Sushi (all you can eat)

There are perhaps way too many sushi restaurants in Montreal. Many are overpriced for what you get and the really good ones are apparently astronomically expensive. It’s no surprise that All You Can Eat sushi places have increased in popularity and number.  I haven’t been recently to most of these places since 2010 or even earlier so I’m sure some of this information is outdated. I’m certainly no sushi expert.

Update Feb 2013: A new placed called Senzuru opened up in Chinatown across from Little Fat Lamb (at the location where Ming Do used to be). $22.95 for dinner and $14.95 for lunch. They have some coupons for groups on the restomontreal website. Sushi 999 also sees like a recent addition a s well.

Ginza
4593 Rue Saint Denis (nearest metro: Mont-Royal)
Lunch Tue-Fr $14.99, Supper Sun-Thu $21.99, Fri-Sat $25.99
Last visit: 2008, # of visits: 1

I liked this one the best simply because I actually remember the meal whereas most other places that I’ve listed below I barely remember what I ate there.  Ginza’s beef sashimi was very good and the sushi rolls were of good quality too.  I could actually taste the difference between each type of roll.  The only really bad dish was their soft shell crab which was deep fried to the point where they tasted like the deep fried chicken wings (as my friend so eloquently joked).  Sashimi however are sliced almost paper thin.  Presentation of the food was very nice as was the restaurant itself.  I’m not a stickler for service but on Tuesday evening where there was only one other occupied table in the restaurant, the service was extremely slow.  It took 30 mins or more to prepare a single order sheet for our table with three of us.

Odaki
location 1: 1836 Rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest (nearest metro: Guy Concordia)
location 2: 3977 Boulevard Saint Laurent
Lunch $16.99, Supper Mon-Wed $22.99, Thu-Sun $26.99
Last visit: Dec 2011, # of visits: 2

I’ve only been to the one on St Catherine.  It’s a very nice looking place and also has a conveyor belt with sushi items.  I remember almost nothing from my first visit but I have made a much more recent second visit in Dec 2011 and was actually quite impressed. The mackerel sashimi was very good as was the eel nigiri. I’d say the sashimi and cooked dishes in general were all mostly good. Chicken brochettes were not bad if a bit dry. No complaints about the tempura but the takoyaki were predictably disappointing. They also have this dessert called Fruit Pizza which I didn’t try based on its name alone.

Tokyo Sushi
1805 Rue Sainte Catherine Ouest (nearest metro: Guy Concordia)
Lunch $14.99, Supper Mon-Thu $22.99, Fri-Sun $24.99
Other locations: Sushi Crescent – 1437 Crescent, Sushi St. Denis – 1669 St. Denis
Last visit: 2009, # of visits: 3

The service is quite fast although I’ve read some online comments about long waits and mixed up orders but I’ve never experienced such inconveniences.  I actually preferred a lot of the cooked dishes like chicken brochettes, beef rolls over the raw fish.  I find their sashimi lacking in taste. My general impression was that it will suffice if you’re really hungry but it won’t be begging you to come back. I have not tried the other locations.

Kanda
location 1: 2045 Bishop St
location 2: 5240 Chemin Queen Mary
location 3: 537 Rue Sainte Catherine Ouest
Lunch Mon-Fri $14.99, Supper Sun-Thu $22.99, Fri-Sat $25.99
Last visit: May 2011, # of visits: 6

I’ve been to all 3 locations (bishop, st. catherine, queen mary).  It was the first all you can eat I went to and at the time I liked it (bishop location) but my last two visits to the other locations have been either underwhelming or absolutely dismal.  I found the sushi & sashimi somewhat bland at the queen mary location one evening but the worst was without a doubt at lunch time at the st. catherine location which had the most tasteless raw fish ever. Kanda might have been good at one point but not lately and with so much competition, I see no reason to go back unless I hear that they’ve raised their standards.

Recently went to the bishop location in May 2011 for korean bbq which includes all sushi, cooked food options and some drink choices including bubble tea. All the cooked dishes I tried from tempura to chicken brochettes to seafood pancake were mediocre. The salmon sashimi was actually quite good and soft. Other sashimi like oilfish, red snapper and surf clam were predictably plain and the red snapper often had fragments of tiny bones in it. You can find my comments on the Korean BBQ aspect here but I’ll save you the trouble of reading it by telling you now that it’s not good.

Asahi
3671 boulevard Saint-Laurent
$11.95 (Sun-Thur), $15.99 (Fri-Sat) [I believe these are the dinner prices]
Last visit: Don’t remember, # of visits: 1

Probably the cheapest all you can eat you’ll find but you don’t get what you don’t pay for. You don’t get sashimi and the choices of maki are limited but the quality was not bad for the price.  Recently, as in 2012, they have apparently added a sashimi add-on option for all you can eat for a higher price which I have not tried.

Sushi Mou-shi
5193 Boulevard Décarie (closest metro: Snowdon)
Dinner Sun–Thu $20.95, Fri & Sat $22.95
Last visit: 2013, # of visits: 2

Although I thought the a la carte sushi was good when I went years ago, a recent visit in jan 2013 for all you can eat sushi was very disappointing. They have some interesting 5 piece maki roll combinations that taste somewhat distinctive (one that comes with blueberry sauce and another with lychee) but generally they aren’t really tasty. Nigiri is available but there is no sashimi even at dinner time. Unfortunately, the restaurant ran out of surf clam and tuna before we arrived at 7pm which is ridiculous. Octopus nigiri was fine but the mackerel didn’t seem so fresh. Eel was only available in a maki roll. Service was slow on a Saturday evening as they seemed bogged down dealing with sit down customers and numerous take out orders. The only good items food wise were fried foods such as the spring rolls (called bang bangs) and the vegetable tempura (zucchini, onion and eggplant) and that simply doesn’t cut it for a sushi restaurant. Not recommended at all.

Yokoso
844 avenue Mont-Royal
Lunch $15.99 Dinner $21.99

Le Vent d’Osaka
2028 St. Denis

Komiko
1246 St-Denis
$19.99 or $23.99 (VIP option)

Sushi Plus
1248 Beaumont (nearest metro: L’Acadie)
Lunch $14.99, Dinner Sun-Thu $21.99, Fri-Sat $23.99

Never been here but found one favourable review.

Sushi 999
405 Sherbrooke E
Lunch $13.99, Dinner Mon-Thu $22.99, Fri-Sun $24.99 (also has discounted prices for children and seniors)

Considering that their pricing and menu look very similar to Sushi Plus, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are both under the same ownership.

Keyaki Sushi
2073 rue St. Denis
Lunch: $14.95, Dinner: $18.95

Their all you can eat also includes tea and soft drinks (which is a nice bonus and definitely out of the norm).  Also seems to be one of the cheaper options but they don’t appear to offer sashimi.

Senzuru
1050 Clark
Lunch $14.99, Dinner $22.99

Tried it for Sunday lunch and it was pretty mediocre. Tasteless sashimi (there are two choices: salmon & red snapper) and sushi with very little fish inside. Non-sushi dishes were a little bit better. Beef sashimi was good although the slices are razor-thin. Tempura was generally good, particularly the eel. Stick with the classic shrimp tempura instead of the 7 flavour shrimp version which should be renamed zero-flavour mush. A lot of the cooked dishes are deep fried. They also had French and Italian style baked scallops and mussels which were alright but a bit of an odd choice to have. Maybe dinner is better but based on this lunch I have no inclination to go back. The one good thing is that each portion is small which allows even a single eater to try most of their choices in one sitting.

Sushi Palace
1017 St. Laurent
Lunch $14.95, Dinner Sun-Thu $22.95, Fri-Sat $25.95

I thought this place closed permanently but it appears to have re-opened (March 2013).