Imadake

What is sho...chu? Or oooo.....ko...no...mi...yaki?

This was me Tuesday night at Imadake, a new izakaya, Japanese pub food, opened on St-Catherine street accross from Alexis Nihon ealier this year. I have been meaning to go there since my japanese designer friend T.K. told me about it over lunch at Tokyo earlier in march. "That place is better than Kazu". I haven't been to Kazu, but I knew about the hype.

What caught my attention at first was the decor. I was mesmerized . "Very plateau" Monsieur said. "You don't see this a lot in Westmount". Yeah, I thought, it's about time. 

The menu spikes your curiosity *, shochu turns out to be a date-alcoholic beverage (they were out of) and okonomiyaki is a seafood pancake, which I shall try next time. We decided on a handful of appetizers, all at 3-8$ each. The first plate (forgot the name, sorry, Imadake's website is still in the process of creation and my Japanese skills are ... inexistent!) was raw beef sprinkled with fresh black pepper and covered in a aroma-ful marinade, with green onions on top. This plate was a success, a perfect way to start our supper. Then came edamame, mushroom miso soup, karaage chicken (deep fried with a wasabi-mayo sauce on a bed of greens), vegetable tempura, chicken on skewers, shrimp tempura and black sesame ice cream.  Everything was fantastic, the tempura was lightly-battered, the chicken was juicy and the ice cream blew my mind. They have a wide selection of alcoholic beverages and ramen noodles as "mains". The clientele was mainly asian, which is always a good sign. Next time, I'm going for takoyaki and okonomiyaki, perhaps with my japanese friend.

*if you're not Japanese 

Queue de cheval

For our 5th year anniversary, Monsieur and I went to Queue de Cheval.

Queue de Cheval is a posh New York-style steak house, and I was expecting it to be intimidating to say the least. As we entered, a hostess walked us to our table, taking our coats along the way. Then, seated, our waiters brought us to the table the daily's cuts: thick, prime, dry-aged USDA beef butchered in-house  of various cuts, giant shrimp and crayfish lobster displayed on a rolling table. I was dazzled by the thickness of the meat. But I was set in mind before entering this place, I was going for the Lou's choice cut [20 oz]. At this point, cheating on lent was ... an understatement.

As a side I chose a Idaho style baked potato and Monsieur took garlic mashed. With red wine the mix was a delight. My "cut" was beyond any steak I've ever had = I see why this place costs an arm and a half. When we asked for the dessert menu, they brought a rolling display of all the desserts on the menu and we dived into a "Death by chocolate" cake. Death, indeed.

I left the place, roses in hand, impressed by the service (waiter to ourselves - check, bringing-your coat-for-you-at-the-end-of-your-meal - check, making you feel like you're on-top-of-the-world- check), meat-cravings satisfied... feeling like one hell of a lucky gal!