A lucky find in South Bend

We checked into our hotel late on a Sunday night in South Bend, Indiana, and were told that we would be lucky if the Applebees was open - apparently, most places close early here. Imagine how happy we were to find Japanese steakhouse Mikado on our drive to Applebees. Well, I don't know...anything is better than Applebees...we were excited.

The menu listed one saké: "hotsaké" for $4.50. I ordered a beer. But, I noticed what looked like saké bottles lined up on the unmanned sushi bar, so I got up to see what they had and found that they had a bottle of Ozeki dry saké. You must understand, this was 9:00 on Sunday night in South Bend, Indiana. This was a hugely happy discovery for me.

Actually, I didn't really have any complaints. The food was good. We ordered age dashi tofu (my favorite), gyoza, and I had the "tempura deluxe" which came with miso soup, salad, and (strangely) a bowl of fried rice. The tempura was good, crisp and light with shrimp, sweet potatoes, green beans, mushrooms and onions presented on a cute (although plastic) sushi boat. Ozeki dry saké seemed to compliment this "late-night" meal just fine.

SMV: +8
acidity: 1.3
alcohol: 14.5%

Mikado
402 Dixieway N.
South Bend, IN 46637
574-272-2535