By Gavin Steele, Staff Writer

Recently, I visited Kiki, a contemporary Japanese diner. Owned by Chefs Yuko and Hideki Harada, Kiki’s menu offers oysters, chicken karaage and entire fish, among other classic Japanese delicacies. 

Last year, the Harada couple were semifinalists for a James Beard award for “Best Chef in the Great Lakes Area.” 

The menu was elevated and filled with items that are not part of the standard Americanized Japanese cuisine, so expectations were high for the restaurant to leave an impact. Ultimately, though, all Kiki left me with were mixed feelings.

My table ordered pork gyoza, chicken karaage, the Shio Ramen (pork belly), the Kinoko bowl (mushrooms and rice) and fried cauliflower. 

The fried cauliflower was perfectly fried and topped with a delicious curry aioli and pickled red onion, jalapeño and radish garnish that finished the dish well. The jalapeños and radishes were a testament to the rigor and uniformity of the restaurant. You can tell Kiki holds themselves in high regard simply from the prepwork they put into their accoutrement. The jalapeños were cut perfectly uniform into chips and the radishes were a work of art in themselves. It was evident a lot of effort went into cutting vegetables perfectly. 

Similarly, the pork gyoza was held in high regard. 

Xavier first year Philosophy, Politics and the Public major and fellow diner Carolyn Isaly said, “The pork gyoza was incredibly good and was unlike any potsticker I had ever had before. ”

Up to this point, all the food was good, but some items were just shy of great. They were missing that flare that could have elevated the dish.

The entrees were good but left something to be desired. My Kinoko bowl was a rice bowl with stir-fried mushrooms, nori and chili crisps. Individually, everything was excellent; the wide variety of mushrooms created a unique texture and taste while eating. The nori was added to the bowl which gave it an umami flavor which was a great base line to the dish. I wish the chili crisps were spicier or more acidic to add a more nuanced element to the dish. I think that if there was either more spice or acidity, the dish would have been superb. After already discovering all the components and how they interacted, the flavors became dull. 

The chicken karaage had a similar fate. 

“The soft golden breading made the flaky chicken a delight to eat.  Although the chicken was bland, the sauce made up for it by being rich and slightly spicy,” first-year Philosophy, Politics and the Public major Emma Rehes said.

The waiter told us that the Shio ramen was the most popular item on the menu. Overall, we found it to be ordinary. “The Shio Ramen tasted very strongly of pork and (was) rather salty,” first-year management and entrepreneurship double major Hannah Carusso said.  

The best part of the ramen was the tea marinated soft boiled egg. The tea marinade took a standard ramen ingredient and  truly elevated it from a normal soft-boiled egg. 

Overall, Kiki was a fine but underwhelming experience. It had its ups, but it’s downs were equal in number and hard to ignore. 

Because Kiki takes some bolder steps with its spin on traditional Japanese cuisine, I would only recommend this restaurant for people who are on the more culinarily adventurous side.