-
Miko’s Izakaya Sushi & Tapanese – Las Vegas
18January 20th, 2010las vegas, more restaurants (not LA)hey everyone, time for another vegan field report written by vegankitten! here ya go:
This is my last night is Vegas and I wanted to get a little creative for my final dinner. I ran across a Las Vegas Restaurant Guide site called lvvegan.com and noticed they had a tab for Japanese food. My omnivore traveling companion has been talking about miso soup non-stop for days, as it was her only experience up ’til now eating tofu. I got pretty excited when I read that Miko’s Izakaya Sushi & Tapanese has their own vegetarian menu and I knew we had to check it out.
It didn’t disappoint. The proprietor was also our waiter and his eyes lit up when I mentioned I am vegan. I grabbed a vegetarian menu for me and a regular menu for my buddy. He asked how I heard about the place, where we were from and was generally very chatty. He was very excited to tell us that he is discussing teaming up with Red Velvet Cafe to offer their cupcakes. Hopefully the excitement of my non-vegan dining companion at this news was enough to convince him it is a great idea!
The sushi bar was packed and the diners were enjoying sports highlights on the big screen TV. The atmosphere was really relaxed and the staff was super friendly! They were playing Social Distortion in the bathroom and the lotion on the counter was not tested on animals. Yay!
On to the food: I am not used to having so many vegan sushi options. The menu was front and back and very overwhelming for me, as it included many ingredients I wasn’t familiar with. I left it up to the owner and he chose the Age Tofu Roll. I added Inari and Edamame to the order. My buddy ordered the miso soup she was so excited about and the owner was kind enough to let me know I couldn’t eat it that day, as they has added bonito fish flakes.
The edamame was particularly delicious. Each bite was coated in salt and pepper. I’ve never had edamame with pepper before, so this was quite a treat. It was beautiful, too!
The Inari was some of the best I ever had. Fresh, sweet and moist.
Sadly, the Age Tofu Roll left a bit to be desired. The roll consisted of deep fried tofu, green onion and miso. I guess I was just looking for a little more excitement, because it was kind of bland. My biggest complaint was the sushi rice was very mushy in two out of the eight pieces. It was really strange and the other six had perfect texture. Next time I am going to be more adventurous and pick out something myself.
The absolute highlight of the meal was the tempura bananas. The owner happily explained their tempura batter is vegan and they do not use eggs, which I had also read online. We were in no way planning to eat desert, but can I really say “no” when the owner is offering us a delicious VEGAN option? We decided to share. Embarrassingly, sharing involved my friend gracefully eating two pieces while I wolfed down the other six. Ooops! They were delicately crisp on the outside and oh-so-warm and gooey on the inside. It was heavenly! The only thing that could have made it better was a vegan ice cream option on the side. Maybe next time???
I think Miko’s is one of my new favorite places. The staff was awesome, they love vegans and I love sushi. It’s a match made in heaven.
Miko’s Izakaya Sushi & Tapanese
Tags: field report, las vegas, sushi, vegankitten
500 E. Windmill Ln. Ste. 165
Las Vegas, NV 89123
(702) 823.2779
www.mikosushilasvegas.com
Open Monday-Thursday 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., Friday 4 p.m. to midnight, Saturday 5 p.m. to midnight, Sunday 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
18 responses to “Miko’s Izakaya Sushi & Tapanese – Las Vegas” 
-
Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum!
-
lvvegan.com is a life saver! I met him at the last Dr. McDougall Advanced Study Weekend and wished I had known about his website like 5 trips to Vegas ago… He’s a Star McDougaller, too. Great job finding it on your own and shouting it out here!
-
That vegetarian menu is off the chain. Why don’t we have places
like that around here? -
Those banana things look brilliant. I’d order those and nothing else
-
Nick: Trust me when I tell you the Tempura Banana WAS brilliant! I’d definitely go there even if I wanted nothing but dessert 🙂
-
Vegas Vegan January 20th, 2010 at 17:43
I love this place, the menu is enormous and the staff are so freindly. I am so happy to see it featured on my favorite vegan blog! Thanks for the field report.
-
miss anthrope January 20th, 2010 at 17:51
i can’t wait to try this when i am in vegas! i wanna try the taro root roll or “miko’s special”. not to mention the banana tempura.
-
Vegankitten, what a great review! Please review more! I love checking QG and seeing new stuff up, so the more reviews the better. 🙂
-
Thanks! I’m writing up another one tonight, so keep an eye out over the next few days!
-
Marcus January 21st, 2010 at 10:44
Excellent, I love seeing more and more reviews. Hooray for vegankitten! Now I wish I would have known about this place when I went to Vegas in October. 😉
-
So my husband and I were in Vegas for a few days and ended up eating her 2 times. First, I’ll say we travel around the country full time and we have been to tons of places to eat, we also LOVE sushi, and had not found vegan sushi that just blew us away.
I’ll just say – this place blew us away – and I don’t say that about tons of places. It is the best veg. sushi we’ve had, and that’s saying a lot.
My husband has a billion allergies, mostly to raw anything and gluten – so he had the age tofu which he loved, especially the miso sauce. He also had agedashi tofu appetizer, which was perfect. The edamame, as mentioned above was really fantastic – black pepper, who knew?!
I had the Hawaiian Roll the first night – think pina colada, I was surprised how these flavors with some of the savory worked so well together, the rolls were huge and each bite was like a party. The next night I had the popeye roll – again, perfect and just the right flavors. I also tried the Inari which was great. And of course we had the tempeh bananas – they are amazing, but I’d say that they just add that extra cherry (or banana as the case may be) on top 🙂
We got to talk to the owner, he is a great guy and has a love of making the best sushi, he consulted with and got recipes from a friend of his who is monk in Japan – the chefs and owner know what they are doing, and I really appreciated that. They want to have lots of vegans visit them – they have an entire veg menu – so ask for it! If you are in Vegas or visiting support them, they really deserve it. (sorry this is so long) -
They don’t season their inari with dashi?! SWEET! Definitely swinging past there on my next trip 🙂
-
Madeline March 3rd, 2011 at 19:34
Best sushi EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have missed sushi soooo much and this place has fulfilled all of my needs! I am now a life time customer for sure!
If you go get the udon noodles, California roll, and the American caterpillar roll!
soooo GOOD!
and the caterpillar roll was made to even look like a catepillar with a little face! so CUTE!
Every vegan needs to go!!!
Shannon Michelle January 20th, 2010 at 10:52