Isakaya Kabocha

Another day, another lunch date with my Asian persuasion dude, Jer! He suggested Isakaya Kabocha on St-Laurent, where he'd been before during a street fair and hadn't been too impressed with their kimchi poutine. And THIS is why he decided I should go. Hahaha! I AM always in for a challenge and to try new places even if there's a possibility of sucking because I get to write a review. Let's face it, I'm a review whore.

The place itself is very dark. A bit too dark, I found. The walls are black with very thin white drawings, and the tables were dark as well. Little wooden stools, a long counter with the kitchen behind it and high ceilings. And there you have it ladies and gentlemen: the restaurant! As soon as I entered, a smell entered my nose. You know, the very strong cleaning product they use to clean murder scenes? THAT one.

I had looked at the menu but was waiting for Jer to tell me what to have. When he said 'whatever you want', I began to get worried AND a bit mad. I then informed him that he is responsible for the dishes I order when I'm Asian-ing with him. In the end, he conceded.

Miso soup. The run-of-the-mill Japanese soup. It was good, nothin' special.

Shokado Bento. OR many f*ckin' things on TWO plates (ish type thing). I was literally speechless when they brought those two bento style boxes on the table. Both for me, I asked? Yes, of course. Ha. Yes, yes, of course! Here we go: sashimi, beef carpaccio, karaage (fried chicken), salmon tartar, fried salmon, potato salad, kimchi, green salad, steamed rice, green tea cake. 

Let's start with the sashimi. Oh, how I love fresh raw fish in ma mouth! It was like candy. And it melted... IN ma mouth. The beef carpaccio was on par with a lovely and very tasty ponzu based sauce with a bit of horse radish to kick it up a notch. It wasn't tough at all and again, just disappeared into my taste buds. The fish that was on the endive leaf (apparently it was salmon, but Jer and I want to say otherwise) with what seemed like rice krispies (hey, I don't judge) was really effin good. But the crunch was not so crunchy because it was moist. DAMN that word! The karaage's batter was a tad on the thick side and didn't taste as much as I'd wanted. I like it when there are spices in there. This was spice-LESS. I liked the texture though. The kimchi: what I would like to say about this kimchi is that it is not kimchi. NOT KIMCHI. As I just mentioned, I don't judge :p And by that, I mean I am the judger of all judgers. It tasted nothing like kimchi, was way too sweet and it was too liquidy. It just wasn't right.

The potato salad was dry but I did like the tanginess. You know, when it gets you at the back of your cheeks? Ya. I'm not even going to mention the mesclun. As soon as it got to the table, Jer bear looked at me as if to say 'shiiiiit, she won't be happy'. And I wasn't. Please stop the mesclun. Just stop it. The salmon cubes that were deep fried were, again, too dry. I ain't a fan of dry food. It tasted like it had been marinated in too much acid, also. Not uber pleasant. The dessert WAS pleasant! It was this very dense green tea cake with just enough whipped cream on top. Not overly sweet and actually quite nice! Save for dessert, food in the first box was better.

Service was good. Very good water service throughout (you know that on a scale of 1 to 8000, it is THE most important thing in my book) and was very present. Even so, he never actually asked us if we liked what we were eating :/ -8000 for YOU! We still got our food in record time. Would not expect anything less from an Asian establishment!

And now, the scores!

Food: 7
Service: 7.5

Do you know how many isakayas there are in Montreal? Ya, me neither. But I do know that I must visit ALL of them!

Ichifuku

I am continuing my best ramen in Montreal quest!!!! Now, this.. THIS is a quest I like! My Asian persuasion friend Jer and I decided on Ichifuku on Ste-Catherine. We headed there last week with Em and Jadster (short for Jadsteramasterooniepoo, no joke).

Ichifuku is new (not even a year) on Montreal's ramen scene (it's a thing). According to Jer Bear, the resto used to be a Bubble Tea place. Hey, Asian for Asian, am I right? The place itself is quite long but narrow. So narrow that if two people were to hold hands and stretch out, they could totes touch both walls. It is basically pinkish walls and lots of wood: wooden counter, wooden tables, wooden recipients for chop sticks and what have you.

There were around 26 seats in the house plus 12 at the counter. The music was all over the place. It was wheeeiiird. One second, we (I) were singing along to the Spice Girls and then Savage Garden came on and I started to cry a bit. Hahaha. Ah, Savage Garden. Bad. BAD Savage Garden!

Karaage. OR not karaage. The green onions and the sesame seeds were good but that's about it. The too big pieces were not crunchy and lacked flavour. They were more like wet and flavourless. Meh.

Vegetarian dumplings. After that karaage, I gotta say, I wasn't uber excited for these. But they were yummy. Oh, they were yummy! They were boiled with one fried side. Hey, who said having options isn't nice? The sauce was plummy but had a tad too much vinegar. The dumplings were full of awesome veggie flavour and quite moist indeed! It never gets old, every single time I write that word (m*ist), I flinch a bit.

Ichifuku has many kinds of ramen, one more interesting than the other! How exciting!!! I had the tan-tan men: spicy sesame pork (oh GOD yes!) in chicken broth with some snap peas, bean sprouts and tralala mushrooms. Oh, and HOME MADE noodles. Ya boy! That's what I'm talkin' about!!! There's something about home made noodles! This specific ramen originates from Chinese Sichuan cuisine: the minced pork, the chili oil and the spices.

Let's start with the broth. Ah man, that broth! I gots to say, it was close to being the best broth in the quest, but again, Yokato won out. It was nice and thick and oh-so-ooooozing with flavour! The noodles were right on: not overly cooked and not underly (hey, if I say it's a word, it's a word!) cooked either. The pork was just wow. As in I'd wanna eat that pork over and over again until, well, pretty much until the end of time. I mean, it was like the chef had taken the pork and shot it full of spices. With a spice gun, of course. The snap peas and the bean sprouts fit really well in there and added some crunch and some freshness to the dish. The wood ear mushrooms (or kikurage in Japanese---YES, I researched it!) added some earthiness to the ramen. On top of it, they absorbed all that lovely broth! That made them twice as awesome! In hindsight, I should've ordered a boiled egg to go atop the ramen but hey, what are you gonna dso?

Service was aight. I got there and my friends were drinkin' so I already had water and they had ordered the appetizers. It took a while for our waitress to actually take our main course order but, then again, our ramen arrived pretty damn fast after ordering. Our water glasses were always full which is a good thing because sh*t got spicy!

And now, the scores!

Food: 8
Service: 8

So many ramen restaurants (there's actually another one a couple doors down from Ichifuku), so little time!