Otto Yakitori

My Asian boy (yes, he's ALL mine) Jer and I were continuing our Asian persuasion restaurant visits because, let's face it, we live for that (well, I know I do!). We had been meaning to go to Otto Yakitori Isakaya and had actually tried but it was closed for a private event. DAMN IT!

Anyhoot, I've been to this address before, when it was another Asian resto that served up a LOT of body parts. Jer bear used to have these evenings called Strange Meats where we'd eat kidneys, ears, hearts, the whole shabang. Ugh. As a food blogger, I would LOVE to be able to eat, like, chicken feet, or eyeballs (ugh, I just puked in my mouth a little bit), but I just cannot. I CANNOT.

The place itself is a bit on the dark side, with some very vibrant drawings on the walls, and lots of reggae music. Yes. Reggae. Basically, songs that have been reggae-ed. Not an uber fan of this genre. Especially not in a Japanese restaurant. I mean, what???

We started with a salad and miso soup. The salad was... meh, mesclun. But you know what, it was fancy mesclun. Don't ask me what that means but it wasn't as bad as usual. Maybe because it was uber fresh, I don't know. There was yuzu vinaigrette which was just very pleasant and not overpowering because they put just the right amount.

The soup was very.. fishy. They had obviously put bonito flakes in there. I like fishy but this was a tad too much. A nice surprise was that they make their own tofu which was really soft and tasty.

Chicken skewers, skin skewers and chicken BUTT. Hahaha, butt. The chicken was marinated and grilled and it was just perfect. You know, that perfect chicken? Ya, this was it. The skin: let's just say we're getting a bit too close to strange meats here, but I actually really enjoyed it. Obviously I only had a couple bites and left the rest to Jer bear because he can handle it more than me. Ya, he can handle SKIN. The butt. As Sir Mix A Lot once said: I like big butts and I cannot lie. I just had to put that in there. The butt was, wait for it, PACKED with flavor! Hahaha! Mmmmmm!!! SO good!

Pork tonkatsu and chicken curry. I've never had curry with more than one meat, so at first, I must admit, I found it whhheird. Jer was like 'meh, just put in all the meat. ALL the meat!'. The tonkatsu tasted great and was surprisingly not that fried. There wasn't that much chicken, but the pollo (yes, I'm goin' international, baby!) that was in there was full of chickeny flava! The rice was on par and the sauce was very tasty, on the thick side-o-things. Put a bit of nanami (Asian chili flakes) on top and you got yourself a winner! I have to say though that it was a big portion and it was quite heavy. Quite.

Service was great, quite unlike any other Asian resto, I must admit. We got water quickly and she even asked how we liked our meal. Dang!
 

And now, the scores!

 

Food: 8

Service: 9
 

My goal is to try every isakaya in town so I doubt I'll be going back, but certainly not because I didn't enjoy ma meal!

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!

Sumi Dojo

I'm continuing my Asian craziness!!! Might as well become an only Asian resto blogger at this point :) My Asian persuasion friend Jer wanted us to go to Sumi Dojo. He goes there for lunch sometimes and said I needed to try it. ALWAYS listen to Jer. Always.

When you enter Sumi Dojo, it almost looks magical. I ain't talkin' unicorn magical, people! I'm talkin little child at Christmas magical. You know! Right? Little lights are dangling from the ceiling and at the (huge) bar, light bulbs of different lengths are also hanging right above it. The whole place is made of dark wood. And I do mean the WHOLE place: the floor, the bars, the stools, the walls...I absolutely loved the fact that there was some Asian music playing until Jer told me it was the equivalent of  Spice Girls in a steak house. Pfff... I still agree with the non-English music. Fo shizzle.

The lunch menu is UBER (yes, uber) cheap there. I'm serious, when I saw the bill, I got weak in the knees. Hey, you want to make me happy? Get me weak in the knees!

The appetizers! I mean, how freaking lovely does this look? You do always eat with your eyes (wow, mental image) first! This was so damn cute! So.... spring roll, miso soup, pickles and salad. Let's start with the spring roll: it was nothing special, really, but it was hot and pleasant in ma mouth. And I love things that go good in ma mouth. Don't get any ideas here. It had carrots and cabbage in there, it was pretty much exactly like the ones we used to sell at Sushi Taxi. Ah, the memories! The soup was hooooot! Duh. It wasn't too salty and the soft tofu just melted in my mouth, which was just loverly. LO-VER-LY. The salad was a: mesclun and b: wilted. Two EXTREMELY bad thangs in my book! The cucumbers were good and vinegar-y (it's a word!) and actually went nicely with the spring roll! Whaaaat? One bite of spring roll/1 cucumber was perfection.

The main. Le pork. Or tonkatsu. The pork was moist and crispy. I'm not an uber fan of fried stuff but this was goo-hood. Jer says it's THE best in Montreal. What!!! The sauce on it was an Asian BBQ sauce (tonkatsu sauce), which can only mean good things. Asian? Good! BBQ? Goooood! Asian BBQ? Un -f*cking- believable! My Canadian self wanted a sh*t load more of sauce to dip my perfectly cooked rice in a pool of Asian BBQ sauce. Mmmmmm. There was shaved cabbage on the side which made me think, for a second, that I was eating all healthy and sh*t. It had a bit of vinegar and a touch of sesame oil on it which gave me that extra sesame taste that I LOVE.

The pork belly. The daikon was packed with flavor it had absorbed in the cooking process. It basically acted like a sponge. A delicious sponge. The shishito, the bitter green pepper, is apparently the most hated vegetable by Japanese children. Kind of like North American kiddies and brussel sprouts. The pork was like a prison of flavor. Ya, I'm deep. So tender, it was breaking up just by looking at it. Totes true. The broth was very tasty and peppery and I would've drank (drunken?) it all. But I need to be somewhat sophisticated. I'm an esteemed food blogger, for God's sake. AND I have a damn business card! That's right. The egg was right on and the Korean chili threads (ito togarashi)added another texture and certainly another taste to the dish.

Service was alright. I know I'm annoying with this but at some point, we had no more water and my mouth was craving it. Our waiter did come back to answer a question we had about the Korean chili threads so that was nice of him.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5
Service: 6.5

Jer and I already have plans of going back for ramen. The ramen quest continues!

Ramen Ya

Ramen and I: a love story. I swear, I was meant to be born in Japan. I just LOVE ramen. I might even be IN love with it. OK, calm down. But seriously. My token Asian friend (everyone needs one of those fo realz) has made it his mission, nay, his life goal (ya, it goes far) to make me try every ramen in Montreal.

We've done Kinton (just no!), Misoya (aight) and Yokato Yokabai which is pretty much the epitome of ramen. If I could eat Yokato's ramen every day, I would. It was now Ramen Ya's turn. Jer told me on our way there (sheesh!) that it wasn't the greatest ramen. He told me I needed to try more ramen so this is why he was bringing me there. It felt kind of like I was training to be a ninja or somethin'. OR somethin'.

Ramen Ya has two rooms, lanterns everywhere, small wooden tables, and looks like I've just entered Japan. YES the whole country. We get seated right away in the ramen side of the resto (the other is the isakaya). And then we wait aaaaand we wait some more. We finally order (yes!) and then well, it's more waiting. Didn't they get the memo about QUICK Asian restaurant service? I guess not.

Beef with enoki and chives in teriyaki sauce. The sauce was f*cking amazing. Effin awesome. Seriously great. Point is, when all was eaten, Jer and I looked at one another, and by staring each other in the eyes, you could see that we were both thinking about licking that plate. The meat was very flavourful but a bit on the dry side (daaaaamn you to hell, dry meat!). The enoki were, like the meat, full of that yummy goodness, but like shitake, enoki have to be cooked just the right amount of time or else its near inedible. Near. Of course we ate it. Of course. The sesame and the chives added some texture and some tang to the dish. I just really wanted to lick that plate. Next time, I'm lickin' the plate.

Ramen: spicy beef! Jer had told me time and time again that this was part of me testing all the ramen in MTL for my blog and that I had to, in my quest of finding the perfect ramen, eat some bad ramen too. Sheesh dude. I guess he wanted me to hate it before I freaking LOVED it! The ONLY thing I didn't like in there were the obviously-store-bought noodles. Basically, they called my restaurant (where we make AWESOME sushi and not-so-awesome ramen) and asked us where we bought our noodles. Ugh. No. The broth was thick and very pork-y and reminded me of the Montreal king of ramen's broth, Yokato Yokabai. Let's face it, every ramen must be compared to the one I ate at Yokato. The beef was perfect. PER-FECT! It was spicy, it was tasty, and most importantly, it wasn't dry! It's actually quite the rare occurrence to have beef ramen: 82 % (just an estimate :) ) of the time it is pork. And then add another 14% for chicken. The rest is beef. Maybe. The egg was perfect. It was all very harmonious in my mouth and my taste buds were very satisfied.

Service was on the slow side unfortunately. Damn it, I just hate slow service. Especially when you think it'll be quick! Damn you slow Asian service! Said no one ever. But it does apply in this case. Took a while to get food and I was pretty much falling asleep. Water was not refilled when, well, we totes needed it with all the spices and what have yous.

And now, the scores!

Service: 6
Food: 8

Let's just say if Yokato Yokabai is closed or full that day, imma gonna hit up Ramen Ya!

Imadake

MTL à table is a wonderful event that takes place every year where restaurants lower their table d'hôte prices so that people can discover them and enjoy some good food. This year, most of them had their table d'hôte at either 19, 29 or 39 dollars. I think Toqué! was at 69$ but that's a whole different cup-o-tea. When a friend suggested we go, I immediately thought of Imadake because a: it was at 29$ and b: I'd heard lots of great things and had been meaning to go. 

An izakaya is basically a Japanese pub that also serves up good eats. Actually on Imadake's website, it reads 'Come eat and drink, yum! Good!' Makes me think of the shirts my best friend used to bring me back from Japan that made close to no sense. Anyhoot, when you're outside, you hear absolutely nothing and once you open those doors, WOW! It's really loud and vibrant, and everyone seems to be having the time of their lives. Plus, they sell sake bombs where there's something about hitting the table with your fists and the waiter yells 'SAKE!!' and the clients yell 'BOMB!!' like three times. This was fun at first but then, we just had a hard time hearing ourselves talk! But, you know, it's part of the Imadake experience! The place is quite big with a bar in the middle and lots of wood. Most tables are lower with wooden blocks as chairs (which, as it turns out, not too comfy for a 2 hour dinner).

So, the way MTL à table works is that you have a menu with 2 choices per course. Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all! I had already checked out the menu and knew what I wanted to eat of course!

I was the first one there as per usual so I decided to order a nice little drink for the waiting time. I didn't want anything too heavy so I ordered the Shiso mojito. Basically a run of the mill mojito but with shiso leaves instead of mint. And since shiso is in the same family as mint, it was a nice little refreshing, well executed mojito. At the end, it got a tad too sweet but it was still yummy.

My entrée: bonito tataki. The bonito itself had a nice texture but the dish was lacking an extra level of seasoning. Still great and and there was plenty!

Second course: Karaage fried chicken with wasabi sauce. There was a LOT of chicken. Like, a LOT! The chicken itself was very moist but the breading was so crunchy, I thought I might break a tooth. There was a bit too much fat in there which made it unpleasant at some point. The lemon added a nice touch and I loved that wasabi mayo! If I were beginning to be sick, this totally reversed it and unplugged everything! I even shed a tear or two :) 

Third course: Steak Yaki Niku. THIS was a nice surprise! They bring you a hot ass (yes, hot ASS) plate and some uncooked marinated beef with a teriyaki soya sesame kinda sauce that tasted great. The beef had a wonderful taste to it but some pieces were way too big to fit my tiny mouth so I had to cut them with chop sticks which wasn't ideal. Still, as I've said, and I'll say it again, this was like heaven in my mouth. Heaven I say! Mmmmm! So, you put the beef on the hot plate with a bit of sauce and then some chives and you barely cook it and then, wait for it, you put it in your mouth. AND you've reached umami (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami) heaven!

As for desert, I chose the sesame ice cream. It looks, well, not too appetizing but it was oh-so-DAMN-good! It was so soft and smooth! 

And now, let's talk service, shall we? When I got in, I found it weird that the girls were all wearing school girl skirts but then I figured that a lot of them are wearing that in Japan right now so it became less weird. What WAS weird is that the waiter told us that the dishes came out when they were ready so we all ate at this different times which was kind of annoying. It took a while to start but then the food came in relatively good timing. Oh and, y'all know I'm serious about my water and we all had to ask for some, at different times during our meal. Meh.

And now, the scores!

Food:  7.5

Service: 7

All in all, I'm not disappointed and I'm happy we chose this restaurant for MTL à Table! Will definitely go back!

 

Kazu

 Here is a review written by my bro's bestest best friend, Erik! Enjoy! (He lived in Japan so he knows what he's talking about ).

Kazu is by far the best Japanese restaurant in Montreal, and they don't even serve sushi!

This fairly new restaurant on Ste-Catherine st. West serves up "Izakaya" style cuisine which can be compared to tapas bars in Spain.  The concept of the Izakaya is to have a casual bar-like atmosphere, where the guests can have a few drinks after work, and combine that with a small kitchen that will cook up just about anything that can be shared between friends or colleages. 

Montreal has opened its fair share of Izakayas over the past few years, however few of them can compare to the real deal. Kazu is fully owned and run by Japanese (from Ibaraki origin, close to Tokyo). The entire wait staff is also from Japan which makes the experience that much more interesting.

The food itself is excellent and all the dishes can be shared. I recommend the fried gyoza, yakitori, Japanese Bibimbap (with beef rib), giant shrimp and ramen (only served during lunch). Don't forget to start off the evening with a pint of Sapporo on draft or a large bottle of Kirin beer!

Not only is the atmosphere great, the food delicious and the staff very friendly, but the price is also affordable (you'll be surprised).  The only down side is the fact that you have to wait in line an average of 30-60 minutes before getting in (for dinner) and about 5-10 minutes for lunch (they don't take reservations). But hey, that's a good sign isn't it!?!? They are also closed on Tuesdays. 

Now, for the scores:

Food: 9/10

Service: 10/10

I would recommend going there in smaller groups due to the long wait times. Great place for drinks after work between friends or even for a date (preferable not a first date unless he or she doesn't mind the wait!).