Burger Bar

I was meeting my ex boss (and without sounding like a suck up, one of my all time faves) to discuss my almost six year old blog. I know, it makes me sound totes old. Well, maybe cause I am. But let's not dwell on my 35, almost (yish) 36 year old self. We wanted something close to his office so it had to be downtown. I am SO not an expert on downtown; I'm more of a Sud-Ouest specialist.

I picked Burger Bar simply because I had already been to mbrgr and Deville's and that was pretty much the next one on the list, burger wise. Obviously not because of the SUPER original name :p This place has been there for at least 5 years, so that's like a 100 in restaurant years. Props. Oh and it's on Crescent. I'm not super fond of Crescent; it's always loud and it's as if every gino (ya, I went there) with a nice car has to drive on that street and make huge engine noises. Ugh. 

You get in and it looks more like a pub than a resto: very dark, wooden chairs and tables, tall club-like waitresses. That's right, I now describe girls as 'club-like'. They had a little terrasse up front with about 14 seats that was kind of hidden yet in plain sight, complete with uber plastic-y tables and chairs. Uber. Plastic. Apart from all the blinding plastic, it was nice because it was around 100 times more personal than, let's say, Winston Churchill's huge mofo of a terrasse right next door. 

I obviously had looked at the menu 8 times and already knew what I was having. Oh, AND it was my return to alcohol so I wanted to make it a good one.

Limonade Burger Bar. It had pineapple juice in there! And lots of vodka. Or maybe it was the first-drink-in-a-month sensation. It was fresh, it was sweet but not too sweet, it was delicioso. Uhuh, I'm goin' all Italian up in here.

Le Supersonique. Dear lord! My mouth is really small. Like, really small. Like, dentists curse whenever I get shit done in there. I tried mouth stretching exercises as soon as I saw this approaching. My first thought was that I was slightly disappointed that the rings weren't IN the burger. Took off the rings, squished the burger. To the max. The lower bun was soggy because of all the squishing juices so that made it even harder to eat. And not that pleasant. The bacon was awesome but, let's face it, when is bacon NOT awesome? The rest was... normal. A normal burger. I mean, it was good, but not wow. The potatoes, which, by the by, cost an extra 4 bucks, which I think is kind of steep, were up there: crunchy, soft on the inside, hot, well seasoned, perfecto (oh, there goes my Italian again). With some spicy mayo dippin' it was just p-e-r-f-e-c-t. 

Service was aight. She waited just long enough to bring me water for me to be annoyed. I know Max had not arrived yet but that dson't mean I can't get no water. We got our food in a very timely manner and our drinks even timelier. Is that a thing? It's a thing.

And now, the scores!

Food:7.5

Service: 7.5

I'm sure there are 100 other restaurants I need to try before I go back to Burger Bar. And my burger quota is pretty much maxed out for the next 6 months!

KYOZON part deux

I was re-invited to try Kyozon 'for real' since the opening in September. Obviously, openings are mostly grandiose with a full house (and then some), a dj and lots and lots of staff.

This time, we got there for an early dinner with the intention of trying dishes I hadn't eaten when I had gone two weeks prior. We were warmly welcomed in an almost empty restaurant. What a difference! Our waiter came to take our order and made some nice suggestions. We ended up getting four entrées (yes, we are pigs) and we were to share the duck and all its fixings as a main. What a treat this was going to be! Oh, we also had a cocktail on the house and then got a couple more glasses of wine for our meal.

Leeeeeet's do it!

The drink: 6 May 2014. Hennesy very special, bergamot liquor, palm sugar, kumquats, mangosteen, fresh mint. Man, talk about a fresh tasting cocktail! It was very citrusy, almost too much. It hit all the right tastebuds.

The calamari were a disappointment.  When I ate them at the opening, they were perfect but when they arrived at our table this time, they were cold. Not like 'oh, they must have been hot in the kitchen' but more like 'oh, they must have been cold for a while'. They were good the first time and oh-so-unappreciated the second time.

Crab and chicken Sui Mai with smoked chili jam. I found them full of flavor, not too spicy, not too mellow. The sides were a bit on the hard...side. My dining partner wasn't as fond of them as I was. Which turned out to be good for me because I got to eat three quarters of the dish. Hehehe!

Beef teriyaki on skewers. They were a bit hard to chew but they still tasted great. Again, they were a bit on the cold side. I've said it and I'll say it again, dishes that are meant to be served hot should be on hot plates! The pickled veggies were great, with just the right amount of vinegar. This finished off the dish nicely.

Baby pork spareribs with black bean sauce. Holy bejesus this was good. OH-so good. Food orgasm good, I'm not even kidding!  The meat was fall-off-the-bone goodness and the seasoning on the veggies was just right. Not too salty but not bland either. The black bean sauce was wonderful and added just what was needed to the dish. I have to say, next time I make ribs (and I'm oh-so-due), I'm making a black bean sauce. To tell you how good this was, we both gave it an 11 (on 10, of course).

Kyozon's take on Peking duck. THIS was a winner.  The duck was cooked to perfection aka on the rare side and the little pancakes were a great vessel but were a tad on the cold side (I think they are having a problem in the temperature department). There were two sauces; hoisin, which I looooove, and prune, which could have been a tad sweeter. This was accompanied by some greens, some pickled veggies, coriander and mint. Mmmmm... put all of that in that little pancake and it's the perfect mix of sweet and sour! I pretty much devoured this.

We were very full after all these dishes but were convinced to eat desert. We had the brownie, which always seems like a good idea! The brownie was a bit on the hard and dry side but mixed with whipped cream, well everything is better with whipped cream. The cream itself was supposed to be infused with green tea but we didn't really detect it. 

Service was wonderful throughout the meal. Our waiter was more than present and we got visits from pretty much everyone that was working there, including the owners. One of them actually sat down with us to discuss the dishes. That was pretty cool. The ambiance at first was quite non existent but at around 7, it began to fill up so there was a good vibe in the house. We got the dishes in a timely manner, except for desert, which took quite a while. Anyhoot, courteousness  was all around and well appreciated. 

And now, the scores!

Food: an average of 7,5

Service: 9,5

A great new restaurant with very affordable dishes! I would definitely go back!

KYOZON

I was invited to try this self-proclaimed hip New-Asian restaurant on Crescent. It was going to be big. Oh-so-big. I invited my boss, V, because a: she's super duper fun and b: she knows her sushi. Media was at 6 so as per our usualness (that's a word, I swear!), we got there at 5:55. Kyozon joins the Nacos Group family, including Weinstein and Gabinos and Newtown on Crescent (my fave is Atelier d'Argentine in Old MTL).

The place looked really big from the outside and even bigger when you enter. Holy bejesus!!! It was HUGE! You get in and there's a huge mother freakin bar on the first floor along with many tables. Then, on the second floor, you have the kitchen, in full view behind a window and the kaiten belt. I had never experienced 'the' belt so that was fun and new for me! 

There was a huge sky light which added a certain charm to it all. So in one word it was damn huge. Ok, two words.

Anyhoot, we got in and were nicely attacked by some waiters carrying drinks around: red or white wine, proscecco or their specialty drink for the evening, the Shojo Sour. We started off with the Shojo: Bombay Sapphire, Midori, lime, simple syrup, egg white and the kicker, 3 drops of sesame oil.

It was very tasty and special (and dangerously not tasting of alcohol) at first but after a couple drinks and burping sesame oil, it became less special... Let's just say that the next day, at my sushi restaurant, I did not want to hear anything about sesame oil (my chef made a lovely joke telling me he had switched the oil in the fryer for sesame oil). And just one whiff made me want to you know whhhhaaaat.

The ambiance was great, as it usually is at media gatherings where everything, including alcohol, is free. Abeille was spinning for most of the night and it was loud! We saw many-a-people making out and almost just getting right down to it at the bar.... twas quite hilarious!

And now, food!

We were two of the first people there so we went upstairs pretty quickly to see what all the fuss was about with that belt! Turns out... no fuss. We were sitting in an arm's length of food that we could pick out so that was cool but the food itself...

-Rice not too good and this is coming from someone who knows her sushi rice

-Fish on top a bit too fishy

-This literally tasted like nothing even if, as you can see, there ARE ingredients!

-This one was my favourite

-No rice

-Salmon and tuna tasted great

-Calamari in a cone

-Great taste and crunch

-BBQ type sauce fit really well

-Not too salty, great panko crust

Sorry about awful pic

-This spring roll was just awful Sushi Shop quality

-Fake crab meat with tobiko and a tiny piece of avocado dson't make a good quality roll

-First dish with lots of flavours

-Salmon well cooked and moist (oh how I hate that word but sometimes, you just gotta use it!)

-Lobster maki

-Was there really lobster in there?

-Pork bun

-Taste was there but the pork was way too fatty and the bun was slightly undercooked

-Looked good but tasted like nada :/

-This was a great papaya salad

-Good flavours

-Very refreshing

-Popcorn shrimp

-Again, loved the panko crust

-Juicy on the inside, crunchy on the outside and just a tad spicy... just what you want!

Bah, pink ginger... really? That is all.

OK, now, I can see it now: 'Marie, you're so tough, you're so harsh...' Well I feel it's my duty to tell y'all the truth!!! Also, when there are huge openings like this one, the capacity of the kitchen to deliver the good stuff is always limited and stuff starts going awry as the night progresses. I would like to go back and experience the real deal though. As the Nacos Group promo/marketing dude told me: 'Ce soir c'est pour faire le party mais il faut y retourner pour la vraie expérience!'.

And now, let's talk service! It was great!!! Nothing bad to say about it! Not one thing. They were all smiles and they were always there with a drink or passing food around when you needed it. The barmen and women were always there for you (just like Friends!) and we stayed that much longer because our bar dude told us that 'we were fun and we should stay'. Damn him!!!

OK, and now, the scores!!!

Food: 6

Service: 9

I definitely want to go back for the real experience. You'll see it's hard to keep this chick away from asian food!!!

Sushi Crescent

Another lunch with my dad :) Yay! I was just going to enjoy lunch and not write a review but then, when the service started going waaaaaaay down, I just HAD to!

Anyhoot, this place is located on 2 floors, on Crescent near Ste-Catherine and has about, I'd say, 140 seats ish. It's very loud in there so I would suggest skipping it altogether if you're looking for some romantically romantic time with your better half (or just a date!).

To start off, it's so damn hard to park on Crescent. I'm sure most of you who have been ON Crescent know this seeing as it's always so darn busy! My dad actually got a spot right in front of the restaurant (lucky him!) but then turns out the guy in front of him was taking up two spots and so my dad payed for the wrong meter and tralala.... 8 years later, we actually got to go IN the restaurant :p

We were actually pretty lucky to get seats as it was lunch rush hour at 12:30. I had a great view: dirty windows. Ah man, it just gets to me when a restaurant dsont clean their windows! I mean, come oooon! Don't clean them at home, I don't care, but please clean them in your resto!

As I was saying, we sat down quite quickly and got our water glasses right away, which is a must in my book! The menu is pretty elaborate, with nigiris, cones, makis, hosomakis, tempura this, tempura that, etc. It has a lot of variety and that's great since, at lunch, you're paying 15,99$ to eat, well, all you can (I always take it as a challenge, which never turns out very nicely for my stomach). I found that the nigiri were really good and pretty much melted in my mouth. Always a good sign. The tempura shrimp (when they arrived, 5 years later, apparently they had a problem with the fryer...), were crispy and rather fluffly, which was great! I also really enjoyed the mango and avocado roll, the mango was really present in the maki and in my mouth! The fried zucchinis were good but not as good as other sushi places, namely Kanda, where I've been before. The teriyaki chicken and salmon were not very well presented but tasted OK. The other rolls were fine but with some, the seaweed was a tad hard and therefore it was hard for me and my teeth to chew through.

The service, wow, the service. And in this case, 'wow' is a bad thing. Shiz. They were good at first, meaning they got our first (out of something like 11) order right but then it went downhill. You could hear them around you: 'did you have this, did you have that?'. And of course, no orders were right. They might have gotten the table numbers mixed up, who knows... But it was a bad experience all around. At the end, it took us three (yes, THREE) tries to get our nigiri order (easy, 3 snapper) and finally... about 15 to 20 minutes later, they brought us those plus 2 salmon nigiri. And I was like whaaaat? We told you like 8 times what we wanted and you still manage to get it wrong? Pffff.

And now, the scores:

Food: 7
Service: 5 (they should definitely number the tables!!!)

It's good sushi in general, even though it's an all-you-can-eat but dsamn people, get the service right!!!