Momiji Sushi Bistro & Bar

There is a place in North York that I passed by every day and every night that I have never gone into before….that is not until tonight.  It’s a place called Momiji Sushi Bistro and Bar and it’s located right off Highway 404.  Although it was a weeknight and on a cold and snowy night, we were in no mood to go home and cook so we decided to head into the restaurant and have some good Japanese food. 

My wife and I had the option of having either all you can eat Japanese style food or individual dishes.  We decided to go with the all you can eat and even though it was a weekday they gave us the option of paying an extra $5 dollars and try out the weekend menu.  The weekend menu had far more interesting items on it whereas the regular menu had the usual dishes that one can find at other Japanese restaurants. 

When we got the order sheet, we purposely ordered everything that was on the weekend menu.  Some of the weekend menu also had limited orders and should one order more, one would have to pay extra for them. 

Kimchi and Bean Sprouts Appetizers

Blue Mountain (top) and Spicy Tuna Roll (bottom)

Before the food arrived, they even gave us a couple of appetizers which included kimchi and a very tasty sesame oil bean sprouts.  The bean sprouts were also sprinkled with some black and red peppers which made it one very good appetizer. 

We ordered the spicy salmon also known as the blue mountain and the spicy tuna.    What makes these two dishes unique is that each dish had about 3 to 4 spicy rolls and the rest of the dish was sprinkled with black pepper/tempura like tuna and salmon sashimi.  I know one would wonder how could fish be tempura like and sashimi like at the same time but the texture and feel of the fish were just like it.  Both dishes were quite spicy so proceed with caution. 

Next to arrive was the dragon tongue.  This is a piece of salmon or smoke salmon wrapped around a gently fried asparagus.  They also have a bit of sour cream like white sauce sprinkled with some green spices which made this dish a must try.   One order comes with two pieces only. 

The octopus sashimi was very fresh.  The 8 pieces of sashimi also came with 8 pieces of tuna sashimi.  The octopus was tender and sweet tasting.  I have no complaints at all with this dish. 

Dragon Tongue

Spicy Tuna

Octopus Sashimi

Next to arrive was this special Sam Gye Tang Chicken Ginseng Soup soup.  Wow!  This soup was quite amazing in itself so much so we order two of them. The chicken and rice came separately from the soup.  One needs to pour the soup into the chicken/rice.  The flavor of the soup was A1.  This is a must have for anyone. 

Next up was the beef and tuna tataki.  I screwed up the picture but both dishes were perfected seared on the outside and perfectly raw on the inside.  Adding their special sauce to it and this was a perfect tataki. 

We also had some uni with roe.  The roe were not sour or bitter at all.  It was very fresh, nice and cool and a perfect compliment with the uni.  The uni was good however we have tasted better elsewhere.  It was not as cool as I would like but still very good none the less. 

Sam Gye Tang Chicken Ginseng Soup

Uni

Hikhye and Sweong Gwa

One must wonder if there were any bad dishes to avoid.  There was a couple where I would suggest you should avoid.  There were the barbeque pork ribs also known as kalbi where the rib pieces were very chewy and quite large.  I had a real hard time even tearing the meat apart.  It was spicy but the thickness of it was just unbearable.  The shrimp salad was another dish one may want to avoid.  Despite having some cucumbers and seaweed in it, it was a bit sour.  This may have been the salad dressing they were using.  

We also some maki rolls, a soft tofu soup, hamachi makis, edamame and cold soba noodles.  All of these were amazing to have.  The fish were absolutely fresh tasting and the noodles were nice and cool which help offset some of the spiciness in the spicy dishes. 

We finished off the night with a couple of drink desserts.    One was called the shikhye and the other was the sweong gwa.  They are both ginger like sugar drinks where the yellow one has more sugar in it while the rose colored one had a more ginger taste to it.  It was definitely a very interesting desert to have.  It was like having a ginger sake to close out the night. 

Overall despite the two bad dishes, the rest of it were excellent.  It was only $25.00 per person and personally it was well worth the extra $5.00.  The other stuff on the menu one can try at any other Japanese restaurant in the city.  We wanted some unique Japanese food and we were surely not disappointed.  There are lots of free parking which they also share with a Tim Hortons restaurant.  If you love Japanese food, this is definitely a place to go to.  I certainly will be going again.  For tonight I give this place a 4.5 out of 5. 

Momiji

2111 Sheppard Ave E
Toronto, ON M2J 1W6