What’s on the menu at Mira, King West’s splashy new Peruvian restaurant

By Renée Suen | Photography By Renée Suen | March 23, 2018

By Renée Suen | Photography By Renée Suen | 03/23/2018

Name: Mira
Contact: 420A Wellington St. W., 647-951-3331, mirarestaurant.com, @mirarestaurant
Neighbourhood: King West
Owner: Hanif Harji of ICONINK (Byblos, Weslodge, Patria, Figo, La Société), Maher Murshed (Navigate Group) and Stuart Cameron (ICONINK)
Chef: Stuart Cameron (Byblos, Patria)

The food

Guests can expect to find plenty of fish dishes (tiradito, four kinds of ceviche) on the Nikkei-inspired menu, which combines elements of Peruvian and Japanese cuisine. Small plates include yuca fries and buttery scallops, while more substantial plates bring suckling pig on chaufa-inspired quinoa fried rice, and arroz con langosta (brothy, lobster-topped rice). Cameron spent a couple of years researching the cuisine and sourcing ingredients like lucuma (a maple-tasting fruit used in the dessert mousse), aji amarillo peppers, lulo (a citrus fruit) and huacatay (Peruvian black mint).

Yuca fries come with two dipping sauces: lime huancaina and jalapeño huacatay. $9.

Ensalada de Remolacha is a salad made of whole baby beets, hearts of palm, honey and lime, pepitas, goat cheese-uchucuta dressing and pistachio. $14.

The Mira ceviche is made with fluke, sweet potato, leche de tigre, criollo and concha corn. $17.

Concha: four whole bay scallops dressed with atomic butter, pisco and lime. $18.

The ceviche trio is composed of sampler size versions of the Mira (fluke, sweet potato, leche de tigre, criollo, concha corn), Altamar (grouper, ají amarillo, kumquat, passionfruit, sweet potato) and Nikkei Atun (yuzu kosho, togarashi, rocoto, rice crisp) ceviches. $25.

Cameron puts the finishing touches on the ceviche trio.

The Cachangas Peruanas dessert is a light and crispy pastry topped with coconut ice cream, lulo sorbet, gooseberry sorbet, candied papaya and dragon fruit. $9.

Amor Con Coco: Peruvian chocolate (milk mousse, dark delice) are served with a cookie knot, vanilla ice cream, candied Stevia leaves and amaranth crunch. $12.

The drinks

A decent wine-by-the-glass selection, a whole lot of sake, and pisco-based cocktails made with Peruvian ingredients, like the Victoria that blends pisco with spiced pineapple-infused honey, aji amarillo pepper, lime and red peppercorn.

The Villa Maria: house-made strawberry pisco, vanilla liqueur, lime, sugar and Peruvian bitters. $15.

Garden: coconut oil-washed pisco, sake, maraschino and bitters. $15.

The Victoria: pisco, lime, pineapple, spiced pineapple-infused honey, aji amarillo pepper and red peppercorn. $15.

Ms. Fitz is a take on the French 75 that uses gin, lemon, creme violette, absinthe and prosecco. $15.

The space

The 3,200-square-foot space seats 75 (including a 14-seat semi-private space), and, come warmer weather, will have room for another 24 outside. The colourful room was inspired by Lima’s Miraflores neighbourhood.