Mirae blesses Brookhaven with a beautiful Asian-fusion gem

Among metro Atlanta’s most ambitious (and expensive) Asian restaurants, tiny signs are en vogue. Places like Mujo, Omakase Table and Umi all have barely noticeable nameplates.

The same can be said of Mirae, the new Asian fusion restaurant in Brookhaven from Fudo owners John and Grace Lee. Its subtle signage makes a big statement; Mirae wants to swim in the same waters as those aforementioned elite restaurants, all three of which were listed in the Atlanta 50. Can it reach that level?

Mirae’s interior immediately backs up the luxurious minimalism implied by its subdued facade. Wordless electronic lounge music pulses over the speakers, hanging well above the dining room from a triple-height ceiling. From the host stand, where there’s also a complimentary coat-check, diners can survey the bar and open kitchen.

The excellent service begins right when you check in at the host stand. The hosts warmly greeted our party on each visit and quickly whisked us to our table. The primary servers are confident and conversational, though it felt like the entire staff serviced our table. Silverware was cleared between each course, water was consistently topped up and I found my napkin neatly folded in place after a trip to the restroom. Mirae isn’t exactly inexpensive, but the level of service befits a much higher-dollar restaurant.

A restaurant’s true service standard is revealed when things go wrong. During one visit to Mirae, a server from the bar spilled some of a cocktail while delivering it to one of my dining partners. Less than a quarter of the cocktail was lost, but the server immediately cleaned the spill and remade the drink without asking. She delivered the fresh cocktail with apologies and the whole incident, which was minor to begin with, was perfectly fixed.

Mirae’s cocktails are the center of bar manager Orestes Cruz’s beverage program, with a nice range of flavor profiles and intensity levels. The Shanghai Mule is a light, fizzy combination of vodka and ginger with a touch of complexity from Chinese five-spice. The Whispers of Kyoto is rich and balanced, with Japanese whiskey, sweet pineapple and a light egg-white foam cap. The wine list is curated and interesting, with most glasses in the $14 to $18 range. Mirae also serves the fantastic, original Minhwa Spirits soju — a nice local touch.

The drinks, service and vibe are enough to make Mirae worth visiting, but afterward, it’s the food that will linger in your memory.

The Lees’ kitchen performs some kind of alchemy that transmogrifies straightforward ingredients like cabbage into minor miracles. The warm confit cabbage salad, a quarter of a cabbage head so tender it could easily be cut with a fork, may as well have been made entirely out of miso butter. The luxuriant texture combined with the umami depth-charge can stun a table into silence. There’s a reason it’s the most popular item on the menu.

The Chilean sea bass performs a similar feat, though the high-quality fish is a less humble starting point than the cabbage. The buttery sea bass takes on an almost custard-like consistency, though it still comes apart in large, luscious flakes. It’s paired with a lovely cauliflower puree with a silken texture that’s a technical achievement in its own right.

It’s hard to make a wrong choice on Mirae’s menu. The shrimp toasts were a bit like tea sandwiches, with crispy exteriors giving way to a sweet shrimp salad interior. The tuna hand roll, one of the only sushi-inspired dishes, was wrapped in high-quality nori (roasted seaweed), easily detectable thanks to its pleasantly brittle texture. Bone marrow, once trendy before an overcorrection left the dish nowhere to be found, has its richness balanced by sweet, tart tamarind “essence.”

Not every dish hit the mark. Pasta with wasabi cream was a solid dish, but the scallops crowning the noodles seemed a touch overcooked and under-seasoned. In an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the restaurant’s general manager, Ashton Loyd, said the scallops are sourced from Hokkaido, Japan, and are minimally seasoned to allow their natural flavor to shine. I ordered a similar dish, the uni pasta, on another visit and it was a treat.

Whether the dish didn’t work for me because of an issue of execution or a matter of taste (I still lean toward execution), it wouldn’t stop me from recommending Mirae to just about anyone.

Mirae is an excellent restaurant without qualification; it deserves to be in the tiny sign club with the high-flying restaurants mentioned at the beginning of this article.