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Mikado at Cottonwood Brings New Flavors to the Old Mill | |
| By Nancy Hobbs Special to The Tribune |
03/28/2003 | |
| The dining choices in Holladay's Old Mill neighborhood seem to grow almost weekly. With the introduction of Mikado at Cottonwood, diners can have a night of sushi and Japanese tempura, and later in the week enjoy Mexican, fresh seafood, Italian subs or, just around the bend at Tuscany, upscale Italian. Salt Lake's baby boomers no doubt remember the downtown Mikado, although it has undergone some major face-lifting since our youth. The owners also have expanded to Park City, with the Cottonwood site as a third home. The newest locale is spacious, airy and visually appealing, with mustard walls and brick-red accents in dining areas on either end, complemented by a green granite sushi bar spanning the middle. Although there are two dozen stools along the bar's expanse, the tables seem much more popular. With its high ceilings and cement floor, the restaurant can be noisy when busy, as it is on the weekends. Mikado at Cottonwood serves a weekday lunch from 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m., offering a menu of sushi, tempura, bento boxes, and rice and noodle bowls. For sushi lovers who want more variety, a handful of lunches come with an assortment of rolls and/or nigiri sushi, which may or may not be cooked; a sashimi lunch has an assortment of nine raw fish and steamed rice. But the lunches are pricey, from $13 to $16. The bento boxes are a popular choice at lunch, arriving in attractive sectioned boxes with salmon, beef or chicken, rice, salad and vegetable tempura ($9-10). They also are generally adorned with oshinko, a Japanese pickle, but ours was missing. Our apologetic waitress hurried back with a sample for the whole table. Our lunch also included the shrimp udon, or thick flour noodles in broth. The large bowl offered tasty homemade noodles, but there were fewer noodles and more broth than in most udon I have sampled. It came with a single tempura shrimp and only a few carrots and mushrooms. For a $10 lunch, it was lacking in substance. We hope the same dish is more generous at dinner, when the price jumps to $16. We enjoyed a delicious pan-seared ahi for dinner,
sliced thinly and attractively fanned across the plate, making
it easy to eat
with chopsticks. It was accompanied by fresh spring greens with
a spicy vinaigrette dressing, julienned squash and grated radish
for a light, pleasing meal ($22). Mikado also touts more than two dozen sushi rolls at lunch or dinner, and we sampled several, as well as some sashimi. Everything from the unagi (eel) to the fresh tobiko, or flying fish eggs, in the Wasatch roll ($9) was good, but not particularly distinctive. The restaurant serves beer and a limited selection of wine, as well as some basic cocktails -- nothing fancy. Mikado at Cottonwood is a welcome and attractive addition to the variety now offered in the Old Mill neighborhood. The lunch and dinner menus offer plenty of traditional Japanese and sushi selections, although some are quite pricey. Happy birthday: Raise your champagne glasses -- filled with $5 anniversary bubbly -- and help celebrate 25 years of fine dining at the New Yorker. The private club, in the basement of the historic New York Hotel building at 60 W. Market St. in Salt Lake City, is offering a special four-course dinner for $25, as well as $5 champagne, throughout April. Chef Will Pliler, who has been steering the restaurant's awarding-winning course since 1979, has put together an impressive menu for the anniversary special: sautŽed calamari or portabella mushroom tart tatin for starters; a baby spinach salad; entrŽes of grilled skirt steak or lobster shepherd pie; and a chocolate truffle gateau or a custard-filled meringue torte for dessert. For reservations or more information, call 363-0166. Dine and donate: Thaifoon -- Taste of Asia is storming into Salt Lake City's Gateway and tying its next week opening to a benefit for the Christmas Box House, a nonprofit shelter and assessment center for children who have been abused or neglected. Beginning Monday and continuing through its first week, a portion of the proceeds from every order of coconut mushroom soup, crispy dumplings, broccoli and beef, or chicken salad will be donated to the shelter. Thaifoon, 7 N. 400 West, is the fourth link in this budding
American chain, with one restaurant in Scottsdale, Ariz., and
two in southern
California.
The restaurant bills itself as "a dynamic taste of Asia" using fresh,
familiar ingredients served "in a style that appeals to American tastes." Mikado at Cottonwood
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