When the man who’s fanning your eel over hot coals at the back of the restaurant is an elderly gentleman with a marble-white beard, you feel a little bad for putting him to the trouble – even if he is smiling amiably. When you taste it, however, all reservations disappear.

An elongated dish of grilled eel arrives basted with soy sauce, mirin and sugar, glistening in the light. Tender, seductively sweet and unavoidably addictive, the eel might be best had over rice, to temper it with something plain. There’s the option to have it unseasoned, but we’ve not thought of a good reason for that yet. The beauty’s in the sauce.

Unagi might be its main game, but Missi Missi has a robust roster of other dishes. There’s a small list of sushi and sashimi options, plus a few items for the grill, like mackerel and salmon head, that aren’t eel. From the fried realm, the miso pork cutlet is devastatingly crisp on the outside, impossibly juicy on the inside and possibly better than the grilled eel. It’s a good excuse to keep having some of both until you’ve reached a conclusion. Other items, deep-fried chicken and an assortment of tempura , follow suit. They’re all fine exercises in the art of deep-frying.

In a scene that’s glutted with Japanese joints, Missi Missi has a tough task trying to distinguish itself. But an accessible yet quiet locale, some killer unagi and a winsome eel master behind the grill just might do the trick.

Address: 2 Sanlitun Bei Xiaojie (corner of Liangmahe Nan Lu) Chaoyang District 朝阳区三里屯 北小街2号

Source: timeoutbeijing.com