Dear guests, dear friends!
Do you celebrate St. Valentine’s Day? And do you celebrate with love? In Japan, this is a new holiday with no tradition. But Valentine has already found its own unique expression – Valentine’s Day is full of chocolate. Heart-shaped chocolate. Choko. The most beautiful is the sincere honmei choko, but they also have giri choko, choko given out of duty or choko given out of compassion called onasake choko.
Some of you, when February 14th approaches, are terrified by the flood of pink hearts of all kinds. I understand. The argument for why not Valentine’s Day may be that all the hype around is often full of insincerity. Lots of hearts and little love. But that is up to each of us. At Miyabi, we also decorate Valentine’s dishes with hearts. We mean it sincerely – honki. They are just made of beets and the beet is – honmono. Miyabi honki honmono hearts are meant to suggest that the word love should only be used as a sincere name – honmei. This trio of Japanese words – honmei, honmono, honki (true name, true matter, true feeling) will be the key to finding the best thing that will make your love visible.
When you choose from our Valentine’s menu, be sure to read the blog in which I listed all the Valentine’s choko that I know of. Quite a popular choko is tezukuri choko, that is, choko that you make yourself from chocolate mass. You will also be surprised learning about gyaku choko, reverse direction choko, which is choko that girls do not give to boys, but boys to girls. In Japan, Valentine’s Day is understood a little differently than in our Western culture, yes, it’s the other way around – women give hearts to men. In Miyabi, which is the closest Japan, we will therefore give all men guests one small chocolate. But only on February 14, 15 and 16, when we will celebrate St. Valentine’s Day in Miyabi. Hurry up and make your reservation! (On 14.2.2025 from 15:00 is possible reservation only with a paid reservation deposit of 300 CZK/person. This will be deducted upon payment. Paid reservation can be cancelled at least 24 hours in advance).
Now, if you don’t decide on Miyabi this year for your Valentine’s Day celebration (even though we will be sad to hear), choose according to Gault&Millau, because you can newly use a Czech version of this world-renowned guide to great restaurants. Miyabi is included among them!!! and we are very happy and proud. We received 11 points out of 20 and therefore one prestigious yellow chef’s hat. We appreciate this very much and will try even harder to keep our position among the best and most interesting Czech restaurants. Who is behind Gault&Millau? “The French gastronomic guide was founded by journalists Henri Gault and Christian Millau in the 1960s as a reaction to the previously rigid evaluation rules of other guides. They created a flexible evaluation system based on a combination of awarding the chef’s hat symbol (“toque”) and points. They defined the culinary tenets of the so-called “Nouvelle Cuisine”. Thanks to their approach and work, they were on the cover of the prestigious Time magazine in 1980, and their system helped to discover many gastronomic talents. Gault&Millau is currently active in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, Georgia, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and will eventually expand to Slovakia and Hungary.” And what is their mission in the Czech Republic? “Our mission in the Czech Republic is to serve as a compass in the diverse and constantly evolving world of gastronomy. To emphasize uniqueness and quality, and to inspire guests to discover new tastes and environments through trusted and objective international restaurant ratings. Our vision is to return quality restaurants to people and enthusiastic customers to restaurants.”
Yes, that is also our vision – to come up with trully interesting offer so that you are our enthusiastic customers. At Miyabi, we contribute to this not only with quality gastronomy, but also with cultural experiences, because Japanese food and Japanese culture cannot be separated.
On February 10th at 6:00 PM, even though the restaurant has a weekly closing day, we will have a Mochi celebration. The mochi rice will be pounded by a machine, but the result, the mochi cakes, will be just as delicious and, most importantly, the mochi party will be good each other friendly wishes praying that we will be truly happy in the year of the Wood Snake. Admission is free, children are welcome, and you can even mold your own cake. It is not easy, because the dough is very sticky.
On Sunday, February 23rd, and then again on Thursday, February 27th, we will welcome you to the Zen House for a chamber concert given by a young Japanese musician, ryuteki flute player, Nobu Goto. He was born into a family that runs a temple which is over 1,300 years old and he himself is a Shinto priest. He is currently studying at the Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Music. The concert will start at 6:00 PM, but you can come half an hour earlier if you want, because we will prepare tea and osembe and you can enjoy the lovely Japanese atmosphere. It will get you in the mood for a meal in our restaurant or the music will serve you as a prelude to watching a Japanese film given as a part of Eigasai program – the film “What I am Actually Fighting with?” will be screened at the Lucerna Cinema on February 27th from 7:30 PM. See the Eigasai program HERE. Admission to both concerts in our Zen House is 230 CZK and reservations are recommended. It is advisable to make a reservation at miyabi@miyabi.cz
This year will be a year of many event for Miyabi celebrating 30th anniversary. I hope you will always feel that we are trying to be honki and serve you honmono food so that Miyabi can reach its full potential living up to her name of Style and elegance, which is our honmei. Honmei, honmono, honki. The right name, the right material, the right feeling. It is our vision and our commitment.
With best wishes, Your Miyabi Darja
