Miami Patio: Twice is enough, maybe too much

Area: ESCA (underground shopping area on the Bic Camera side of Nagoya Station)
Restaurant: Miami Patio ワインバー　マイアミ　パティオ
Website and Mall map:  http://miami-garden.jp/shop_eska_access.html

Hours:  Lunch 11am-5pm, Dinner 5-10:30pm  (LO 10)


When I had browsed through the ESCA gourmet guide, the pamphlet said that this restaurant's pasta was house-made which is why I came.  However when I asked the waitress which pastas were fresh, she said none of them were.  Then I looked closely again at the description and it had said the sauces were house-made, oops!

 The pasta of the day (which is in the regular menu) was a soy sauce based takana and bacon Japanese flavor.  Not very Italian, or American (the restaurant's name is Miami), but it was recommended, and I wanted to see what takana was.

The lunch set (880円 for the daily pasta, 980円 for pasta or pizza of your choice), includes salad and a drink. You have a choice if Italian, French or Japanese style dressings for the salad.  French dressing in Japan tends to be white, while in Canada, it comes as a ketchup based red dressing; strange eh? Anyhow, the small salad comes with a baguette and prosciutto.  The baguette was the soft kind and was slathered with butter, a little dry like it had been pre-cut hours ago.

I was surprised when the pasta came since it was sitting in a light golden broth.  The pasta was cooked al dente but it did seem like dried grocery store pasta.  As were the thin slices of grocery store bacon; the kind that looks like ham cold cuts.  Takana, seems to be a vegetable commonly pickled with salt.  Upon a brief internet search, I found that it's actually a mustard green.  Having said that, it doesn't add mustard flavor, but adds colour and some crunch to the dish.  The bacon fat gives some depth to the broth.  With the sodium from the soy sauce, bacon and takana tsukemono, the salt level was pretty high.   I was glad I chose a cafe latte since the milk balanced out the salt in my mouth.  

Apparently you can order from the regular menu (which includes meats, salads and antipastos) at anytime, and make it into a set meal, so I'd like to come back and try these.  It is a restaurant that caters to Japanese tastes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just confusing for the taste buds. 

I made it back here for a second try just as I had planned.  This time I wanted to try their homemade pork pate (680 yen), and this time I'm sure it was made in house.  I upgraded the meal with a drink and salad for an extra 580 yen (it's 680 yen for an alcoholic drink which I was so tempted to do).  The salad comes dressed with an Italian dressing which tasted just like Kraft's version.  

I'm surprised the pate didn't come with any bread!  What kind of pate comes sans bread?  But then again, it wasn't really pate-like.  It was definitely not spreadable, so I'd consider it more of a terrine, or even meat loaf.  It was really salty almost like spam (it looked as if there were bits of corned beef in it).  It needed the mayo and olive oil dip (is it just me or is that a slightly odd combo?) to balance the saltiness.  I could have used just the olive oil though (mayo is also salty in itself).  I wanted to eat it with bread but remembering from the last time, it wasn't that great.  The black olives were maybe the nicest part of this dish; compared to the "pate" they were mild in sodium level so they were refreshing.  The tomato was pickled, and pleasantly burst with pickling brine in my mouth.    

The coffee was an espresso americano, probably made fresh upon ordering.  It was the most enjoyable part of this slightly disappointing meal, and at least I could sit back and listen to the John Mayer songs playing in the background.

Well, both times I've been here, there has been some disappointment, so I'm not sure I'll try a third time.