soup was insipid! I added salt to it! But then I am rough at the edges…. (Mi Ga is in chinese of course on the store front... that may be because the ancient learned scripts of Jap, Chink, Kor, Viet are all the same.... or something else is suspect here...)

Then we thought we would order two lunch specials, but before that, assuming the portions were small, we thought we would order a soft shell crab appetizer to share ($11.95!). The soft-shell crab was OK to interesting at best. Looked nice, but suspect it was not thawed out properly before deep frying. Smelled fishy. It was a nice crab as in before freezing as you could see the central roe… but for two bites, it was expensive at that price.

Then we had the bulkoki lunch and the sashimi domburi lunch. Presentation was excellent. Explains a lot of the pics from ottawafoodies. But the taste while being better than Arum was OK. Pretty hard to make minced raw fish taste good. You have to sub with quantity as in Steak Tartare… as opposed to the Koreans that fill with veggies… finely sliced up of course.. Their kimchi was not very good….Arum’s is better...much.... Taste was essentially flat, not spicy. But then I am rough at the edges, right… The other veggies were nice, but nothing to write home about. The beef had a nice taste, my son says better than Arum’s, but Arum’s is in deep trouble because their sizzling plates don’t even sizzle! And they are just down the road

Service was ok... with tea for two, it came to $25 pp for lunch, the portions were small, and I am still hungry…presentation is just not enough and prices are still from the old days of Seoul House... expensive…..

Would I go back... if in the mood for expensive Korean greasy spoon… maybe… but there’s Kwon’s, Seoul House and more…. And for the sushi… my son’s reply was … I would go to all you can eat… it’s a lot cheaper and well…. He’s the expert on sushi….

I sell no beer before it's time......


Jade Restaurant at Laurier W and Elgin 07 07 20.

Another one of those KJ Restaurants, but this one with a twist. It is in an office tower downtown and is in the basement of the building, so it has really odd working hours, essentially open for lunch and therefore also for an early dinner or pick up to take home.

Been recommended by friends and other office workers and civil servants, even with some advice on take home after work... So I had to go... and check it out,.... today for lunch. They have advertised lunch specials for $9.99 and as I walk in, it reminds me of Hino’s, except in the basement of a building open for lunch only. The cook is a couple, a Caucasian that talked about moving his place to Preston and an oriental woman doing the sushi and helping when it gets busy. The catering part looked like something from Bento’s. They also had a waitress who was actually quite good. Restaurant is more jap than Kori.

With a bill of $15 all in, but no booze, but jap tea... I would say that it is certainly an alternative downtown for lunch.... I don’t know if the limited repertoire would hurt on Preston... And that would be the biggest criticism of this place. Very limited menu and portions are not big. The tempura was small shrimps.... bad idea... the chopsticks were metal and I didn’t like that. They didn’t have sushi soy sauce. But the green stuff... wasabi.... was mild and quite rich tasting.... (jap chili sauce)

This has to be compared with Genji, Miga and Ichiban as an alternative for lunch, as they are all downtown. It is not as good in presentation as Miga, but the miso soup is tastier. They didn’t have kimchi...so I don’t know about how Korean it was.... And their fish... well, I was not impressed... worse variety than Genji! And generally I would prefer Genji over this place, as Genji has at least a larger variety of things to eat...

All in all, if someone asked me for a place to have a fast and reasonably priced lunch, I would say that this place is OK, but I would not go back on my own... too many other choices downtown. I don’t think you can call this a Korean or a Japanese restaurant... maybe a new varietal... KJ greasy spoon.....


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