Café Misono & Sushi Bar

Surprisingly good Asian fare west of the city

Dining Out by Robert Nadeau

DINING OUT

Café Misono & Sushi Bar (617) 325-9919 669 VFW Parkway (Route 1), West Roxbury (The Village at Chestnut Hill) Open Mon-Thurs, 11:45 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-10 p.m.; Fri-Sat, 11:45 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-11 p.m.; and Sun, 1-10 p.m. AE, MC, Visa Beer and wine Free parking in strip-mall lot Street-level access

The western wards of Boston have never provided much of interest in the way of restaurants. There's more to eat on Route 1

in coastal Maine than on the same interstate as it wends its way past Jamaica Pond toward its rendezvous with Dedham. Misono is doing its bit to change that by taking an interesting gamble: it's betting that the West Roxbury practice of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates across the street can support more than a Bertucci's. Behind the restaurant's narrow, strip-mall entrance is a serious Korean and Japanese kitchen and a rather pretty restaurant, a small space that somehow manages to squeeze in a fountain full of goldfish. If some of the patrons are in office clothes, and some dressed for a day at Home Depot, that only adds to its charm.

Small restaurants can be beautifully suited to East Asian food, much of which is cooked quickly and served immediately. Misono works this principle effectively with tempura and scallion pancakes, which must be eaten hot, and less obviously with complicated noodle soups, where slow-simmered stock is thematically contrasted with barely cooked vegetables. Misono has an overlong menu with a full sushi bar, all the typical hot dishes of a Japanese restaurant, and most of the best-known Korean specialties. But it is most successful when it sticks with simplicity and
freshness.

On the speed side, I was very impressed with the scallion pancakes ($8.95, also available with kim chee or seafood). Korean pancakes are generally a little greasy and vary from starchy jobs, like the Mandarin scallion pancakes, to near-omelets. This was a plate-size pancake that came to the table quite crisp, with good scallion aroma and a dipping sauce that neatly cut the grease. Yaki gyoza ($4.95) are pan-fried dumplings, crispier than Peking ravioli, I think because the wrappings contain rice flour. Shumai ($4.95) are scallop-shaped dumplings made with chopped shrimp and here steamed to order.

The tempura appetizer ($6.95) is impeccably fried as well, almost greaseless, with two shrimp, broccoli, beans, and the subtle flavor and distinctive scalloped edge of delicata squash. But you may want to hold out for the shrimp tempura ($14.50), a main dish netting you six shrimp with green peppers and sweet-potato slices, along with more of the tempura-appetizer vegetables.

On the Korean side, Misono offers a good introduction to stir-fried calamari ($12.95). The Korean way with squid is to use its blandness as a foil for quite a lot of red pepper. At Misono, the one-asterisk spice rating is about right, enabling you to taste the sweet-bean-paste basis of the hot sauce, as well as the burn. It comes with stir-fried carrots, beans, zucchini, onion, and napa cabbage. My only criticism of this dish is that it is served on a sizzling platter that adds nothing to the flavor and tends to burn some of the vegetables.

Legitimate table sizzle arrives with the okdol bi bim bap ($12.95) -- a medley of vegetables on rice, served in a hot stone bowl. (Don't touch the bowl!) The dish is designed prettily, with neat, round piles of various things -- marinated beef, spinach with sesame, shredded white radish, shredded carrot, shredded zucchini, and equally long shreds of something chewier, perhaps bamboo. Apparently the French mandoline cutter has arrived in Asian-restaurant kitchens with a bang. The platter is topped with a sunny-side-up egg, as is traditional, and that with some very fine threads of dried seaweed. I always start a bi bim bap with the intent to sample, but always end up stirring it together and wolfing it down like fried rice. At Misono, the hot stone bowl gives the rice a nice toasty
flavor.

On the Japanese side, this is the time of year for udon ($8.95; with tempura, $12.95), the fat noodles (served in broth) that are comfort food in Japan, a filling dinner at any time in West Roxbury. The Korean influence is notable only in the richer broth, shredded vegetables, and side dish of hot, sweet red-bean paste. Sukiyaki ($17.95, your choice of beef, vegetable, or chicken) comes to the table ready-made, a stew of sliced beef, tofu, mushrooms, cellophane noodles, spinach, and such in a sweetened broth, served on a cast-iron oval. Sushi Deluxe ($17.50) gave us a quick look at the long sushi menu, with 10 fingers and a half-dozen California rolls, served in a wooden boat with the usual trimmings of wasabi (horseradish-flavored green mustard) and gari (pickled red ginger root). Everything was reliably fresh, notably the salmon and striped bass. Some of these dinners include salad with a gingery dressing and a bowl of somewhat sticky rice ($1.50 à la carte).

Misono has a wine list that covers the sorts of wines people try to match with this food. Although some whites are spicy enough for the food flavors, most wines are defeated by the saltiness and sour sauces of Asian cooking. One sensibly looks to either Japanese beers (Kirin and Sapporo here) or sake among the alcoholic beverages, and water or hot green tea.

Misono serves ice cream for dessert: ginger, green tea, red bean, and coconut. It's kind of a pity, since this is a very nice little place where it would be fun to linger. On the other hand, the small plaza -- notable to gourmets mostly for Gary's Discount Liquors -- lacks an ice-cream stop. I suppose the excuse for lingering is to sit at the sushi bar and string out a few pieces of this with a few pieces of that from the à la carte menu of more than 40 kinds. Service was excellent on two visits, but if you don't want to linger at all, a lunch menu of boxes, rice plates, noodle soups, and sushi samplers looked very promising.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at RobtNadeau@aol.com.

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