Noren is a cute little Japanese cafe in the Mount-Royal area. Tables are limited, as most tables…read morebeing benches or by the bar. As for food, its a limited menu with a few entrees, main, and desserts but the menu changes every week so can always come back to check out their new menu items! This week we tried their salmon don and curry udon. The sushi rice in the salmon don was absolutely amazing, as its the ideal sticky texture, and very warm/ soft. The salmon sashimi is also very fresh. The curry udon was also very tasty. The curry soup is well made as it sits in the middle between a thin soup and not a heavy gravy. Overall, this is a cafe that serves fresh delicate Japanese eats at a affordable price with quick service. Come early as seating is limited!

Noren is a cute little hole in the wall that specializes in a couple of Japanese street food…read morespecialities. I dropped by on a Thursday afternoon after checking beforehand what their weekly special was (reimen!). They also make takoyaki and okonomiyaki along with some desserts and drinks. It's cool that they have a little old school gaming system in the corner. - Reimen ($10.00) - cold ramen with ham, cucumber, eggs, shiitake mushrooms and tomato. Their ramen was refreshingly light and summery. Shiitake mushrooms were beautifully marinated and sprinkle of sesame seeds/oil was a nice touch. I'm always willing to try new spots, especially places that specialize in only one or two things. 3.5 stars.

Been several years since my last visit to Otto Yakitori Izakaya. It was fairly busy for a late…read moreSunday dinner. More of a light meal spot. - Brussel sprouts ($9.00) - small but nicely cooked and topped with pumpkin seeds - Yakitori Otto set ($19.00 for 6) - negihama, momo, tsukune, tebasaki, kawa and hatsu. All the skewers were tender, favourite was the heart - Curry don ($16.00) - Japanese curry had a nice underlying heat to it. Had a couple potatoes, chicken and pickled ginger mixed in

The Good: :: it's a local business!…read more :: service is very friendly and attentive The Bad: :: the yakitori left a lot to be desired. they came out barely lukewarm instead of hot, they weren't charred at all (!!!), indicating they weren't actually cooked over hot coals (or maybe ANY coals), and they were flavorless. squid, hearts, gizzards, chicken, beef, etc...they were misses. the only way they were salvageable was by dipping any of them into the salt provided. totally blech. i only finished the meal because i was starving. all in was about $65 including a beer and i was extremely umimpressed The Ugly: :: none Would I go back? No, unfortunately not. The food just didn't convince me this is a place I'd ever want to return to. This place is OUT.

Quaint little izakaya with lots of food options…read more The nigiri moriawasa was very good, the cuts of fish were thick and fresh. The sushi here is good, quality is markedly better than all you can eat sushi :)

Some Asian restaurants seemed to be closed on Mondays but YEN was open for some darn good Japanese…read morefood! We got several food to share. The staff are excellent and attentive. The food is delicious. We tried a noodle dish, a poke bowl, and sushi. The green tea service was also well worth it!

First time dining in at Nozy -- had takeout of the uni (sea urchin) don previously some years ago…read more(which was quite good). Came here with a friend, and we both ordered kaisen don and shared an okonomiyaki pancake appetizer and a hot sake. The okonomiyaki was delicious -- it had been sliced into pieces and then deep fried, which is a nice twist; topped with bonito and served with some kind of spicy mayo sauce. Kaisen don was excellent -- looks smallish but was quite filling in fact, thanks to the nice bed of subtly seasoned rice underneath the mini-mountain of various sashimi, which tasted fresh and was well-presented. There was also a piece of uni on it, which I enjoyed immensely. Sake was pretty good too, a warm alternative for winter. Service was attentive but not intrusive. Love the down-to-earth atmosphere of the place, it really feels like a neighbourhood favourite. We had come early-ish for our reservation, and by the time we left, the resto was full -- a good sign. Only gripe was that the paper menu was a couple of bucks more expensive than what is posted online on the resto's website -- and only for some items, not all of them. But given the issue of inflation recently, it's understandable that restaurants can also barely keep up with rising prices for ingredients too. Overall, a tasty experience -- both my friend and I plan to come back.

Hey everyone!! Yes!! We are seeing the light at the…read moretunnel!!! MTL slowly opens up and we can finally dine in at our local restaurant! Here's the one of the firsts that my wife and I decided to go back! Service wise, they have only one waiter in front and he has to go into the kitchen to help from times to times, so it's not too notch service but still enjoyable and hear me out. We are all coming out slowly from a pandemic over a year. We are lucky that some business survive. It will take times for everyone to recover, so give it times, I'm sure they will get better! Food wise This is not a typical Japanese restaurant. So you'll be surprised. I ordered beef sando (beef sandwich) its not the one that I was expected so I was a bit disappointed until I have my first bite... The beef is actually very soft and tasty. I do wish the buns were hot/toasted but hey its still good nonetheless. Then I ordered the chef 5 choices as my main course... Why? I just don't know what to order, the best is to order this set menu so I can try a little bit of everything Hehe. It packed with fried chicken, pita chips with egg plan dip, takoyaki, salade and sashimi rice bowl (aka poke bowl). Everything is good and fresh... Unfortunately the rice was a little too warm for my taste. Price is acceptable, mind you this restaurant is known to have fresh fish and seafood, so really you pay for what you get and you won't be disappointed as an overall experience. If you haven't been there before, go ahead and try! If you have been there before... Well I'm pretty sure you're reading this to plan your next meal, right? :) Enjoy!

I had dinner here with my husband and we both really enjoyed it…read more It's a small restaurant that has a natural/green feeling to it. It looks like it used to be one of those places that just sells salads or a tiny cafe (?) Anyway, it's super cute. We ordered the popcorn chicken to share ($6) and I had the Gyu Don ($11) and my husband had the Torikatsu ($11). The popcorn chicken was good, but was a bit salty for my tastes. It was dark meat, so not as lean as I would have liked, but still enjoyable. I really liked my Gyu Don. I asked for no corn and no sesame seeds and my dish came as requested. It was a bed of rice, shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, half an egg, and thinly sliced beef. I loved that the beef was lean and not all fatty and gristly like at some places. The meat was also tender and well marinated. The rice was a bit sticky, which I liked. The cabbage and carrots were finely shredded and at first I thought there was too much dressing, but it ended up being ok. The egg was tasty, but for some reason was cold. Is it supposed to be cold? I don't know. I was expecting it to be hot like the rice and beef. I had a taste of my husband's dish, which was essentially like mine, except his protein was a breaded chicken breast. We requested no sesame seeds with his dish too, so I could try some, and he was ok with corn, so got corn with his meal. The Torikatsu does not come with half an egg though. I had a piece of the Torikatsu and it was good. I liked the lean chicken breast and the breading was tasty. Service was very nice, friendly and attentive. The server came and refilled our empty water glasses several times without prompting. We got our food fairly quickly too. You pay at the cash register when you are done. Really cute spot. I would definitely recommend it for some quick and cheap Japanese food.

We ordered the Torikatsu & Gyu Don (Beef Bowl)…read more Food tasted great. However it was definitely a day + old. The beef, chicken & vegetables were not fresh & that really turned us off the entire meal. The taste was like a good home cooked meal but felt like we were eating leftovers from the previous day. We will not be ordering from here again, nor would I recommend anyone to order from a place that uses days old meat or ingredients.

Bring cash, it's a lot of rice with whichever topping you get. Prompt service everyone liked the…read morekatsu

So I've had Japote on my bookmarks forever. I love little independent food court vendors! However,…read moreJapote is only open Monday-Friday and only 11:30am-2:30pm, and these days if I'm in Montreal, it's usually just for the weekend. Or I might arrive as early as a Friday evening, so I hadn't been able to try this Japanese food court vendor with an apparent cult following...until recently! I was on a weekend getaway with my mom and we decided to get into Montreal on a Friday morning. So lunch at Japote it was! So the place is in the food court inside the Scotia Tower/Tour Scotia. It's in the basement, along with Subway, Lily & Cie, and a few other vendors. It's the one with the longest lineups, lol. I got the medium #8 Katsu Don (fried breaded chicken with egg on rice). It was around $6. And my mom got the small teriyaki chicken (#3 Tori-Don). It was around $4. So I'm giving it 4 stars for being good for food court food, but it wasn't like super duper. The small was really small. Unless you just want a snack (which my mom did because she just had a smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz's like an hour earlier, lol), I would recommend at least a medium. I enjoyed my Katsu Don. The breaded and fried chicken cutlet was tasty and the egg was really soft. The white rice underneath was slightly sticky, but not mushy. I had some of my mom's teriyaki chicken and I found the sauce too sweet. However, the chicken itself was lean, like my dish, and was still good. I also got a scoop of matcha green tea ice cream for dessert ($1.50). The ice cream was really rich and creamy and full of matcha flavour. It was a tiny scoop, but just the right size for a little after meal dessert. It is pre-scooped and placed in the freezer in a bowl. I had never seen this before, but I guess if it's busy, this makes the line move faster. Service was very friendly and efficient. Definitely a good place for an inexpensive weekday lunch. I've heard so many people raving about it so I was expecting it to be mind-blowing, which it was not, but it was still excellent for the price and for the fact that it's in a food court.

Very much enjoyed my meal here on a weekday last week…read more First of all, the atmosphere is great, very unique decor and the staff were extremely friendly. The portions are small so don't expect to order 1-2 and be full. Between two people, we shared 5 dishes and we probably could have ordered 2 more. We tried a variety of items off their menu including one sashimi and one fried dish. Everything tasted good, was fresh and had different flavour profiles. I wasn't a huge fan of the matcha cheesecake because I found that there wasn't enough of a cheesecake taste. It cost us each 25$ before tip which I find pretty reasonable. Overall, I would return and I look forward to trying more dishes.

Last full day in Montreal and our last meal was here! While I was figuring out which places I…read morewanted to check out ahead of my trip, I was most intrigued by their interior architecture. The walls appear as if they are sunken in, but the wood panels are just positioned in very interesting angles that make them look like a literal hole in the wall. We arrived for an early dinner, but luckily, we made it right on time for happy hour. It worked out so well, so we started the evening with drinks - Kyoto Cooler (sake, honey, grapefruit) & Yuzu Sour (shochu, yuzu, soda). Althpugh the drinks were presented nicely, they were not mixed at all! Everything we were interested in on the menu happened to be on the happy hour menu. Well, that worked out so perfectly! This is what we got: Toro Age, Tebasaki, Sake Wasa and Maguro Nudo. For value at happy hour, it was great to share these small plates, but they were not portioned enough to fill an appetite without spending a couple extra bucks. Since we were still hungry, we also ordered an item on the regular menu - Unagi Aburi. Portion was extremely small with thin slivers of torched freshwater eel topped with sliced almonds and tobiko caviar. I wasn't sure if the yuzu honey sauce on the plate made a difference, but there's a lot of sweetness in the dish itself. Our favorite was the tebasaki though. Fried to a golden crisp, the wings were juicy with a light soy glaze. We loved it so much, we ordered another plate and because it was on happy hour, I didn't feel too bad or wasteful ordering up. Overall, Kinoya was a fun place to visit for its novelty, but not a place I would find myself returning to. Actually, maybe for the wings, just the wings! The food didn't deliver as much as I had hoped and the portion to price ratio was a bit pricey for value to satisfaction. However, the happy hour deals are great and worth a visit!

My dad and I have eaten at this restaurant maybe 3 times now. It's a must for us anytime we're in…read moretown. This little spot opens around 5 and I recommend coming early, or expect a wait. You can also order to go here I believe. They really operate efficiently, expect fast service! Tables are tightly situated and there's a cozy bar situation where I sat this time, able to watch the chefs cook right in front of me. The daily specials are posted on their Instagram page, as well as written on pieces of paper around the restaurant. My server quickly helped me to water and a glass of sake. I placed a to go order for one of the daily specials, the grilled sea bass with sushi rice and salad, with some kimchi. I also ordered the BBQ chicken with tortilla and salad, as well as vegetable gyoza. Everything was incredible. Truly. The gyoza came topped with green onions and was SO crispy and hot and was perfect with their soy sauce. I thought sea bass was wonderful with a unique almost smoky flavor that melted in my mouth paired with the slightly sweet sticky rice. The barbecue chicken was great as well and better the next day. One thing I don't really understand is why they served plain flour tortillas cut into quarters with their food. We didn't utilize this, nor the white butter/mayo sauce that came alongside it. I hope to eat here often, for years to come and am so happy to see this iconic Japanese restaurant still thriving years later.

This was a highly recommended place so we weren't surprised to find a line up when we arrived. We…read moreweren't sure if it would be worth the wait but the family in front of us raved about it so we decided to stay. No regrets! We were a party of 3 and waited about half an hour to be seated. There is not a ton of seating in the restaurant. It is small and the tables are quite close together. We were a little disappointed that they ran out of salmon so we couldn't order any salmon sashimi dishes. We got skewers which were absolutely delicious! We also ordered takoyaki and okonomiyaki but there was nothing special about those. Wouldn't really recommend the okonomiyaki either. Would definitely recommend trying the Shrimp Burger and the Salmon Calcium (salmon pate).