SubscribeLUNCH July 13, 2007
There are not many sushi restaurants that stand above the crowd in Montreal. With the exception of Tri Express and Jun I, most sushi restaurants are fairly inconsistent. You can get great sushi one day and an average offering the next-even at the most reputable places in the city. For a while now, I had targeted Kaizen as the best bet for sushi downtown (if the fringe of Westmount really is downtown). While I had only eaten there once, everything had been very good. And with its reputation as one of the more expensive places in the city, I thought that for once there was a link between price and quality.
Protege 2007 and I went to Kaizen for a final lunch before he heads off on his six week vacation. Between the lunch menu, the regular menu and the à la carte sushi menu, there was a lot on offer. The sushi menu lets you pick a selection of tempura à la carte as well (including delicacies like sea urchin tempura), which is a nice touch I have not noticed elsewhere. We started with a selection of tempura: sweet potato, asparagus, shitake and black tiger shrimp. It was OK. The shrimp and vegetables were fresh and tasty but the tempura was a little oily.
Tempura was followed by shrimp gyoza and a tuna tartare, both of which were disappointing. The gyoza filling of shrimp and vegetables was tasty but they had been assembled in that thick Chinese egg roll wrapper (think egg rolls in the frozen food section) and appeared to have been deep fried and then finished in a frying pan. They were not offensive but were nothing like what a real fried dumpling should be. The accompanying spicy soy based dipping sauce was excellent. Protege 2007 ordered the tuna tartare which looked like a hard lump of fish that had been cut sometime the night before. The color was nice but it had no texture, was topped with a repulsive looking sauce and awkwardly arranged with a green salad on the plate. I tried not to look at it while he ate it.
Montreal is a sushi backwater being neither near the ocean nor a particularly wealthy city (thanks Parti Quebecois!). While the sushi list had a few interesting items such as blue fin and yellow tail belly slices, our paucity in this area is reflected in the offering of nigiri, which tends to be more or less uniform and uninspiring compared to many other North American cities. We finished off our meal with a selection of sushi, mostly the kind of very North American maki rolls that restaurants seem to be getting increasingly creative in assembling. The best of the bunch was the Blue Note Maki, which included tuna tartare, tempura, honey and mango.
It was good maki, but nothing to get excited about, which is how I feel about this meal generally. The bad bits (shrimp gyoza) were not really bad, but there was nothing really inspiring either. I guess I’ll have to re-classify Kaizen with all those other uneven sushi restaurants that some people claim have the best sushi in town (Mikado, Sakura, Sho-Dan, et al.)
Kaizen
4075 Ste. Catherine
514.932.5654
Dear Montreal Foodie,
Have you ever tried Maïko Sushi on Bernard? It’s been my best sushi experience in Montreal so far. Admittedly, it’s pricey.
Maiko used to by one of my favourites, but having eaten there four or five times I find the quality uneven. I have had great meals there and very average meals as well. Sushi is not complicated (though it is complex). It comes down to quality ingredients and correct technique. Getting these things on a consistent basis is not a given.
I haven’t had a meal there in a while now. My two picks for the best sushi on a consistent basis are Tri Express and Jun I.
Thanks for the comments!
Thelonious