Mizu Pleasu

The galpals and I hit up Mizu for a quick dinner tonight. J. Gigs had found this tiny Rittenhouse area eat-in/take-out Japanese restaurant when she had been living a few blocks from it. Mizu is very small and casual, but still clean and welcoming enough that sitting down for dinner is still quite pleasant.

J. Gigs had been talking up the HweDupBap and sushi rolls from Mizu for weeks, and it's pretty rare to find good hwedupbap in the city, so we knew we had to have it! So, of course, 3 out of the 4 of us had the HweDupBap and we shared a monstrous sushi roll. BTW, hwedupbap is a Korean dish similar to chirashi, in that it has sashimi layered over rice, but there a quite a few differences between the two dishes, including:

• chirashi has sushi vinegared rice where as hwedupbap has plain rice (that sometimes has a bit of sesame oil)
• chirashi usually has many different types of sashimi layered on top, but hwedupbap is generally just fluke or tuna (or both)
• chirashi is usually eaten with soy sauce and wasabi, but hwedupbap is mixed in with a spicy tart and tangy hot pepper paste. 
• hwedupbap also has shredded veggies like lettuce, sesame leaves, radish, cabbage, carrots, that you mix in with the rice and fish.

YUM. So as a korean, I prefer the spicy, crunchy mixture of hwedupbap over chirashi any day.

:: Mizu :: 

address: 133 South 20th St. Philly

what we ate: hwedupbap + magma roll

HweDupBap: rice, fluke, salmon, tuna, flounder, salmon roe, lettuce, sesame leaf, carrots, radish, apples, cucumbers, imitation crabmeat, chojjang (red pepper paste sauce)
I am pretty sure I'm missing some of the veggies included but yeah it was fan-TASTIC. The fish was super fresh and chopped into cubes that were the perfect bite-size morsel and the veggies were shredded fine enough to make everything blend together perfectly. I kinda wish it came with a bowl of miso soup, which is what I'm used to, but other than that, it was soooo good. Plus, I felt like I was being healthy! Win!

Magma Roll: rice + nori + spicy tuna + mango + spicy mayo + jalapeno, crunch, scallions
This was a HUGE roll that had so much flavor and texture and it was wonderful. The jalapeno and spicy mayo gave this good heat, but it was subtle, not really overpowering.

I enjoyed Mizu so much that I will have to try to come up with a reason why I shouldn't head there every night for dinner.
The menu also had bulgogi/beef over rice bowls, as well as a wide variety of sushi and sashimi offerings. Honestly, their rolls all looked very interesting and creative. As an added bonus, for your non-fish liking friends, Mizu has a pretty good selection of veggie only rolls as well.

Galpal Ladies - thanks for a lovely meal and the chatties!