Isshin Ramen

I hadn't seen my bestie Tes and her main man Marky in over a year and, damn it, I missed them. We did what we did best: ramen! Isshin ramen is on many of Toronto's best ramen lists. Hello. AND hello. The ramen quest continues...in Toronto!!! Hey, a ramen quest is a ramen quest!

We went there during prime lunch time, last Saturday, at around 1PM. It was FUUULL. Fortunately for us, the turn over is very high. I loves me a good turnover. That sounds weird, but I'm sticking to it. That's actually what I put on my Tinder account to get all the ladies: 'I likes me a good turnover'. And I get them ALL. I'm totes kidding, unfortunately. Or fortunately?

 

Moving on. The place is cute, with small tables, very close to one another. An open kitchen at the front made for a nice welcome: all those smells and kitchen hustle and bustle. Just what I like! A big painting of a dragon on the long wall completed the décor of the place.

We were there for the ramen, but we wanted a little somethin' somehtin' extra, too! We started with Takoyaki. Or deep fried octopus balls. Hehe, octopus balls. Balls. I shall stop being 12. It was supes hot. The way every hot dish is supposed to be. Not cold, not luke warm, hot. Hot god damn it! Can you tell I have a thing with my dishes' temperature? I dso. I HATE it when the actual plate is cold and I LOATHE it when something that is supposed to be a certain temp, is not that temp. Aaaaaanyway, moving on! Those were little balls of heaven. Heaven in a ball. Mmmm! They were meaty and moist and all that good shtuff (the h ain't a mistake, people).

Pork gyoza. I loves me a good gyoza. Or dumpling if you prefer. They were marvelously crispy and juicy. OK, juicy enough. No one likes a dumpling burn. Dipped in a nice little sauce that screamed umami, they were even bets (better... no I will not stop abbreviating words)!

And now, la pièce de résistance: el ramen! They have a bunch of different types of ramen and they ALL look so awesome! It looked soooo good!!! I had the miso ramen. As soon as it hit the table, I felt my mouth watering. The broth was on the thicker side, which is what I love in my ramen. I had ordered extras like a marinated egg and nori: the nori is, well, nori (always good), and the egg was right on par. I gots to try making my own marinated eggs. Yaassss!!! The noodles were a bit meh. I mean, they were not not good, but I found them way too large and there were too many in my bowl. They serve up different types of noodles (which, by the way, are made specifically for Isshin Ramen by a Japanese noodle manufacturer, and delivered every other day) in different ramen. I just felt like my noodles, since they were larger, were heavier and I got full way quicker than I should've. The meat was supes taste and just fatty enough. I just wish there would've been more of it. I want more of everything, god damn it! Oh, except noodles. Less noodles please.

Service was quick and efficient. You know what I'm gonna say: Asian restos have the quickest and the most efficient service. ALL. The. Damn. Time. They checked up on us and they refilled our water. No fuss no muss.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8.5
Service: 8.5

I really enjoyed this ramexperience (change approved!), but there are SO many ramen restos in Toronto!! I think it's safe to say I'll go to another one before I go back to this one.

 

Cocoro

Ma boy was in between Asia trips (ya, he's, like, super cool) for work, so we had to hit up at least one resto. Cocoro is the new Asian baby on Parc. There are new Asian babies everywheeeere!!! I loves it, seeing as I AM half Asian. I'm not. I lie.

Cocoro is this small spot close to St-Viateur, with a curtain, nay, a noren, at the front, welcoming you. Well, thank you there, noren. Thank you. Don't worry, I'm on my way to the insane asylum. Right now. It's a very simple restaurant, except for the shelf at the far end of the restaurant with a big bonsai, some paper lanterns and other Japanese thangs. It looked a bit corny if you ask me. Come on, just ASK me. It's corny. The place has about 26 seats, and the tables were somewhat weirdly set up, but hey, who am I to judge? Well, I'm actually pretty well placed to judge. Hahaha. I ain't judgin' (I'm judgin').

We started with a very simple salad: iceberg and veggies. Iceberg, much like mesclun is not my fave kind of green. But the sesame dressing was silky and enhanced the flavours. There was a nice crunch to the lettuce which is 150% better than eating a wilted one. Bah.

We shared the octopus as an entrée. It was very tiny, but it was very good, too! It was sliced really finely with some pesto and a miso sauce. Weird? Yes. Good? Surprisingly, yes! It was pleasant to take a little sliver of octopus and dip it in both the pesto and the miso! There were raw onions in the dish as well, which brought in some texture and, well, hello, onions! I would've never thought of all  these components harmonizing so well together, but hey, miracles happen every day (they don't actually HAPPEN, ever. Don't be fooled.)! On top of it, it was such a beautiful plate! They always say that you eat with your eyes first! Argh, I just got a mental image.

Le ramen. the quest continues!!! I was quite excited to continue this life-long quest. OK, life-long is a bit exaggerated, but I do tend to do just that. The broth had a meaty flavor, which was right up my alley, but it wasn't thick enough for our taste. That's right, we like ours so hard, we can't put our spoon or chopsticks through it! In all seriousness (yes, it happens sometimes), I like my ramen broth with some consistency, not one with close-to-water thickness (or lack there of). The egg was perfectly marinated and the meat was actually one of the best ramen meats I've tasted: just fatty enough to convey great pork loveliness on my palate. The noodles were disappointing and overcooked, and I don't know about you, but I REALLY (REAAALLLY!) appreciate a homemade noodle. And these were no homemade noodles. I know it's a bunch of extra effort but it's approximately 150% better when they are. There were some sprouts on top which actually added a bit of heat, which was appreciated. Quite indeed!

Service was good: I had a very warm welcome from the waitress, we were seated quickly, she checked up on us and we had water on the table in 2 seconds (I totally counted). On top of it, it was very quick service, which is what you like during lunch time!

And now, the scores!

Food: 7
Service: 8

On to the next ramen restaurant! I swear, every week, Jer bear sends me a new one to try. I only have about 16 left to try in Montreal. This is an approximate number.

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!

Libertine Bakehouse

Sometimes, you just gots to treat yoself. Am I right? Oh, I am! Libertine Bakehouse is the new kid on the block when it comes to pastries so I just HAD to go. Plus, luckily (AND unluckily) for me, they are located only a hop and a skip away from my place. I HATE having great desserts at such close proximity. So after lunch one day, Em and I went to dessert heaven.

Ah, dessert heaven, a place where you want to go all the time and where everything smells and tastes so good you want to lick the counters. And the walls. And maybe the employees? I mean, they must have chocolate dust SOMEWHERE on them, no? The answer is yes.

This place is supa cute: white on white, a big table in the middle (for those big studying days that necessitate sugar) and a big skull with a cherry on top; their mascot, if you will.

We were there to eat dessert but FYI, they also serve up some salty treats/meals! Yaassss! Their display just looks freaking AMAZING. It took us a whhhhile to choose what we were going to eat (aka pig out on) SO we ended up having half of their inventory. I'm only slightly kidding: we chose two desserts each. What? I needed to review more than one dessert! Imma blame it on the review.

Le brownie. Also known as the least good lookin' dessert. But that dson't mean it wasn't good! Fleur de sel was concentrated mainly in the middle which was a hella nice surprise. Biting into it, it was crunchy and then soft and then, well, it gets... personal :p

The chocolate mousse. I'm a big chocolate mousse lovah. Like a big one. My fave used to be Juliette et Chocolat's but since our fall out many years ago (leaving that job after having the worst training and working with the worst bosses), I hadn't found a good replacement. Well, ladies and gentlemen, the replacement has been found. This mousse was, let me find the perfect adjectives here... heavenly, uber soft, heavenly. Wait, did I write that twice? Yes, I believe I did. The biscuit that was right under was just as perfect: crunchy and not stale at all. A fresh cookie if you will. I'm actually on my way there right now to eat one again. Of course I'm kidding, f*ck. I wish I could go right now/be able to eat as much sugar as I want to without gaining 100 pounds.

The chocolate/miso éclair. What? I'm sorry, what? Excuse me, whaaaaat? Ya, that was my reaction. It wasn't a miso explosion, which was great because that would've been whhheird. The filling tasted of chocolate and hazelnut with a hint of miso. The contrast between the crunch of the hazelnuts and the smoothness of the cream was great! Oh AND there was f*cking caramel in there. Whaaaaat! Caramel and I: a love story. Fo serious yo!

The St-Honoré: I present to you the most good looking dessert I've ever dared to eat. It was hard to ruin this beautiful, complex looking, great smelling, golden leafed pastry. DANG. Wow! It literally took us 4 minutes trying to see how we could eat it without f*cking it all up. Sh*t I'm swearing a lot today. The level of swearing is proportional to the deliciousness of these desserts. This is the pineapple, white chocolate, coconut and passion fruit. Argh, I just HATE all these flavors. Just nasty. Said NO ONE ever. I hear someone say that, I keeeel them. This was like a magical dessert. Straight out of dessert heaven. The bottom was perfectly flaky, yet not dry at all. Little pieces of pineapple here and there just exploded in my mouth like a burst of flavor. The little circles you see there? Pure effin white chocolate. The cream was just so soft and WOW and I WANT MORE PLEASE. I didn't taste the passion fruit as much but who cares? Hahaha. The coconut did what coconut does: make everything yummy. And we all know how coconut and pineapple go well together: like chips and salsa or yogourt and fruit or movies and popcorn or coffee and newspaper! This was, in all seriousness, one of the best fruity dessert I've ever had, if not THE best.

Service was very nice and full of smiles. You just know it when peeps like working! And who wouldn't like working there? Surrounded by yummy desserts, gaining 8 pounds daily just by smelling them. We sat down and got our desserts quite quickly, by 2 people holding 2 desserts each. I kind of felt like the queen at that moment. I am SO important.

And now, the scores!

Food: 9
Service: 9

Don't even ask: yes, I'll be back.
 

Chez Victoire

One of my pals at work, Margo, knows someone that works at Chez Victoire, therefore knew about their super awesome Sunday night special: table d'hôte 4 services for 30$ instead of 45$. That's the kind of deal I like. Excuse me, LOVE.

I went with ma gurl Vino, whom, by the by, I don't see nearly enough. On top o that, she's such a fun dining partner! Chez Victoire is located on Mont-Royal near Pap (that's cool talk for 'Papineau'). It's quite a large restaurant, with booths on one side and tables on the other. It has uber high ceilings, like, 3 storeys high. I swear. The place has a nice classic look with moldings on the ceiling, wooden tables, and leather booths. While we were there, I think they played the whole Gorillaz CD, which was much appreciated.

We could choose one dish out of three for every service save for the dessert where it was carrot cake. Just dandy with me!

Cream of butternut squash, shishito, pumpkin seeds, crème fraîche au pimento. Yes, this description is bilingual, deal WIT it. First off, the bowl was hot, which is always a winner in my book. This was good. Like goo-hood. I believe what came out of Vino's mouth was 'mmmmm'. It was soft, sleek, buttery, and all that goodness! The croutons weren't too hard OR too soft and they were also oh so full-o-butta. Mmmmm. Butta. The crème fraîche was right ON and somewhat tasted of smoked salmon which was awesome paired with the cream! All the flavours, although all very distinct, went really well together. This was a WIN.

Veal tataki, grapefruit, fried clams, miso, coriander. The veal was excellent, with just a touch of miso on top, which gave it even more flavor (hello, umami). The fried clams were there for NOTHING. Literally, nada. I was actually a bit angry that they were in there. Why? Why ruin a perfect dish? On top of it, those little balls tasted like nothing. And they didn't fit. AND they were over fried. Basically, all bad things. The grapefruit gave a bit of acidity to the dish and it married well with the meat. The coriander was just, well, hello. All in all, a great dish, but f*cking clams had no reason being there.

Pleurotes with thyme, hazelnut, red onion petals, pain brioche. I loves me a good pleurote. Especially with thyme. Thyme and mushrooms, in ma head, is a match made in food heaven. They could have been warmer though. They were in temperature limbo: they had been somewhat heated up, but just not enough. They'd been sautéed, most likely with butta, so, you know, YUM! I would have liked the bread a bit crispier and more grilled (grillier?). The cute little onion petals could have been more present. Le cheese. I gots to say, usually, I ain't no fan of strong ish type-o-cheese. But this was niiice! It was in a mousse too. I'm a fan of mousses. Yep. That lovely mousse on a bite of bread and mushroom was just T--H--I--S awesome. You may have noticed the long 'this': well, it was THAT good. Sometimes, I conjure perfect bites. And there it was. It was a great mix match of tastes.

La meatball. That was one big meatball! It was big, it was moist (watch out, it's getting sexual), it was full of herbs (end of sexual talk).The crispy chicken skin on top was way too salty on its own but was bearable with other components of the dish. The sauce was a bit too simple for our VERY REFINED palates. Hehehe. But seriously, it just tasted like store-bought tomato sauce, which is not really what you look for when you eat at a restaurant. The polenta was a bit dry but added a certain je ne sais quoi to this. The harissa yogurt (or should I say harrisa-ed yogurt?), was excellent. Just a bit on the spicy side, which is a side that I like. Everything worked, but there were still a bit too many components here. It's like: 'what do we have in the fridge today?'.

Pasta! I rarely eat carbs. Actually, the only place I'll eat pasta or rice or bread is at a restaurant because I don't even have any at home. I actually gave away my toaster recently. Ya, that's how rarely I eat it. Cavatelli with ricotta, duck confit, lardons, sage, butternut squash and parmesan. I'm sure you guessed it but this was a major 'what do we have in our fridge today' kind of dish. Actually it was THE 'what do we have in our fridge today' dish. A blind person could have picked better ingredients. I don't know if this makes sense but I'm stickin' to it. The whole time we were eating it, we were looking at each other like 'waiiiiit, what the hell iiiis this?'. It wasn't totally bad but it wasn't the best thing either. To have some squash puree on top of your pasta is, like, WAY too much. Something else was way too much: having duck AND lardons in there. Again, why? The noodles were perfectly cooked but the whole dish was too salty and the sauce wasn't consistent enough. Needless to say, not our fave dish.

Risotto! I loves me a good risotto! The crab des neiges was, if there was any, broken up in very tiny pieces. I don't think I managed to actually taste it. Vino tasted it a bit, or so she thought. For all I know, there was no crab in there. The mushrooms tasted almost meaty, which is what I like when I eat a mushroom. They were oozing flavor. Getting a weird image here. The rice was a tad on the overcooked side for risotto but I like it that way. The cream on top was too much, I found. A bit less and it would've been perfect. The whole thing tasted of lemon, which was nice and refreshing and gave some lightness to an otherwise heavy dish (when is risotto NOT heavy). There was a bit of pesto which was actually very good mixed with the other flavors but there was too much cheese. Put cheese, yes. Don't put TOO much.

For dessert, it was supposed to be carrot cake, and then they brought us chocolate fondant and I was happier. I LOVE carrot cake, but I have a special place in my heart for fondant. I'm not even going to go into details but that sh*t was GOOD. OH. And there was ice cream on top (as it should be every time fondant is served) and tasted special. We wondered what it was for a good 8 minutes. The waiter came by and he told us it was bay leaf ice cream! What! I have neva eva EVA heard of that. It was very good, and just herbal enough. Awesome ice cream. YES!

Service was OK. I have to say that it was rather slow between courses and it took us a long while to get our first dish. You know when it takes so long that you start turning around to see where your food's at? Ya, that long. We were having soup (obviously ready) and tataki, most likely already cooked... SO. Water was on table and service was very professional. But it was slow. We just didn't understand because when we got there, the resto was almost empty.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5
Service: 7

I enjoyed going there and getting four dishes for 30$. I will also enjoy other restaurants for the same price. Just sayin'. Not totes against going back but hey, as I've said before, so many restaurants, so little time.

Ramen 9000

This place has been on my radar for a loooong while. Uh, ramen by two white boys? Imma say yes. If Ivan Orkin can do it, so can they! Ramen 9000 is a (long) pop up in St-Henri in an ice cream shop called Dalla rose. Dalla Rose? Well, it's for chef Michael Dalla Libera and co-owner Nick Rosati. Both hail from Nora Gray, yet another resto on my list!

Jer bear and I went there on a cold ass day, last week. It was SO nice to be in a hot resto compared to all the f*cking restos that let in all the f*cking cold during winter. Argh. The place is tiny, with four seats by the window and a counter in the middle. It's a very white place, and I'm not just talking about the boys! Cute little plants adorn the white walls. So cute that I felt like I needed to take a picture. Some funk was playing and I liked it. The stools were very uncomfortable but I guess that's fine because they are mainly used for Summer ice cream eating when people just sit for 3 minutes.

Story is, the two owners went to Japan last year with their significant others and fell in love with vegan ramen. I LOVE my ramen. Jer LOOOVES his ramen. And the quest for the best ramen in Montreal continues!

So, as it is in many ramen shops, you just write down what you want on a card. Loves it. Simple. Quick. Efficient. Not 86 choices.

The awesomeness. I had the vegan ramen plus an egg because I'm a big fan of dem marinated eggs. Hello. Heeeeellooooo (is it me you're looking for)! BTW, you can also add pork (a ramen staple), tofu or an egg to your veganism. A great way to get more clients, that's fo shizzle! They are smart, these boys.

We could choose between the larger noodle and the thinner noodle. Jer had the big, I had the small. I found that the broth to noodle ratio wasn't great: I felt like I had a lot less broth than Jer. He told me that usually they go by weight, therefore I was gettin' more noodles because they are lighter. Damn iiiit! The broth was just WOW. Jer and I really had to think long and hard about if it beat out Yokato Yokabai. It didn't, but damn it, it was close! It was thick; just the way we like our broth. How did they achieve this level of thickness without fatty meat you ask? Weeeell, I'm glad you asked! The secret is in the soya milk. First, they make a dashi (with Japanese kelp and kombu from Gaspésie). Second, they make a vegetable broth with ginger, soy sauce, sake, miso, chili paste AND soya milk. Well, and other things too but I ain't gonna broth and tell! I feel like this is a secret they should keep! Seriously, they could win contests! It was VERY good. And that's an understatement!

The shiitake were full of flavor and right ON, the cabbage was marinated (yum!!) and crunchy, the noodles were perfectly cooked. The sprouts were uber fresh and the egg was one of the tastiest egg I've ever had in ramen. Let's just say that for a 12 dollar ramen + the 1.50$ for the egg, I was FULLY satisfied. And then some. Oh, let's not forget the sprinkling of sesame seeds on top. I LOVE sesame seeds. I'd put them in my cereal... IF I ate cereal :)

Service was great. Smiles all around. Water was refilled. The front dude, I believe his name is Nick (I said I BELIEVE) was just AWESOME. AND cute. You know, for girls that like that... gender :p Yes, even if I'm a LESBIAN (argh, hate that word), I can tell if a guy is cute. True dat. When I told him I was a restaurant blogger, he really talked to me about their experience in Japan, and how they went about developing a vegan broth recipe. I gots to say, I'm pretty jealous: hello, awesome ice cream in the summer and f*cking awesome ramen in the winter? YES!

And now, the scores!

Food: 9. Easily one of the best in town. Jer added 85 points for actually having a vegan broth.
Service: 9.5

Ce fut un GROS coup de coeur. I'll be back FOR SURE. No doubt in ma mind.

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!

Nozy

Since before I can remember (I have a very bad memory), I've wanted to eat brunch at Nozy. I went with Lea a couple months back to have their omakase menu (about 7 or 8 dishes, chef's choice) and had been pleasantly surprised. Well, baby gurl (yes, I call MYSELF that too) was back. With a vengeance! OK, I do NOT know what that entails.

For the restaurant itself and the décor and what have yous, por favor go read my first blog post on Nozy: http://www.eatingoutmontreal.com/2016/07/nozy.html 

Aight, so, I was there with Jer, Lea and Bridgert, all fans of the Asian persuasion. Who isn't, am I right? I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm convinced I was Asian in another life. Totes fosho. And by that, I mean foshizzle my nizzle. And by THAT, I mean imma gonna stop talking. The end.

I had seen pics of Nozy's brunch on facebook and since then, I had been drooling uncontrollably. I look weird when I drool. I try not to do it often.

Sashimi X 4. So what if I KIND of forced Jer bear to share this with me. He got LOTS of thai basil from my garden in exchange :) I think that's a fair trade. Aight, so we got tuna, yellow fin tuna, salmon and snapper. OR the best damn sashimi anyone has ever had. The presentation was oh-so-pretty: beautiful plate with some shiso leaves and some very fine daikon. This shizzle was super fresh. Nay, it was uber fresh. The yellow fin basically melted in my mouth and the snapper was like fish candy. That dson't sound good. Let me rephrase: it was one of the best pieces of fish to ever hit my palate. It was very tasty and had a great sweet side to it. The tuna and salmon were also awesome but the two other pieces of fish were the stars of the plate. OH, did I forget to mention that it was REAL wasabi? Fo realz! Man, that stuff is so rare, they must sell it on the black market or some sh*t. Well, it makes all the difference in my book.

Take Kago or 5 appetizers. If you can't decided what the f to eat, I suggest ordering this bad boy. I mean, how pretty is this? I'd say 13 on a scale of 1 to hells yes. We got marinated beets, a house salad, salmon sashimi, eggplant dip with wonton chips and karaage. OK, first off, I could've done without the salad. When I get a salad like this one in a restaurant, I feel a bit cheated. And that's all I'll say about that. The beets were actually really nice: not too sweet and not too acidic. And I loves me some good beets so it was right up my alley (you know, that beet alley!). The chicken, forget about it. Just forgeeeeeeeeeet about it. Hands down, way down, one of the best karaage I've eaten, ever. Jer took a bite and looked at me with a face that said 'dsamn', or 'wow'. I couldn't quite make it out. When something is both crunchy AND moist, I give them 8 thumbs up. Iz a good thing we were four. The spices were subtle but still present and, well, it was, wait for it, you know it's comin'.... heaven in my mouth! I should totes have a copyright on that phrase.

OH! Don't forget that every dish comes with one of the most marvellously misoed soup.

Service was good throughout. We got water and then we got more water and then... you get the point! She explained the specials ..twice! Hey, we are not the easiest gang of eater outers. Ya, it's a thang. All in all, good service.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8.5
Service: 8

Well, of course I'm going back. Why? Because Nozy is surprise after tasty surprise!