Fatty Tuna

i'm so pleased Raza was mentioned! i felt so sorry for this fantastic little place when we were there in march? february? (some cold month anyway) and we were the only diners... i hope this list fills the tables. and i suppose this belongs on the Quebec city thread but i was SO excited to see the Quebec city spread in the gazette today - the new restaurant scene in Montreal is so blah, that i can't wait to try innovative cuisine in QC.

i went to Jun I in July (...sadly didn't get around to posting until today... so am a bit fuzzy on the details now) and i have to say i was less impressed than you guys seem to be. after reading these posts, i had high expectations of the sashimi, but i found the 5 sashimi plate was so-so - though the trout had an interesting flavour. one memorable dish was the avocado risotto with... eel? duck? ack. can't remember. as i said, details are fuzzy. anyway this dish was a stand-out and worth going back for. i don't know what it is with this town and japanese. i've yet to have a decent sunomono (let alone one with real crab) and enough with the oily salmon sashimi. (on a positive note, i'm delighted it's October, because i think i recall it was about this time last year that Isakaya had their 3-salmon sashimi special: atlantic, king and sockeye -- which was beyond brilliant. seasonal, so indulge while we can. also November is when they brought hamachi from new Brunswick which too was excellent)

what do you think of sala rosa on st-laurent?

i suggest adding to your list Meu Meu, on St-Denis, just south of Mount-Royal. the stuff is organic, flavours turn around (so don't get too attached to a favourite) and dance outside the box - a recent example: a combination of chocolate, salt and "argile" (clay?). you're probably thinking... salty ice cream?!? oh yesssss! and it's maybe 2.50$ish per scoop. the Gazette had a compare and contrast piece on Mtl ice cream this summer, including Meu Meu, Roberto's, Havre aux Glaces and more - you might be able to find it online (and i have to say that i agreed with the 2-star rating for Bilboquet - i found it too uneven (some flavours great, others kind of off, or no better than the supermarket), and seldom worth the wait). you can find an archived (2003) Mirror article on Mtl ice cream here: http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2003/061203/hsg7.html let me also put in a plug for Coaticook ice cream, which i think in Mtl might be found only in supermarkets like Métro. it's made in the Townships, and it's the only vanilla i'll eat (in a world of chocolate, coffee, caramel, and nuts... why bother? )

i visited Oishii about a month ago, and the meal was decidedly mixed. on first glance, we were impressed with the decor: wood, and metal, and these really cool textured orange table tops. the appetisers were uniformly good to great: stand-outs were the (Nobu- or Tojo-inspired?) alaskan black cod, the house-style preparations on rice wafers, and the carpaccio. if we had stopped there, we would have walked out delighted. the next wave of fish in rolls and sashimi was mediocre at best. the sashimi plate (usually a chance for the chef to shine) was a disappointment. we asked for no ebi, it first came with ebi, we sent it back, and then it came back with: -salmon (atlantic) -tuna -bbq eel -smoked salmon -endives with tobiko (fish roe) excuse me, but smoked salmon and tobiko on endives on a sashimi plate?! the rolls were basically inedible, due, i think, to the overly sweet rice. [on the drink side: every cocktail is sweet and there is no full bar, so, forget the gin and tonic, should the mood strike you.] we left wishing we had stopped with the appetisers.

Raza is light and tasty i had dinner at Raza last night. it was everything the review by wattacetti suggested - light, nouveau, fresh and harmonious flavours, and lovely presentation. the main complaint from some at the table was the portion size: we didn't opt for the tasting menu and instead ordered a more traditional one appy, one entree format, a meal which certainly was on the small side. having written that, i'm not sure what stopped us from ordering more... i will definitely go back and try the tasting menu to get a chance to try everything. on a side note, it was very, very, very quiet when we went. it was a wednesday night, but still, it was, um, noticeable. i guess that's what happens when one eats ahead of the trend... i'm sure word will get out soon enough and it will fill up. Le Jolifou and Raza are definitely the most interesting and tasty places i've been to in some time.