Biiru - Montréal

We were brought to this restaurant by event sponsors, expecting average quality Japanese food. However, we were pleasantly surprised when we were served a 10-course omakase/chef's choice meal.

We were seated in the window and handed food and drink menus. The drink menu had, at some distant point, been covered in one of the beverages described thereon, and had since wrinkled and become sticky. The food menu was literally mouldy. This is the kind of thing that puts you right off. If you don't want to handle the menu, why would you want to eat the food? Looking around, the window was awash with dead insects. I started to get chills, not least because the air conditioning is set to "fridge". Cocktails are low alcohol and the beer is out-of-this world expensive. A can of Sapporo in a supermarket is less than $3, so why is the same can here $12? The food is a mixed bag. Fried chicken is actually good, with juicy bits of thigh. Ribs, pretty decent. Gyoza seemed under-filled and under-seasoned. The brownie dessert is served fridge cold with ice cream, and would be improved 1000% if it were warmed up a bit. Meal for two, sharing, plus one drink each, $100 including tip. This is casual pub stuff? Give me a break.

À découvrir!Superbe resto japonais avec ambiance très branché. Nous avons dégustés le repas dégustation... tout à fait savoureux... la bière Zuru n'est pas piqué des verres avec son coté citronné. La terrasse et belle et ombragé. Mon ami Éric n'avait que de bon mots pour cette établissement et il ne c'était pas trompé!!!

Ordinary food. The shopsticks are cleaned and reused!!!!!??? And the place did not seem sparkling clean.

I visited this Japanese fusion resto with 7 friends. The menu offers what they term 'small' dishes, tapas-like, each in the $7 to $9 range, and more substantial dishes in the $10 to $15 range, though these are also small. As a starter I had Karaag, chicken breaded and deep fried, served with Japanese mayo. It was so so, ordinary, almost chicken mcnuggets. Next up, the tomato salad Apurikotto, which I found heavy, overly sweet, intensely spicy with the apricot and miso, and there were yams in there as well. I shared with friends and gave the 1/2 left to the one person taking home a doggie bag. Then I ordered the Yakitori brochette, chicken thighs doused with another sweet sauce, this bbq variety. It came with a nice version of cole slaw that I liked because it got away from the sweetness that seemed to permeate almost every dish. Dishes others had that they liked included Ramen noodles (but heavily spicy, the friend said), pork ribs, mushroom and cabbage pancake (the friend ate it all). And fried cheese balls with a red sauce called Gyoza. Someone had salmon but I forget which dish now but think it was the candied salmon. I did taste two dumplings others had ordered that were scrumptious and wish I'd ordered those. No one at my table ordered the ubiquitious Edamane, although I've had it before, and most of those around us had plates of empty pods. There are exotic cocktails to be ordered which look very pretty and stylish in the glass, though I didn't sample any so I can't say. The passion fruit ice cream was a hit with 2 of the 8 of us. This resto is cute and I'm glad I tried it, but it's not for me. It's extremely noisy--impossible to talk. The seating is painfully close together so that the waitperson had to remove a chair from the table behind as no one could get in or out. I think if you're under 40 you'll love it, and for those I recommend it. For older people used to bento boxes and yakisoba, this is likely not for you unless you're super adventurous.