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.