Japanese restaurants in Canada
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Eatery
Wooden booths, lava lamps and a neon ‘miso horny’ sign are all part of the ambience at this pop-culture reinvention of the traditional sushi joint. Bring your manga comic and dip into the giant, well-priced menu of soba bowls, curry-rice and several sushi combos, all washed down with a good selection of Japanese and Canadian bottled beers. There are plenty of vegetarian options, including some shareable platters for all those veggies who travel in packs.
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Posh Charcoal Collaboration Dining
This loungey little Japanese hot-pot spot in an unassuming strip-mall location is possibly the most fun you can have with a meal. Each table has a camping-style stove topped with a pan of soup broth: you order plates of delicate tofu, crisp veggies and thin-cut beef and cook it all yourself in the broth. The affordable all-you-can-eat sukiyaki approach invites experimentation, and you’ll find yourself sampling lotus root and the oddly textured konjac tofu. Wash it all down with some smashing Pearl Sake and you’ll soon be considering a job as a chef. Popular with younger Asian diners, you’ll find lots of 20-somethings here on most nights.
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Guu With Garlic
One of the many excellent Asian bistros, sushi spots and noodle joints at Robson St’s West End tip, you’ll be chilling with the visiting ESL students at this highly authentic and ever-welcoming izakaya. Heaping hotpots and steaming noodle bowls are on offer but it’s best to experiment with a few Japanese-bar tapas plates, such as black cod with miso mayo, deep-fried egg pumpkin balls or a finger-lickin’ basket of tori-karaage fried chicken that will make you turn your back on KFC forever. Garlic is liberally used in most dishes, and it’s best to arrive at the 5:30pm opening time to be sure of a seat.
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Asahi-Ya
You’ll be rubbing shoulders with chatty Asian language students at this friendly and decidedly unpretentious Japanese diner – don’t push too hard on the table dividers or they might tumble onto your neighbor’s head. Good-value sushi and sashimi classics are fresh and well-presented, but it’s the hearty cooked combo meals – especially the sizzling chicken teriyaki – that will bring you back for more. If it’s crowded, there are several other good-value Japanese and Korean eateries dotted nearby.
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Tojo’s
Hidekazu Tojo’s legendary skill with the sushi knife has created Vancouver’s most revered Japanese restaurant, in a city that’s probably the best in the world for this particular culinary art form outside Tokyo. Among his exquisite dishes are favorites such as lightly steamed monkfish, sautéed halibut cheeks and fried red tuna wrapped with seaweed and served with plum sauce. It’s a sleek and sophisticated room and seats at both the sake bar and omakaze sushi bar can be hard to come by on weekend nights: book ahead by phone.
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Enzo Sushi
One of Québec City’s best (and priciest) sushi restaurants, Enzo receives rave reviews for its mouthwateringly fresh sushi and sashimi. In addition to the classics, house specialties feature inventive sushi combinations like homard grillé (grilled lobster with fish roe, cucumber, lettuce and spicy mayonnaise). There are a few tempura and teriyaki dishes for nonsushi lovers. Start the meal off with a sake martini or a soho martini (vodka and lychee juice) or head straight for the wine list.
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Sushi Aoki
It’s hard to believe that such a tiny restaurant would have the kind of extensive menu usually found in places 10 times bigger, but Sushi Aoki is a fancy-free yet recommended nook that knows exactly how to do the business. Using only the freshest fish (it flies in what it can’t source locally), the chefs artfully craft rolls such as the signature shrimp with mayonnaise and apricot sauce and the fab rainbow roll of salmon, clam, tuna and sea bass. Ask for menu recommendations from the friendly owners.
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Hapa Izakaya
If you think Japanese restaurants are all about sushi, drop by this popular reinvention of a Tokyo tapas bar. Within its cocoon-like windowless interior and black-on-black color scheme, you’ll discover comfort-food treats such as steaming hot pots and beef skewers marinated in miso – all best washed down with an ice-cold Sapporo beer. You’ll completely forget you’re in Vancouver when you stumble out onto the street several hours later looking for the nearest karaoke bar.
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Motomachi Shokudo
One of Vancouver’s very best ramen houses, this evocative but incredibly tiny spot – there are fewer than 20 seats – combines lightning fast service with perfect comfort dishes. First-timers should try the New Generation Miso Ramen, brimming with bean sprouts, sweet corn, shredded cabbage and barbecued pork. An added plus is that most ingredients are organic. If the line-up’s long, try its older sister noodlery a few doors south. Cash or debit cards only.
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Sushi Mart
You’ll be rubbing shoulders with chatty young Asians at the large communal dining table here, one of the best spots in town for a sushi feast in a casual setting. Check the fresh-sheet blackboard showing what’s available and then tuck into expertly prepared and well-priced shareable platters of all your fave nigiri, maki and sashimi treats. Wash it all down with a large bottle of Sapporo or a hot sake or two.
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Mikado
Sadly, good Japanese fare is a rarity in Montréal, which makes respectable Mikado all the more of a standout in this sushi-challenged city. Step inside and you’ll find an elegant, Zenlike dining room with a lively wraparound sushi counter. Sashimi is mouthwateringly fresh, while the tuna tempura and grilled organic salmon teriyaki are other highlights. For dessert, try the refreshing green-tea nougat glacé.
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Isakaya
This authentic, unpretentious Japanese restaurant has fairly simple decor but the fish is incredibly fresh. The owner, Shige Minagawa, is known for handpicking his seafood and preparing it in classic Japanese fashion. Daily specials such as lobster sashimi, tuna belly or yellowtail are listed on the chalkboard by the kitchen. Reservations are essential.
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Kaizen
The price is high but so is the quality at this fine-dining Japanese restaurant near Westmount. Here you’ll find artfully presented sushi and sashimi platters along with much-touted tempura dishes served amid stylish ambience. For extra smoothness, there’s also live jazz on Monday and Tuesday evenings (from 7pm). Reservations recommended.
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Akane-Ya
You'll swear you can feel the North Pacific breeze when you bite into tender eel sushi and yellowtail sashimi at this modern dining room, filled with black lacquer, mini origami and shoji screens. The prices are high, but so is the quality. Try something with uni (sea urchin) in it, knocked down with some Asahi or Sapporo.
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Nami
The name means 'wave' (as in tsunami) – look for the curly neon version on the sign out the front. Bustling about the sleek, black lacquered interior are kimono-clad matrons and intense-looking sushi chefs, who make only small concessions to North American palates. Robatayaki grilling is a specialty.
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Fujiyama
Enter this low-key Japanese diner through a traditional timber arch wrapped in flickering fairy lights, then plant yourself at a blonde-wood timber booth surrounded by rice-paper lanterns emanating a soft glow. The scene is set for non-greasy tempura and moist teriyaki dishes, plus sushi, udon and soba noodle fare.
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Yuzu
This stylish but warmly lit restaurant (lightboxes, bonsai trees) spreads a tempting array of sushi and creative dishes (tempura soft-shell crab), plus a multicourse tasting menu with foie gras thrown in for good measure. A young, somewhat hip crowd stops in before hitting the nearby bars.
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Okonomi House
Okonomi House is one of the only places in Toronto (and perhaps North America) dishing up okonomiyaki, savory Japanese cabbage pancakes filled with meat, seafood or vegetables. Perfect cold-weather comfort food.
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Suishe Gardens
Teppanyaki and teriyaki, sake and soba: Suishe does it up. Wide leather lounge chairs surround a central fireplace, while more private booths cozy up in the corners.
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Kabuki House
Dinner here might put a dent in your wallet, but Kabuki House has the best sushi in North Bay (although it’s possible this is the only Japanese restaurant in town).
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Tokyo Noodle Shop & Sushi Bar
Good sushi and noodles by the gallon. Simple decor and unpretentious staff make this a good laid-back place to grab a bite. Nothing fancy, but that's the point.
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Doraku
One of Halifax's better sushi restaurants remains affordable and tasty. There is another slightly more upscale branch at 1579 Dresden Row, also Downtown.
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