Kotori's fishy story

Café Japanese cafeteria offers quality sushi for small wallets

by SPANKY HOROWITZ

Besides cheap and easy access to heroin, the only thing Vancouver's got on Montreal is its cheap and easy access to sushi. Every Second Cup and Starbucks in Van-town has a sushi joint sandwiched in-between. In contrast, Montreal-style Japanese cuisine seems to be aimed at fat wallets, forcing most people pay a premium to eat it raw, or settle for cooked fish.

It took a mechanical engineer from Korea named Yoon-Kee Kim to challenge that logic, and I like his style of thinking. He went against the grain and opened up Montreal's first reasonably priced sushi house, Kotori. He called it a Japanese cafeteria, which places the eatery in a different category from the other Japanese restos in town.

Yoon-Kee Kim and his family were lucky to get a spot on St-Viateur Street when they did: Kotori, which means "little bird," shares the street with three bagel stores, three cafés, three Italian restos, two Greek eateries, two African joints, a Peruvian rôtisserie and a Polish diner. I hear the city has decided not to grant any more restaurant licenses on this gilt-edged street.

There are only 10 or so tables in Kotori, which means you can enjoy your meal in a relatively relaxing atmosphere and count on decent service. For as little as $5.50, you can get a Nori maki plate: eight pieces of sushi, including salad and miso soup with tofu.

If you want to pick your own fish you can order off the à la carte page, and you still get a free soup if you order at least two rolls, which are priced from $2.75-6. They're so crazy they're practically giving it away.

There are meal-size soups, all made with Udon noodles, which are those really thick noodles that you rarely see in Montreal eateries. If you want more variety in your meal, you can split a big soup between two people and still order some sushi, or try one of the tempura or teriyaki dishes.

I also tried a couple of items from the Donburi section, namely the Oyako Don ($7) and the Ten Don ($8). The first was chicken with veggies and egg over steamed rice, and the latter was shrimp tempura over the same. My favourite (expensive) sushi joint also offers Oyako Don, which does outshine the Kotori version, but carries a price tag of over $11. This was not in any way a bad dish, just a slightly different treatment of the same ingredients. I still walked away with a smile on my face.

The sushi was fresh and well rolled. Not as much detail and precision was paid to these rolls, but as long as you regard sushi as food and not high art, you will adore the food served at Kotori and walk away with some money in your wallet. They have all the regular stuff and a few standouts; my favourite was the spicy salmon roll (six pieces for $4). When I asked Yoon-Kee Kim's son what the spicy part was, he said "family secret." I should have never asked.

Hopefully this will mark the beginning of inexpensive Japanese food in Montreal. :

Comments? foodspanky@hotmail.com

Kotori

Address: 5468 Parc (corner St-Viateur)

Phone: 270-0355

Hours: Mon 5-10pm; Tue-Fri 11:30am-3pm, 5-10pm; Sat 5-10pm; closed Sunday

Best features: very cheap sushi

Vegetarian friendly: yes

Wheelchair access: yes

Alcohol: sake, Japanese beer and house wine

$6-20 per person, before drinks, taxes and tip

Rating: HHH out of HHHH