This venue has closed.
What used to be a crowded living room of Art Deco furniture and vintage lamps is no longer. Those who knew La Aroma de Vida, later named Mia’s, will remember fondly the friendly café, but they may also appreciate this reincarnation as a simple Yunnan restaurant with a single, attentive waitress and a chef from Sichuan. The waitress explains that ‘Sichuan is near Yunnan’, so therefore, cooking cuisine from Yunnan is not a stretch for him.
From a sampling of the menu, it seems he is indeed capable of spanning provinces. Yunnan encompasses multiple ethnicities and cuisines, but is particularly well-known for mushrooms, wild vegetables, salty cured ham and rubing, the traditional goat's milk cheese of the Bai people. The new Mia's offers many traditional ingredients, with plenty of vegetarian options. Spiced Yunnan fern (20RMB) is coated in chilli oil with a pleasing numbing buzz. Granny's fragrant mashed potato (25RMB) is probably one of the best recipes ever for mashed spuds without loads of butter.
Pickled Chinese mustard greens (suancai) are mashed with potatoes creating a lumpy, sour-salty, slightly watery comfort food that is far tastier than it sounds on paper. Spicy chicken tenders (38RMB) are heavily breaded very tender chicken strips. There are no bones, but plenty of salt, garlic and chillies. A pungent truffle aroma wafts up from the steamed pork with matsutake mushroom (58RMB); this fragrant pork mince is good over rice.
The 'kailan stir fried with niugan chew mushroom' (35RMB) offers a crisp green against the unique fresh taste of the famed niugan mushroom. The pan-fried goat cheese (28RMB) has also improved with the restaurants redesign, the six chunky slices are perfectly seasoned and just the right side of salty. For drinks, there's a nice little selection of imported beers such as Victoria Bitter (35RMB) and Sam Adams Boston Lager (40RMB).
Following a recent redecoration, the decor is also now more welcoming with long rustic wood shared dining tables, delicate earth coloured walls and photo prints of the Yunnan countryside on the walls. With its prime location and homestyle cuisine, the new Mia's is likely to continue as a neighbourhood favourite.
Crystyl Mo
