Ramen and Chopsticks! (Mifune Japanese Food and Bar)

I love Japanese food! Living in Cebu City has given me a variety of places to explore the Japanese cuisine. So when I went home to Dumaguete City for a week, my gustatory system was already begging to be satisfied with Japanese goodness. In Dumaguete, there aren't many Japanese-inspired restaurants yet. I believe there are only two of them that I am aware of, Wakagi and Mifune. Oh yeah! I almost forgot about the the Japanese food chain Rai Rai Ken in the mall. I've always wanted to visit one of them. I knew that Mifune has only open not long ago. I've encouraged friends to go there but we were always distracted by some other things that we ended up going somewhere else. I actually had some friends who have been there without me. This made me want to go there myself. So last Valentine's Day, I went there with a friend. I was so  excited, only to  be disappointed. Not because I didn't like their food, we didn't even get to that part, but because we needed reservations and apparently it was already full. Oh well, I'm just glad that people from my hometown are already embracing  Japanese cooking. I'm hoping this would lead to more Japanese restaurants in the city.

So anyway, I didn't give up. I went back there with a friend on the weekend after Vday. Finally, we were entertained. Yey! Well, at that time no other customers were present. We had the place to ourselves. So the place was empty and it's my first time there. I had a good look on the how the place looks. It was alright, there was a little bit of a Japanese feel although the chairs didn't exactly exude the right ambiance I was looking for.

But we came there for the food so after one of the waitress handed the menu, I browsed their food and the corresponding prices right away. Surprisingly, it was easier in the pocket than I expected and they had a wide variety of dishes in their menu. We ordered three dishes. While waiting, they served an appetizer on our table. It tasted like coleslaw or maybe it was coleslaw.

Our first food was California Maki. I always order one of the basics. That's usually how I gauge whether most of the food in a Japanese restaurant will taste depending on their most basic sushi dish. Although this logic isn't applicable always, it works most of the time for me.

The presentation was pleasing and once I tasted one I was already hooked. What I like about their California Maki is that they used sesame seeds in the roll instead of the usual fish eggs. The roll was of generous size as well. We were almost full and we still had two dishes left. 

So the second dish was Ramen. It wasn't a cold rainy day unlike the day I'm writing this entry when we went there. But I wanted to taste one of their ramen dishes so we chose one among the many. They had  a variety but we tried their Chashu /Chiasu Ramen. Our verdict for their ramen was decided right away. It was not bad at all in other words, it was delicious, especially perfect for the cold weather. 

Unfortunately, we failed to take an image of the last dish we ordered. So let me just describe it you so that you can create the image yourself. It's a popular rice bowl dish also known as Donburi.  Ingredients such as meat, vegetables and eggs are simmered together on top of the rice and is place in a bowl. The Donburi we ate was I believe the Tempura Donburi, beaten egg and shrimp tempura along with a sweet sauce was mixed together over the warm rice. It sounds palatable, right? Well, because indeed, it was very palatable! So far so good, we ended up having a satisfying meal. I can't wait to try the rest of the food in their menu. This is definitely a place I'll come back to more often. 

So if you happen to be from Dumaguete or just a visitor in the city whose craving for Japanese cuisine, I recommend you to check out this place, Mifune Japanese Food and Bar. Don't limit yourself to the usual food chains you're used to, allow your taste buds to try something new. Who knows maybe one of these Japanese food might rank first on your favorite food list. 

Location: Sta. Catalina St. , Dumaguete City (only a short walk from the Boulevard and Lee Super Plaza)

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