Japanese Round-Up 2/2

Izakaya is a japanese drinking establishment that serves food to go with the drinks. It's like a tapas bar. It's all the rage now in North America as people look for a new trend to adopt.  A lot of the new japanese restaurants in Montreal are labeling themselves as such and some of the older restaurants also prominently display this to attract new customers. I went to two new izakayas last weekend. Note the Izakaya restaurant on Park is only a regular japanese restaurant.


Big in Japan is where Le Pistol used to be on St-Laurent, near the corner of Pine. It's advertised as a Brasserie Japonaise and the decor reflects the main selling point, drinks. Their main food gimmick is a series of skewered fried things. You can have meat ones (3.50$ for two, taxes included in all prices) and non meat ones (3.00$ for two). I had a small carrot and daikon salad (4.50$) which was warm and satisfying. The skewers arrived next with 2 jumbo panko fried shrimps and 2 triplets of quail eggs. The eggs were too soft (I guess they don't have a good way yet to deep fry them) but the shrimps were good.


I think they comped my 2 cups of tea because the last order took a while to arrive, a pork and potato stew. Unfortunately the pork was ground pork and in such little quantities it felt more like a garnish to the big boiled potato cut into fourths. I was the only person not drinking alcohol in the entire restaurant.


Last but not least is Kazu on Ste-Catherine and St-Marc. It's a tiny place with a counter for 8 people then tables for 12. The chef owner is rather talkative despite a weak english. He wants to knwo how is everything and throws a "see you tomorrow" as a goodbye. I had the lujnch special which is tuna on rice bowl. You have sushi rice at the bottom of this modern white bowl, bits of fresh tuna on top and a small cut lettuce salad at the top. Everything is covered in a miso dressing. I also ordered the soup of the day which was a tomato and rice or barley soup. The green tea isn't as good as at my favorite Furusato. This is definitely a place I will come back to explore the rest of the menu.

Japanese Round-Up 1/2

Last weekend I tried 3 japanese restaurants that have been discussed about on Chowhound. One was a real gem and the others are not so stellar.


Sumo Ramen bills itself as a ramen experience and some people seem to like it for its authenticity. I am not an expert on Japanese ramen joints but this place looks rather kitschy with dark orange walls glass covered tables. I ordered the japanese style fried chicken wings (5 for 3.75$, all prices include taxes) which is a greasier panko-covered wings dish. I also ate the Sumo Ramen bowl with soy soup (7.95$). This came with 3 fatty pork slices and the regular accompaniement of the soy (the other choice is miso soup) mix: seaweed, enoki mushrooms, half a cold soft boiled egg and chop suey. The chop suey is simply spicy marinated soybean sprouts. The soup was ok and the cold soft boiled egg didn't make it better. Despite the averageness of the food it's worth discovering with a group of friends and try out the other ramen bowls. They also have some dishes with rice.


On a different stretch of St-Laurent there's Ramen-Ya which is smaller and looks more upscale. They have a smaller menu as well as they don't have the bubble teas and other pan-asian items of Sumo Ramen. I had the gyoza which was quite well made even though the filling was tasteless. The gyoza skin was superb however. I got a pork belly ramen soup and this stock was much better than at Sumo Ramen.


It was fun to try out these new places but I am not keen on returning to these two any time soon.

Menu of the week - March 22nd 2010

Chicken drumsticks were on special at Provigo so I bought 30 and marinated them in a simple garlic and mushroom soy sauce. I baked them at 375F for 40 minutes in my toaster oven, 6 at a time. I stripped the meat with a knife and munched on the rest. I'm not sure if I will eat this with pasta, soba or just add them to a vegetable dish purchased at the food court.

Breakfast is a simple sandwich with sliced roast turkey (also on special) and cheese.