Chic Japanese - Dwarf no Cachette

There are some restaurants that blow you away because of their excellent food; excellent service; or uniqueness. Dwarf no Cachette falls squarely in the unique. At initial glance, one might be confused  they are looking at a dollhouse instead of one of the better Japanese establishments in Winnipeg. Dwarf was recommended to me by a fellow resident who was drawn to its cutesy and artsy approach to food, a sharp departure from the normal and boring take on Japanese cuisine.

The first thing that struck me was the name. Dwarf no Cachette is nowhere near the top of names I would pencil in for a restaurant. A combination of French, English and Japanese, the name translates to the "Dwarf's Hiding Place". One cannot hear that story without letting out a proverbial "aww" at the kawaii-ness of that story.

I love these menus. Similar to a scrapbook, each menu was lovingly crafted and personalized with pictures, drawings and cut-outs. It was obvious that a great deal of time and effort was made into each. It was almost as fun flipping through each book as it was dining.

We started the night off with a Roasted Rice Green Tea. Dwarf serves its tea with a small strainer which allows the customer to easily separate the leaves from the tea. An ingenious and simple idea that should be emulated at most Asian restaurants.

The first dish was the Takoyaki, original flavour. Dwarf's version consisted of eight absolutely delightful balls of diced octopus in a creamy wheat batter topped with Japanese mayo and green onion. Each bite was an incredible dance of the various flavours. A great way to start off the meal.

Secondly, we got the Seafood Okonomiyaki. This Japanese style pancake had a base of fried flour, cabbage and eggs mixed with cooked shrimp and topped with Japanese mayo and green onion. The pancake was well cooked and served as an excellent base for the other ingredients. The cabbage was nice and crisp and contrasted well with the more savoury aspects of this dish. Well executed!

I feel obligated to order Japanese ramen whenever I can. Here we opted for the Rich Miso Ramen. We were greeted by a heaping bowl of ramen filled with half-boiled egg, pork belly, bean sprouts and corn. This ranked high on my list of Winnipeg ramen: authentic tasting broth, nice fatty slices of pork and perfectly half boiled eggs. Only complaint was that the rich broth was a tad salty for our tastes.

We ended this monstrous meal with a Japanese Hamburg. This large beef patty was smothered in demi glace sauce and served with tempura yam fries and broccoli (you have a choice of five sides). This dish was overall good with the excellent demi glace sauce that was sweet with a hint of tangy-ness. The meat, however, was disappointingly dry but was helped by the flavours in the sauce. Overall a good dish but pales in comparison to the others we ordered.

Dwarf no Cachette is a refreshing find in a city saturated with sushi restaurants who attempt to mirror and copy one another. If one is feeling adventurous and open to exploring what else Japanese cuisine has to offer, I vehemently suggest Dwarf. In fact, I would rank this as one of the best Japanese restaurants Winnipeg has to offer.