Ottawa Foodies

We loved Genji for the last couple of years. But the last two to three times we were there, a few of our all-time favourite items were quite disappointing.

Now we have to search for our new favourite Japanese restaurant in town. Any suggestions?

Went to Genji tonight with high hopes, but was pretty disapointed. Have not had alot of sushi around ottawa, but was not pleased with what we got for the price. Ive had better around town for sure. I wont go to far into detail other than the fact that the service was cold, food was average and the bill was alot!

I've been on an "eating out" kick lately, so last night I stopped in to Genji for some takeout. I had the dynamite roll and a spicy salmon roll, each of which was equally delicious. It's a quick, relatively inexpensive way to get my sushi fix without having to sit in a restaurant and wait.

Also a little late in posting this review. I went for dinner to Genji with the girls last Tuesday October 16th.
I have been here once for lunch over a year ago and have been dying to go back based on the reviews on this site.
First of all, loved the dividers. When I went there weren't any and you felt very exposed. This is much better.
The service this time was just as good as when I went for lunch. Polite, efficient and professional.

Because of various allergies and food dislikes, we each got our own sushi instead of sharing.

I started with the gyoza (dumplings). I ate these everyday when I was in Japan and could not get enough of them. These were very good.

I ordered three types of sushi (x 6 rolls) so 18 pieces. It was way too much and I had to bring 6 home with me but that's ok because I brought them for lunch the next day :)

My three choices were:
1. M10 Tempura - tempura fried tiger shrimp, cucumber and lettuce, with Genji sauce
2. M26 Spicy Tuna Tempura - tuna roll with Genji sauce, lightly tempura fried
3. M27 Spider Roll - crispy chesapeake soft shell crab, asparagus and Genji sauce

All three rolls were delicious and the presentation was beautiful.
I loved how the tuna roll was tempura on the outside - the whole roll. It made it slightly crispy and easier to bite.
I have wanted to try soft shell crab ever since I saw Curtis make it on Take Home Chef and it was really delicious. Weird to eat the shell at first but just a mental block :)

My bill for the gyoza, three types of rolls and two glasses of Pinot Grigio was $65 including tax and tip.

I was very impressed with Genji and will go back again soon I hope!

Got takeout from Genji tonight. Spicy tuna maki, sweet potato maki (thanks to Ashley's recommendation!), and shake (salmon) nigiri. Everything was WONDERFUL. I was surprised that I got such fabulous quality in a plastic takeout container! Definitely will be back here. Although unlike some others I did not notice that much difference from Wasabi - maybe the service was a little friendlier (from my very limited contact with such).

you have my vote on this place....

Genji also got 4.5 star rating (out of 5) by Ottawa Magazine (in the July/August issue).
www.ottawamagazine.com/

The review was pretty interesting. Have any foodies here read it (in addition to the review on Domus)?

Thumbs up for Genji again for a lovely lunch with a friend a couple of weeks ago. It was her first visit and we both had the tempura (can't stay away from the stuff!!). The meal was good without being too plentiful for lunch.

Nice additions to the decor with more screens in between tables for privacy. Nice touch!

After a decade in California and some definitional sushi, my wife and I have been uniformly disappointed by what we have encountered in Ontario, particularly our current hometown of Kingston (a wasteland for Japanese). Great then to find a good source in Ottawa.

Genji was a happy find for us. The fish was fresh and of excellent quality, there were a number of interesting variations that were well-conceived rather than merely bold or trendy, and the atmosphere was good. The dry-fried tofu rolled in bonito flakes was absolutely amazing -- deep and sensuous. I ordered the Medusa tempura appetizer (a rare move for me, as I love sushi so much) and found it very good but also filling (why I avoid the stuff).

Very goood experience all around.

My colleauge from States came to Ottawa for training. After work, I volunteered myself to take her out to do some sightseeing in downtown Ottawa (Parliament Hill, Museum of Civilization). In fact, I wanted to take this opportunity to have some fun for myself after work (Ha ha, my hubby and my boys ordered take-out from Fortune Express).

Since my colleauge went to Green Papaya (on Queen) for dinner the night before (close to Marriott), I asked her to choose from Chinese food, Japanese food, or French cuisine. She told me that she never ate sushi before. So, I took her to Genji Japanese Restaurant to try some Japanese food.

I recommended her to try Set Dinner A ($24.95) so that she can taste a variety of food other than sushi. This was a mistake since I forgot that it is too much food for us (I think my colleauge is 5'4" tall and weighs less than 110 pounds.)

Last time my family ordered Set Dinner, I shared with my husband and I ordered sushi or noodles instead. This time I had Set Dinner all for myself. Not only my colleague didn't have room to consume all the food, I myself had trouble to finsih all the food. So, ladies, although it is a good value, I don't recommend that you order Set Dinner A unless you share with your friends. At the end, I didn't feel like eating dessert any more.

Make sure you drink hot green tea and not cold water. My experience led me to believe that cold water does not go well with deep-fried food.

Forgot to mention that Set Dinner is served with miso soup and lettuce salad with ginger salad dressing. I hope that Genji has an option for customers to pay additional few bucks for other Greens instead. Lettuce salad is just too boring to start a good meal!

My elder son just returned home from his party tonight and brought me a box of sushi from Genji. This was a nice treat to mom! I ate one piece and my husband ate 2 pieces before I remember to take this photo. Yum!

Hmm,

Genji so far is the most consitent sushi place I've been to in Ottawa. It's fresh and the flavours are pretty close to the real deal. The rice can be a bit vineagary sometimes though.

Sushi is definitely Genji's strength although the Unagi on Rice and the Tempural Udon is quite good. Opt for the buck wheat noodles if you want the extra earthiness of the wheat.

A tip I got from a Japanese friend is to check if the sushi rice is soft. Most Japanese places will take extra care to ensure this and non Japanese usually do not. He's been right everytime so far in this and more often than not softer rice has led to better quality in overall preparation.

my test for sushi is to order Toro, then Uni, but when they don't have fresh tai.... I start to wonder...

The night I was there they only had Maguro, Himachi and Saki.... By the way, Salmon is a recent western phenom for sushi as in teppanyaki....

the sushi chef/cooks are chinese.... sorry I wouldn't try fugoo here....

on the positive side this is a great value restaurant for the price of what you get in terms of their package dinners, miso soup is good, hot stuff not bad... but fish is not good... I had their seared tuna, which sucked....

presentation great, service great, prices great... but not raw fish... or even slightly cooked fish... think the fish is just not fresh enough....something to do with the chefs....

We were supposed to have either tekka (tuna) or shake (salmon) maki from Set Dinner A. But they allowed us to substitute Sweet Potato maki for their menu's maki (sweet potato maki is my favourite).

The photo was a bit blurry since I forgot to use the macro funtion from my camera.

Finally got to try Genji on Friday. I ordered the 14 piece sushi plate. I wanted to try the sweet potato maki, which wasn't offered on this plate, but they cheerfully substituted it for a few of the fish ones instead. I was glad they did, because I really enjoyed it (Good call, Ashley!) but I have to say that 14 pieces is a LOT of sushi and I ended up having to have 5 pieces packaged for me to bring home. Everything was fresh and nicely presented, and what I could see of the open kitchen in front of the sushi bar looked clean enough for my ailing grandma to have surgery in. Service was friendly and efficient...the salad course did puzzle me though...was I supposed to eat it with chopsticks?...with my hands? I asked for a fork, and was brought one right away. Also the lettuce and other vegetables were cut very small with a gigantic tomato wedge sitting on top.
One of the cooks chatted with me about his experiments putting fruit into sushi. The philadephia roll with strawberries sounded more like dessert than dinner, but I have to say that the 5 berry sauce works well with the sweet potato maki. I liked all of the nigiri except for one that had a texture I didn't enjoy...I think it was squid. This was actually my first time ordering sushi in a restaurant. I make vegetarian sushi for my daughter sometimes, and I've had it prepared for me by the chef at work and gotten it as takeout. I'll definitely go back but I think I'll order a smaller dinner next time!

After having so many rich meals during the Christmas holidays and knowing that we are going to have New Year Brunch Buffet the next day, I really want someting light and healthy on New Year Eve. Here is the refreshing Canadian maki with lots of goodies (e.g., lobster, advocado, Boston lettuce).

I think this is my best food photo I have taken. (I think mine is better than the one posted at their website.)

Anyway, the sushi pizza there was pretty tasty. But have to agree with Mark that it is quite rich and is best to share with someone.

NB. I finally got the technique to take a good picture with blurry background. Just set your Aperture to the lowest number your camera allows (e.g., f/2.8) along with zoom len.

More sushi picture. Sweet potato maki and spicy tuna maki. I orderd with Set Dinner A. So yummy. Worth every penny. Next time I will take more pictures.

Ordered their sushi party tray for take-out (sorry! the picture is not very clear) Fresh and delicious sushi and nigiri! Highly recommended.

...and I love their green tea crême brulée as well!

This is the shrimp & vegetable tempura (part of Set Dinner A). Two shrimps, one slice of sweet potato, one slice of zucchini and one slice of eggplant. Very cripy batter! However, after the sweet potato sushi and this dish of tempura, my stomach was already full at this point.

The vegetable tempura here was among the better I've had. The batter was really light and crispy, the vegetables were great; all around thoroughly tasty. It came with a good whack of enoki mushrooms, which turn out to be delicious tempura-ed. Notably un-greasy. I was very happy to find it still quite crisp and, well, tasty when I was nearing the end of the plate and it wasn't quite so hot.

Not the cheapest, at about $16, but that was a full dinner with rice, salad, and soup, too. I wish they had a little appetizer plate, but, then, their salad and soups were excellent -- genuine appetizers, nothing like the big plates of heavy blah found under "appetizers" on a lot of menus these days.

The most succulent and moist shrimp tempura I've had. Not quite as flavourful as some (e.g. Takara) but so juicy I didn't mind.

Here is the shake (i.e., salmon) sashimi my friend had.

I recommend that you sit at the sushi bar so that you can talk to the sushi chef. This is part of the fun.

Try their fried banana with ice cream (aka FBI). Very yummy dessert. Suggest that you ask for Lichee Ice cream instead of vanilla.

This is the Salmon Teriyaki from their Set Dinner A. By the time I had this dish, I was very full that I didn't enjoy this dish that much any more. (I should have brought my husband!)

NB. My colleague also told me that she had no room to eat her chicken teriyaki. So, we asked the server to put her chicken teriyaki for me to take home and it became my son's after dinner snack!

Excellent Nabeyaki Udon here as well. Make sure you don't burn your tongue. It is very hot (temperature hot)!!!!

Excellent soba here -- good flavour and texture, served in a broth with just the right amount of saltiness.

I found the edamame here to be good, but those loving lots of salt may be disappointed: it was served relatively plain, salted minimally. (Consider it edamame for the hypertensive!) A good-sized portion, enough for two, is $3.95 -- very reasonable.

Tried their lunch special (curry pork with rice). Very delicious. Finished my lunch within an hour and my tummy felt great!

NB: Photo by Genji upon my request. Thanks!

Yaki-Tori was one of the food items from Set Dinner A. Yummy food! (Too bad that the photo was over-exposed.)