RESTAURANT REVIEW
Miso Hungry
Between them, Misohapi and Mio Sushi offer a wide variety of Asian cuisine--and two distinct dining experiences.

BY TERRY ROSS
243-2122

 

Misohapi
1123 NW 23rd Ave., 796-2012
Open 11 am-10 pm Monday-Saturday, closed Sunday. Inexpensive to moderate. Kids welcome. Credit cards accepted.
Picks: Charcoal chicken bowl with vermicelli noodles

Mio Sushi
2271 NW Johnson St., 221-1469, fax 827-4932
Open 11:30 am-9:30 pm Monday-Thursday, 11:30 am-10 pm Friday, noon-10 pm Saturday, closed Sunday. Inexpensive to moderate. Kids welcome. Credit cards accepted.
Picks: Ichi roll, eel roll, Sunny Special

 

The chunk of Northwest Portland bounded by Everett and Northrup streets and by 21st and 23rd avenues is crowded with restaurants. On 21st alone, within easy walking distance of one another, lie four of the best dining rooms in town: Zefiro, Caffe Mingo, Paley's Place and Wildwood. Practically next door, Basta's and Beau Thai await those with a less haute and more economical hankering.

Over on trendier 23rd, more modest eateries are nestled among the innumerable boutiques. If a good, quick and cheap meal is the order of the day, one needn't sacrifice all amenities to find it. When the charms of a McMenamins burger or a monster burrito begin to fade, Asian food is a good bet.

When Misohapi first opened in a little Northwest 23rd Avenue storefront between Lovejoy and Kearney streets, the emphasis was on eclectic Asian dishes, and the small, quirky menu complemented the tiny dining room--until a Goliath-sized rent bill closed the place down. A couple of years ago, it came back, two all-important blocks away (rents are, or were, lower as you move north of Lovejoy), and about three times bigger.

The minuscule menu expanded to fill the space, and the intriguing short list of surprises made way for an array of "Vietnamese and Thai cuisine" reminiscent of the vast bills of fare in Chinese restaurants. Although the effect is pan-Asian, there's more than a little of the mom-and-pop Mandarin joint in the $5.50 lunch specials.

But despite this drift toward the generic, Misohapi delivers a solid and generally enjoyable eating experience. The former environs of Quality Pies have been converted into an open, modern room in which chatty diners sit on comfortable chairs at generously proportioned wood tables. Overhead is the white-cloth-on-wire-frame look ubiquitous in architect's offices and banks; light fixtures resembling black colanders with protruding fingers of clear plastic emit a postmodern orange glow.

A recent meal confirmed previous impressions. Only a few plates make a nod to Oriental tradition in their attention to visual presentation; many dishes are on the monochromatic side, tending to brown. By the same token, the sizes of servings are large, occidental rather than traditional. There are Vietnamese and Thai touches--lemongrass everywhere, for example, and beef noodle soup (called either Saigon or Hanoi soup, depending on which side of the war you fought on). But coconut curries speak more loudly of other Southeast Asian locales, and the miso, tofu and seaweed concoctions reach north to Japan, as do the four varieties of sake available to go with the nine Asian beers and five local microbrews. The atmosphere is bustling and noisy, the service is brisk and the food, though not fantastic, is plentiful.

By contrast, Mio Sushi offers a quiet experience with better food. A tiny, neat place with room for barely half a dozen at a narrow sushi bar and only a dozen more at tables, it is almost austere. The mood is invariably cheerful; everyone who walks in or out is saluted by the entire staff.

Mio offers a variety of sushi rolls, and my favorites include the spicy tuna, the Kani-Hama (crab, yellowtail, green onion, avocado and sesame seeds), the Hawaiian (crab and cucumber with tuna outside) and the Oregon (crab and asparagus with salmon and avocado outside).

Sit at the sushi bar and ask the chef for his recommendations. He may respond, as he did on a recent visit, by handing over several pieces of delicious, simple and fresh aji (Spanish mackerel) sushi and then a Kani-Hama roll. Let him know that he needn't stick to the menu, and he might deliver slices of halibut sashimi with horseradish, or what he calls the Sunny Special, named after himself: a delicious baked sushi of salmon and pureed spiced tuna. Never eaten eel? He'll serve up an eel roll: eel and avocado sushi with warm, homemade sauce made from eel, soy, sugar and sake. Fantastic.

Mio's lunch menu ranges from $3.50 for vegetable ramen to $9.95 for special sushi. Dinners are not much more expensive than lunches and include an additional sushi and sashimi combo and a roll combo. The udon dishes are good, if unspectacular, with thick noodles and fragrant broth. Generous bento specials are a far cry from the charred chicken and bottled hot sauce on glops of rice available all over town; salmon teriyaki, my favorite, comes with salmon, rice, vegetable gyoza, a sliced California roll and a small salad for $6.95. A pan-fried whitefish entree with sesame-garlic sauce is also very good.

Mio is not the Maserati of sushi joints--there are no elaborate presentations, special crockery or high prices. But the food is fresh, tasty and affordable, and it is served with grace and pride. My recommendation is to bring a friend or two, have some teriyaki salmon or whitefish and a bowl of udon and then ask the chef to make you sushi. Do not let him forget the eel roll.

And don't bother practicing your Japanese. As at many such modest but eminently satisfactory sushi places, most of the staff members are Korean. Don't expect the sushi cutters to wax poetic about their craft, either. When I told one of Sunny's assistants how much I like sushi, he looked bored. "Well," I said, "what do you really like to eat?"

He replied without hesitation: "Pizza."

 

 

originally published July 22, 1998