Minato

Japanese dining at Dubai Deira Creek. A tasty option, a good menu and reasonably-priced. One to try 1 Reviews

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From Time Out Dubai Eating Out 2009

A zen-like warren of dark wood, stone and rice paper walls, Minato has earned many devoted fans over the years. While it still offers one of Dubai’s most tried-and-true Japanese experiences, it is starting to show its age.

The starters recall Minato’s glory days – the seared yellow-fin tuna tataki salad offers an incredible melt-in-the-mouth smoky sea experience, and the flavoursome special miso soup arrives by the tank-full.

From the sushi selection, the rainbow sushi, which sees a colourful array of sashimi bend over fresh avocado and crabsticks, is better than the dry and salty barbecue salmon sushi. But the mains are where it goes very wrong.

The grilled squid with ginger is chewy and tasteless, but less offensive than the completely inedible duck vegetable udon noodle soup, which sees fatty leather-like duck pieces float with wilted spinach and spring onions in an oily mess.

Despite this, with the right menu selection most diners will leave Minato happy. But whether it holds up against the likes of Zuma, Miyako and Tokyo@ Towers is open to debate.

• Previous reviews
  • 02 February,2009- reviewed by Daisy Carrington
  • 26 March,2008- reviewed by Time Out Dubai Staff
  • 12 March,2007- reviewed by Time Out Dubai Staff
  • 17 January,2007- reviewed by Time Out Dubai Staff
  • 30 April,2006- reviewed by Time Out Dubai
  • 01 January,2005- reviewed by Matthew Lee
  • 01 August,2003- reviewed by Rob Orchard

Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.