Irrrrashaimaseeee!!!!!!! Welcome to Imadake!

Izakayas - those amazing restaurant-bar-communal dining/drinking establishments that only the Japanese could have invented.  My favorite type of establishment to eat and drink with friends when I lived in Japan... hard to recreate anywhere else.

Imadake ("only for now"), 4006 St-Catherine Ouest in Montreal, does a pretty good job of recreating that vibe.  Welcomed by a deafening "Irrashaimase!!" (or "Greetings, welcome to our humble establishment and let us provide our services to you!!" (basically...)), the young and efficient staff get you seated in this cosy but lively, "nigiyaka" restaurant.

An izakaya is a bit like a tapas bar in a drunken party atmosphere.  Lots of small plates to choose from - a varied menu that gives you a taste of all sorts of different types of Japanese bar food from okonomiyaki, yakitori and gyoza, to their amazingly succulent grilled black cod (a must!), to fresh and tasty salads and belly filling bowls of ramen.  The traditional seating arrangement is at long communal tables that give you the opportunity to get to know your neighbours and share all the tasty treats that keep coming...  In Japan you would slip off your shoes to climb over people you didn't know to squeeze next to the rowdy drunks around the table...

And of course the drinks!  Beers! Cocktails! Sake! Wine!  You can't go to Imadake without having a Sake Bomb!  Trust me, your whole table has to order this drink.... 

"IF I SAY "SAKE" YOU SAY "BOMB"!

"SAKE!!" "BOMB!!"

"SAKE!!!" "BOMB!!!"

Fantastisch! Lunch at Das Lokal

Decided to stop by Das Lokal last month for a quick lunch - I used to frequent the Portuguese chicken place that was here before, and even date back to the KFC days of this site!  I had heard good things about this place - German inspired menu - I grew up on schnitzel (but also on sushi!) - so why not?!?

I literally gasped when I walked in the resto.  Gone was the dark, dated, European restaurant look of the 60's... and I was suddenly transported into a northern European/Scandinavian space - light wood surfaces, colourful banners, natural light pouring in - it was the perfect winter getaway.  Our hostess told me about some of the extras they were working on - cute little fire outside, with fur covered seats to curl up in, even a piano that gets played on the weekends.  

I started with an Edelweiss, a lovely cocktail of sparkling wine and St. Germain liqueur (elderflowers).  The perfect mix of sparkly-sweet-floral tones.  Perfect to whet the appetite... So good, in fact, that we went straight to LCBO to buy a bottle after lunch!.

I ordered the Gravlax Tartine, a yummy open face sandwich with burnt orange wild BC coho salmon on top, creme fraiche and pickled onions, served with a side salad and butternut squash soup (sooooo creamy).  Memories of open faced sandwiches in Denmark and Sweden.

Donald ordered the German Burger - a pork sausage burger served on a sweet roll with the requisite mustard, with the same side salad and delish thick cut fries.

Nice wine list, relaxed service - we'll be back soon!  Another huge selling point - Das Lokal has a huge parking lot (thanks to its KFC roots)...  love the Lowertown location.

No web site that I can find, but they are on Twitter.

Shaken, not stirred....

Just saw Quantum of Solace this week, after a re-viewing of Casino Royale. Ahhhh, Daniel Craig - those impossibly white shirts (often stained in blood) under that perfectly fitted tuxedo, the sculpted, scarred body, those steely blue eyes - and that martini! Named after his dead girlfriend.... not exactly the way one might want to be remembered!

The Vesper martini looks and sounds delicious - the recipe, as written in the original "Casino Royale by Ian Flemming reads:

Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?"

Lillet is a French aperitif from Bordeaux that is available here in Ottawa at the LCBO.