Sababa Grill, Middle Eastern food on Saint-Laurent

Walking down on Saint-Laurent, me and my SO decided we wanted Middle Eastern food, so we stopped at this cute looking joint. Through the power of google, we discover this joint is actually owned of/used to be owned by the same guys behind Rumi. Prices are decent, but food is delicious.

Labneh with Zaatar, a creamy, unctuous, zesty concoction.

Baba Ganoush, a bit sweeter than I was used too, but it is delicious nonetheless. A bit more chared before pureeing would have been nice. Still a good dish.

Aubergine, Citrus Confit. It is apparently a Jewish Marrocan dish, and it is delicious. A bit sour, a bit sweet, perfect balance.

Hummus with Lamb and mushroom. The star of the meal. It was amazing.

Missing: Mergez and a Fatoush. All was delicious. Use the labneh as a dipping sauce for the fries;)

Would return for a light snack if I'm craving Arabic food and I'm right next to it. Although they are other options for Middle Eastern food around that area of town that I am also quite fond of.

Indian in Park-Ex: Chand Palace

The Chand Palace replaced what used to be my favourite Indian restaurant in Montreal, the Curry and Naan restaurant. So, this has pretty big shoes to fill. They do not dissapoint. The food is vibrant and delicious.

Mango Lassi and Salted Lassi

The Mango lassi was great, but the salt lassi was even better. A lot like Ayran, its a salty yogurt based drink. It contains some spices, its quite good. It cuts through the heat.

Chili Paneer

A famous Chinese-Indian dish, it is full of tomatoes and chillies. 

Chicken 65

This dish originated from Chennai, and contains red chillies, ginger, vinegar, and garlic that coats the fried chicken.

Lamb Vindaloo

Delicious dish from the Goa Region, it is a spicy concoction of lamb, potatoes vinegar, spices and chilies. It was good, but could have been spicier

Pulao Rice

Pulao is a variation of pilaf, or is it the other way around?, is a tasty combination of peas, and onion cooked in ghee. Goes really well with the meal.

Cheese Naan and Paratha

The naan was fluffly and delicious. My dining companion complained the Paratha wasn't flaky enough. I thought it was ok, but I do love my starches. 

Korean in the West Side: Ave Seoul

I went to the beach today with a few friends. Of course, we went the day there was a crossfit competition, so we tried the "health food" menu. 4 hours later we were hungry again. We ended up in the West side of town, in a neighborhood known as Ville Saint-Laurent, because one of our friend lives near the cote-vertu subway. 

Miso and Mushroom soup.Quite tasty. 

Banchan: Cabbage Kimchi, fried potatoes with honey, Soybeans, and broccoli. 

Topokki, A bit spicier than I was used too, quite preferring this version than to the other ones I had in Montreal.

Korean Sweet and sour fried chicken, with a hint of spice and some fried peanuts. This is amazing.

Gimbap, unlike the Japanese counterpart, this has a heavier sent of sesame oil. Filling contained pickles, avocado, Surimi, and more. This was actually decent appetizer/snack.

Fried Rice, Apparently it was good, didn't get to try it.

Beef Dosolt Bibimbap. Spicy, fresh, crunchy goodness.

Seafood bibimbap, the seafood was mostly mussel and Matane Shrimp. Fresh, vegetable adds to a really fun crunch. I love this dish, especially the crunchy rice at the bottom.

Seafood Udon, the Udon at this place are some of the best I had in the city, elastic, tasty.

Pizza in the Plateau: Magpie Pizza

Well, I was craving a pizza, so my SO and myself ended up in one of the best pizza joint in the city, Magpie Pizza on Maguire.  The restaurant looks gorgeous, full of natural light, the wood oven is beautiful, probably the work of an Italian master.

The day was burning hot, so I ordered a cocktail that is really popular in the American south, Homemade Iced Tea and Bourbon. The Iced Tea isn't the typical southern Iced Tea, which is way to sweet for my taste, it has less sugar. It is delicious and refreshing, especially with the small buzz the bourbon gives you. 

Oysters, peppered vinegar, horseradish, cocktail sauce. The oysters are good, oysters being the fast food of the sea. good stuff

We shared a margarita pizza. The dough was puffy on the rims, thin in the middle, but not too thin, like those "californian" pizzas. Crunchy, doughy and it stretches, unlike when it is too bread-like. The pizza dough is marvelous. The mozzarella was fresh, delicious and cheesy. They also give a chili oil that you drizzle on the pizza that is amazing.

Would return for dinner or for an appero.

literal Underground Chinese Restaurant in the Kanda sushi on decarie

Sometimes, really rarely, you are really surprised by the restaurant industry. This just happened to me yesterday. Kanda Sushi is a relatively mediocre sushi Chain based in and around Montreal, the one in Decarie hides something special. I thought people were joking when they told me there's a decent Chinese restaurant hidden within it, a sort of a secret menu of some sort that people don't know about. The truth is even better.

To access it, you enter Kanda, you go past the first hostess, go down to the basement where the bathroom is located, turn right instead of left, and you shall be greeted by the hostess of the Secret Chinese restaurant.

At first, I thought it was a Pop-up or an equivalent. I was wrong, this is an actual sit-down joint that only opens at night. The decors downstairs is a bit more refined than your off-the-mill Chinese restaurant, the lighting is well-thought and the chairs are actually quite comfortable. 

 Usually, peanuts served in a Chinese restaurant are actually quite of a joke. Stale, dry, pretty horrible. Not those, braised with 5 spices and soy, they are soft, tender, and delicious. I happen to actually love boiled peanuts. 

 The daily soup, Watercress, pork bones, carrots. The soup was simple, the flavour clean. Technically a perfect soup, but I actually find those kinds of soup boring.

 Steamed razor clams, with confit garlic, and vermicelli. 

This is one of my favourite dishes in the world. The vermicelli was perfect, the accouterments were great, but the clams were a tad overcooked.

Stir fried beans with pork and Salted Soy Beans

Again, I dislike beans, there's a certain rawness in it i cannot stand. Those were pretty solid tho, enough wok hei, well seasoned. Would order if I actually like beans.

Fried Pork Intestine

Delicious, the right amount of chewyness. Great dish. I happen to love offal, and everything fried's good.

Garlic and ginger lobster with Yee Mien

The noodle contained were stir fried at high enough heat, so it didn't turn to mush during serving. The lobster was fresh, sweet. I mean, wok fried lobster is pretty hard to screw up, only hard component in this dish that's hard to get it right is the noodles. It was good, simple food.

Sichuan Style Boiled Fish (水煮鱼)

One of my sister's favourite dish. This dish originated from the inland province of Sichuan, where they have no seafood available. Traditionally, this is made with delicious river fish. The chef didn't use the thicker beans sprout, instead, he used cabbage to undercut the heat. He didn't used whole Sichuan peppercorns, but grind them so you could feel it through the dish. This was actually quite a decent dish, surprising, especially if we consider the fact that this is a Sichuanese dish in a Cantonese restaurant.

Chicken and Shrimp With Mayonaise

The chicken and shrimp were well fried, crisp enough, but I disliked the sauce, which is traditionally a combination of Kewpi mayo, some condensed milk, and probably some cornstarch. 

Beef tripe and Cloud ear mushroom

This dish, full of 5 spices, some sichuan peppercorn, ginger and other spices, was a festival of texture and flavour. Surprisingly my favourite dish of the evening. 

Red Bean soup with tapioca

I hate big bubbles of tapioca, but it was complimentary. Get a Julep after instead.

Apparently, the kitchen brigade used to work at Fu Kam Wah in its heydays, around 2009-2011, which was probably the best years of that particular spot. Would gladly return. They apparently make a great Lobster/crab with salted egg yolks too. I will try next time.

Late Night in Chinatown: Seafood at Keung Kee

So, drunken munch in Chinatown is pretty much a staple in almost every major city in North America. So, what do you do when you are relatively sober? In some cities, there's usually a Seafood place where you can swing by, in Montreal, it's Keung Kee. I pretty much grew up in this joint, my parents has been frequenting it for at  least 15 years. So I guess it is fair that I'll try to give them an impartial review.

Chili and Soy for dipping.

Stir fried Clams with soy. The soy is enriched with oil, scallion and ginger. It's a good dish, you can still taste the subtle sweetness of the big ass clams. 

 Steamed oyster with Scallion and garlic confit.

There's actually a right size to steamed oyster, not too small, because the meat won't stand it, they will shrink to nothingness, and not too fat. They were good

Clam Congee

I guess its just congee with clam.

Rice and beef noodle pan fried.

seafood pan fried noodle.

Saka-Ba, Japanese Ramen on the Plateau

The man behind Saka-Ba is Junichi Ikematsu, the brilliant chef behind Jun-I, often described as an amazing French-Japanese Fusion Sushi restaurant. Junichi's background, prior to Montreal, was in French cooking, but it doesn't show at this place. Made to look like a casual bar-like restaurant, from the Pachinko machine to the old Japanese movie posters, this place looks like a fun bar. I won't mind spending my afternoon sipping cocktails in the place.

The Drinks

A Highball

This one been a Bourbon and Soda, probably Jim Beam. A highball is the traditional name for cocktails which contains an alcohol mixed with a non-alcoholic mixer. Decent drink, but I'll probably order something different next time

Sapporo Freeze

 Why is there a quirky frozen slushy made out of Yuzu and beer on top of the beer? Why, WHYYYYYYYY. Because it's refreshing and it's summer, that's why. Meh, not my kind of drink, I dislike slushies/slurpies in general, but I would order if the day was burning hot. Hell, I'll get myself one of those machine.

 Octopus Salad

Flavourwise, it was good, some chili oil, soy. This is quite close in flavour to Northern Chinese food/Korean food. Quite decent actually. Goes great with beer.

 Yaki Buta, Pork on a skewer.

Quite simple, but good. Pork pieces skewered and grilled. 

Ebi Ramen

Lobster Broth, Japanese style ChaSiu, Corn, Bamboo, bean Sprouts, Green Onions, Noodles

I mean, the ramen noodles were ok, I personally think they could have a bit more snap, the charsiu was good, the side were decent, but something was lacking. In all the very good ramen bowl I had, it was a downright dirty experience, the broth was borderline muddy, but so damn complex. I think they are trying to showcase the lobster from the lobster broth, the small inherent sweetness from it, but this is not for me. I guess it was an ok dish.

Karage Chicken Fried till crips, with a decent spicy mayo. Would order again.

Yakitori

Chicken skewers, simple but good.

Would i come back? Maybe for a pint of frozen Sapporo and some snacks.