Miso

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• What are these?

• Average price 2 courses:
   £13 (lunch)
   £13 (evening meal)
• House wine: £9.95 per bottle

• High point: Great sushi and bargain cocktails
• Low point: A bit grungy
• Food served: Sun-Thu noon-3pm, 5-10pm; Fri/Sat noon-2am
• Bar open: Mon-Sun noon-midnight
• Private dining: Up to 20 covers
• Open since: 2004
• Also offers: Takeaway, Pre-theatre menu

The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 is now in the shops.

This review is taken from the 2007 edition.

With its casual atmosphere, Miso seems more like a collision of ideas and circumstances than a gastro-concept pub specialising in Japanese cuisine. The venue still betrays traces of its one-time existence as a Scottish brew pub in the mosaic floored entranceway and the carved Celtic faces peering from odd nooks. Lunchtimes are geared to office workers and shoppers with excellent value deals. The menu morphs from noodle bar soup bowls and bento boxes to bar-snack style teriyaki burgers and wasabi mushrooms in the evenings. The sushi is a real pleasure, reassuringly hand-made in appearance and featuring luminously fresh fish supplied by MacCallum's the fishmonger. A mixed platter of six pieces at under £5 has to be one of the best sushi deals around. As darkness falls, tea-lights, back-lit panels and fish tanks create candy-coloured mood lighting, while the bar draws a youthful crowd of hipsters and students. Thursday band nights and underground sounds complete the transformation to cool, alternative hangout.