Montreal La Maison Kam Fung (金豐洒家)

Montreal Day 2 – One Miss, One Hit

We realized that our hotel in Montreal is quite close to Chinatown which is only 5 blocks away, so we decided to head to Chinatown for a round of Dim Sum at La Maison Kam Fung (Fancy French name for a Chinese restaurant).



We read on yelp.com that people rave about this dim sum restaurant in the heart of Chinatown. So, we want to give it a try to see if the dim sum is really that good or is it just hype? We arrived at lunch hour at around 12:30pm. We saw a long line of people anxiously waiting to be seated. Wow! This place must be good huh?? We picked up a number and waited a good 20 minutes before we finally got seated at our table. Only after a few minutes, we were already surrounded by several 點心姐姐with their respective push carts (Food at a dim sum restaurant is usually “you pick what you want to eat” from a food cart pushed around by servers 點心姐姐). We wasted no time and immediately ordered our usual dishes:


1) 蝦腸 – Har Churn – Steamed Shrimp wrapped inside of rice noodle




2) 牛腸 – Gyu Churn – Steamed minced beef wrapped inside of rice noodle



3) 蝦餃 – Har Gow -- Steamed shrimp dumplings



4) 燒賣 – Siu Mai -- Steamed pork and shrimp dumplings



5) 鳳爪 – Fong Gyau -- Chicken Feet in black bean sauce
6) 鲜竹卷 – Seen Jook Guen – Steamed ground pork in soy bean wrap



蝦腸 was decent with its thin rice noodle wrap and fresh taste shrimps. 牛腸 wasn’t as good as the 蝦腸, but still a mediocre dish to have. 蝦餃 was the best dish of the day. The shrimp tasted pretty fresh and was not over steamed. However, the food started to go downhill from here! Our favorite Siu Mai turned out to be four pieces of over-streamed, extra-dry pork mixed with overcooked shrimp! Definitely one of the worst ones we have had in years!!! Chicken feet was another disappointment. When they are cooked properly, the meat and skin should be easily torn apart. However, that is not the case here. It’s almost as if we were chewing a piece of rubber / eraser. We were not able to tear apart the skin and the meat. We decided to go for another dish, which was 鲜竹卷. We should not have ordered that one either. The dish looked as if it was prepared at 6:00am in the morning and has been sitting on the push cart for several hours! It was bad! So, check please!!

I am not quite sure why this dim sum is considered as “The Best Dim Sum in Montreal”? We ordered six dishes and there was only one decent dish. Maybe we went on an “off” day where the dim sum master chef took a day off? It was definitely not worth the 20 minutes wait. We should have gone downstairs to the HK style roasted duck cafe to order a roasted duck soup noodle instead!!

HOKAT Rating:
75/100

Address:
1111 Rue Saint-Urbain Montreal, QC H2Z 1Y6.
(514) 878-2888
http://www.restaurantlamaisonkamfung.com/

Montreal Jun-I Sushi Restaurant

Montreal 2009 – Day 1 at Jun-I Sushi Restaurant

Bonjour! During the Memorial Day weekend, we had an impromptu road trip to travel outside of the country across the border. We visited Montréal, the second-largest city in Canada. Our first pick of the night is a Japanese sushi restaurant named Jun-I at Ave Laurier Ouest. We arrived right on time, and were seated immediately. One thing we noticed was the giant wallpaper of snowed trees with ambient lighting in the middle of the restaurant. It blends in pretty well with the wooden looking sushi bar and its cabinets.













The menu offers a lot of the classic Japanese dishes and sushi. We ordered the following dishes:

1) Sashimi with five different sauces. The sushi chef selected five different kinds of “catch of the day” fish, matched with its own sauce. It’s almost like wine pairing.





















2) Funny Maki. It has tuna, onion, avocado wrapped in white fish, and then fried in tempura batter. The maki also has salmon tartar on top. This is an interesting fusion maki which takes similar to a buttery fish ball.













3) Unagi Dynamite. This is our favorite maki from Jun-I. The sushi chef was so creative to use rice crispies mixed with spicy mayonnaise inside of a maki! The buttery taste of avocado always matches so well with eel. They are truly a perfect match. The crunchiness of the rice crispies makes the maki one of a kind.













4) B52. This maki contains tuna, avocado, and rice crispies mixed with spicy mayonnaise. We found that the rice crispies match much better with unagi than with tuna. This maki simply does not have the same effect as the Unagi Dynamite.
5) Dancing Unagi. This maki contains tuna and eel, which is an interesting match because of the contrast of hot and cold, also chewy and soft. Besides tuna and eel, there is also avocado inside of the maki. We love the richness and creaminess of avocado.













6) Scallop Sushi. It has a refreshing taste, but not as good as the ones we can get from Oishii.













7) Uni Sushi. It is comparable to the ones from the states, and is rich and creamy as usual.
8) Rising Sun Sushi. This is your typical flying fish roe with quail egg on top but has an extra piece of scallop added. By adding that extra piece of scallop, it changes the overall texture and taste. You have the popping flying fish roe, creaminess of quail egg, and fresh taste of scallop all in one bite. Another amazing creation!













The highlight of this restaurant is definitely their Tokbetsumaki. They are very thoughtful and creative paired with different ingredients that you don’t normally think of. I never thought that rice crispies would be a good match for a sushi maki, but it works well here! The service was friendly and attentive, and we never had to ask the waiter to come by. We will come back to this little gem if we go back to Montreal.

HOKAT Rating:
92/100

Address:
156 Ave Laurier Ouest, Montreal QC
(514) 276-5864
http://www.juni.ca/

Petit Robert Bistro in Back Bay

Bonjour! It's been a while since our last dining experience at a French restaurant (L'espalier on Christmas Eve 08), so we decided it's time for some French. Our pick for today's meal is Petit Robert Bistro. Once we got seated, we felt like we were sitting in a bistro somewhere in Paris. The restaurant has a calm environment with french décor. The waiter was an energetic young guy who was full of smiles. We spent some time to check out the menu and saw a few traditional French dishes that immediately caught our attention.













For appetizer, we ordered 6 escagots with garlic butter cooked in a French cast iron. The escagots were served without the shells. The escagots were chewy with tons of flavoring from the garlic butter. It was definitely a good start to our meal.













For main dishes, we order a Duck Magrat Leek Salad and a Rack of Lamb. There were two slices of duck which has a strong barbeque taste to it. Surprising, the duck meat was quite tender and had a strong gamy taste. The Rack of Lamb was simply amazing. It was cooked just right, with a warm red center. The lamb was so incredibly tender and juicy. It has a strong lamb taste to it. It was one of the best we have had. Only critique is that there was not enough lamb chops (quantity wise).














As an exclamation point, we ordered the Grand Marnier Souffle for dessert. It came with a sweet cream sauce to be poured on top of the souffle. The souffle was extremely moist. It tasted like the chinese steamed egg dessert.















Overall, we were very happy with the service and the food. It is definitely a restaurant that we will recommend to our friends. Merci beaucoup! Au revoir!

HOKAT Rating:
92/100

Address:
480 Columbus Avenue, Boston MA 02118
(617) 867-0600
http://www.petitrobertbistro.com

Fish Market Sushi Bar

It’s time for HOKAT to try another sushi restaurant. We had heard from someone that there is a new restaurant in town which is owned by the ex-chefs from Oishii Sushi Bar. We decided to give it a try and see how it compares to Oishii. We went with a few friends and we ordered the following:

1) Salmon Sushi, Crabstick Sushi, Tofu Sushi, Scallop Sushi, Sea Eel Sushi, Uni Sushi, Unagi Sushi, Scallop Hand Roll.

















2) Dragon Eye Maki. This maki has salmon, cucumber, and tobiko on the inside. It has squid attached on the outside.

















3) Soft Shell Crab Maki with daikon wrap on the outside.

















4) The following shows the “main event” for the night, which includes Toro Sushi, Uni Sushi, Yellowtail Truffle Maki, Foie Gras Sushi, Catepillar Maki, and Crispy Tuna Maki.

The Toro Sushi was simply not fatty enough and tasted like regular tuna. The Uni Sushi was the best of the bunch because of its freshness. The Foie Gras Sushi was interesting but not creamy enough. The Yellowtail Truffle Maki was simply disappointing. We had high hopes for this maki, because it sounded nice and we have never seen it in any other Japanese restaurant. However, the yellowtail was over-torched, the truffle does not match the overall taste, and the tempura flakes on the inside were soggy. Also, the maki was a little dry and would be better if it has some kind of sweet miso sauce on top. The Catepillar Maki was decent, but still not good as Oishii’s version. The Crispy Tuna Maki was again disappointing. There was too little fish on the maki, and the tempura flakes inside were soggy (supposed to be crispy, as suggested by the name!).

















5) Spicy Scallop Baked Maki. This was like a diamond in the rough, since the other maki’s were so disappointing. Another Japanese restaurant in Boston, called Sakurabana, offers a similar maki which is tastier and is not so burned. The spicy sauce is really nice and matches nicely with the scallop and crab meat. However, the maki was over-baked and the rice was dry.

















Overall, the size of the sushi and maki’s were extremely tiny. The small size made it hard to get a true taste of anything. We definitely did not get our money’s worth. A new restaurant should earn its reputation by serving their best with a good portion during its opening period, so that its customers have incentive to return. Unfortunately, this was not the case in Fish Market. The complementary salad as a starter was a good touch but does not make up for the tiny portion and soggy tempura flakes. We have decided not to return to this place. On a side note, one of our friends had to go to McDonalds next door to order a fish filet in order to fill his stomach before the night ends.

HOKAT Rating:
83/100

Address:
170 Brighton AveBoston, MA 02134
(617) 783-1268
Street parking only and closed on Mondays

Oishii Sushi

Let’s start off with our local favorite, Oishii 2. Oishii 2 is located at Mill’s Village in Sudbury. It is simply the best sushi in the Boston area, possibly in the northeast. Our recommendations are the following:

1) Toro sushi. It simply melts in your mouth.













2) Uni’s sushi. Uni just has such a unique taste to it. It is a bit of an acquired taste.



3) Scallop Sushi. It's so soft and Oishii gives out a big portion.



4) Catepillar’s Maki. This is a roll which has eel and avocado on the inside, and avocado on the outside. The double portion of avocado creates a creaminess effect. The milky taste of avocado matches very well with the eel. We love it best when the eel is fatty with skin. The top maki below is Catepillar.
















5) Paula’s Maki. This is an upgraded version of Rainbow’s Maki, which offers fish inside and outside. There is salmon and avocado on the inside. What make this roll magical are the tuna, salmon, and thin pieces of lemon on the outside. The maki on the left below is Paula's.
















6) Spicy Scallop Maki. The scallop is just so smooth, and the spicy sauce just matches with the scallop so well. The flying fish roe also adds to the experience with its crunchiness.













7) Philadelphia’s Maki. We order it because it is consistently decent and it’s one of the cheapest things on the menu. It is an inside out roll which contains salmon, avocado, and cream cheese.














HOKAT Rating:
94/100

Address:
Oishii 2 Sushi Bar
365 Boston Post Road, Sudbury MA 01776
(987) 440-8300