Foods from Genji
Comments
2012 Sep 5
Last Wednesday my lady and I went to Genji for late-ish bite to eat. Having heard good things about the sushi here, we thought it was a no-brainer. The restaurant was quiet; however we did arrive 30 minutes before last call. We started with the Genji Appetizer which consisted of four rather small fried shrimp and seaweed dumplings. Meh, I wouldn’t order it again. It wasn’t bad, but it was a small portion (granted it was only 5 bucks) and taste wise, it was unmemorable.
2012 Sep 5
For the sushi we ordered Spicy Salmon (green onion, cucumber, tempura, and mayo), the Spicy Tuna Tempura (tempura fried tuna roll with green onion, cucumber and mayo), and the Boston Roll (Lettuce, shrimp, Alaska crab, avocado, green onion and mayo).
The Spicy tuna tempura (pictured on the right) was by far my favourite. It was delectable! Very lightly flash fried to give the entire roll a nice crunch; however the innards were still fresh and moist. The quality of the tuna was stellar, and the whole roll just melted in my mouth!
The Boston roll (the over exposed one) was disappointing for a few reasons. Granted it’s a bit of an unorthodox roll, but lettuce is weird in a sushi roll. It makes it extra chewy. Secondly, the menu advertised “Alaska crab”, but what we got was crab stick. Not cool, especially because it was more expensive than other options. It was on the speciality maki page, so I assumed the premium price would reflect real crab, so in reality we paid at least three dollars extra for fricken lettuce. I wasn’t in the mood to kick up a fuss about it.
The salmon roll was decent (to the left). Spicy salmon roll is my girlfriend’s favourite "Japanese-ish" dish, and she wasn’t overly impressed. The salmon was of very high quality, but there was too much rice, and the she found the outer ring of seaweed was much too thick and chewy. After pointing it out to me, I tend to agree with her. Towards the end, she unrolled the roll, and ate the salmon on its own.
Ultimately, I may return to Genji, but I would much rather get sashimi or nigiri options since the quality of the fish was top quality. I really liked the tuna roll, but otherwise their maki options aren’t anything to write home about. The service was fast and friendly and although the prices were a little high, I felt the price matched the quality of the fish. Three rolls, the appetizer, 2 cokes came taxes and tip came out to almost 60 dollars. Worth it? Not sure…
The Spicy tuna tempura (pictured on the right) was by far my favourite. It was delectable! Very lightly flash fried to give the entire roll a nice crunch; however the innards were still fresh and moist. The quality of the tuna was stellar, and the whole roll just melted in my mouth!
The Boston roll (the over exposed one) was disappointing for a few reasons. Granted it’s a bit of an unorthodox roll, but lettuce is weird in a sushi roll. It makes it extra chewy. Secondly, the menu advertised “Alaska crab”, but what we got was crab stick. Not cool, especially because it was more expensive than other options. It was on the speciality maki page, so I assumed the premium price would reflect real crab, so in reality we paid at least three dollars extra for fricken lettuce. I wasn’t in the mood to kick up a fuss about it.
The salmon roll was decent (to the left). Spicy salmon roll is my girlfriend’s favourite "Japanese-ish" dish, and she wasn’t overly impressed. The salmon was of very high quality, but there was too much rice, and the she found the outer ring of seaweed was much too thick and chewy. After pointing it out to me, I tend to agree with her. Towards the end, she unrolled the roll, and ate the salmon on its own.
Ultimately, I may return to Genji, but I would much rather get sashimi or nigiri options since the quality of the fish was top quality. I really liked the tuna roll, but otherwise their maki options aren’t anything to write home about. The service was fast and friendly and although the prices were a little high, I felt the price matched the quality of the fish. Three rolls, the appetizer, 2 cokes came taxes and tip came out to almost 60 dollars. Worth it? Not sure…
2012 Jun 20
Having spent the last 10 years in Toronto, one of the items on my list to figure out was a good sushi joint. I've visited more than I'd care to mention in the Ottawa region, and so far Genji has been my go-to place for sushi the last couple months. The quality and consistency of the food has always been excellent, and even though it may be a touch pricier than some of the competition (keeping in mind we normally go for dinner rather than lunch), I wouldn't think twice to recommend this place.
Service itself has generally been excellent, but we tend to go on a Saturday afternoon just after they open at 4pm, so it tends to be fairly quiet.
They've also recently updated their menu slightly to add a few new items. And, I'd suggest you give the Sea Treasures a go ... it's the one item on the menu my fiance has to order every time.
Service itself has generally been excellent, but we tend to go on a Saturday afternoon just after they open at 4pm, so it tends to be fairly quiet.
They've also recently updated their menu slightly to add a few new items. And, I'd suggest you give the Sea Treasures a go ... it's the one item on the menu my fiance has to order every time.
2012 Jun 2
Visited for lunch last week. The short review: it's fine.
Had the salmon teriyaki lunch special. Miso soup was good but it's rarely bad and salad was ok but mainly iceberg with a decent dressing. The salmon teriyaki itself was a nice enough lunch -- the fish was a little overcooked for my taste but I thought the sauce was a good fit. The portion size was appropriate and it came with a good mix of vegetables (+1 for in-season asparagus!). The best part was the crunchy and sweet salmon skin which I happily gobbled. It was also served with rice.
Service was slow. Don't go if you're in a rush. Pleasant but not efficient except regarding water refills which were more than prompt.
Had the salmon teriyaki lunch special. Miso soup was good but it's rarely bad and salad was ok but mainly iceberg with a decent dressing. The salmon teriyaki itself was a nice enough lunch -- the fish was a little overcooked for my taste but I thought the sauce was a good fit. The portion size was appropriate and it came with a good mix of vegetables (+1 for in-season asparagus!). The best part was the crunchy and sweet salmon skin which I happily gobbled. It was also served with rice.
Service was slow. Don't go if you're in a rush. Pleasant but not efficient except regarding water refills which were more than prompt.
2011 Aug 7
We visited last night and I hesitated before posting comments here because I'm not quite sure what to say. The food is uniformly inoffensive, but the whole experience lacks the lustre of when this place opened 5 years ago! Very hard to say if the restaurant has changed or if our tastes have. However, when it's less than 1/3 full at 8pm on a Saturday night, then something is not going well. It's entirely possible that the all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants are stealing away potential customers.
In the photo is the Kaiso Salad. My wife likes seaweed salads and we were both impressed by the size of this ($8.50). The dressing was a very mild sesame concoction, too mild even for the already-mild seaweed flavours.
Service was friendly, efficient, and wonderfully polite. No complaints there! Tables and chairs had some slightly sticky spots, which is something that seems to happen to some Japanese restaurants over time.
We mostly shared, and together we had the following items. I ordered the generous "Set Dinner B" for $31, which accounts for many of our dishes.
* Amuse-Bouche - nice spicy marinated bean sprouts with tofu and mushrooms.
* Kaiso Salad - described above.
* Miso Soup - very good, but it usually is.
* Salad - okay ginger dressing, okay lettuce.
* Genji Appetizer - Shrimp wrapped in seaweed and tempura-fried. More unique than good.
* Shrimp Tempura - Excellent, with a nice variety of vegetables!
* Beef Maki - Grilled beef wrapped around asparagus. Very nice!
* Waving Unagi Roll - Pretty good.
* California Roll - Good.
* Sashimi - Tuna and Salmon. Completely tasteless but that's a good thing for sashimi. ;-)
* Teriyaki Chicken - Tasty, nicely browned, on a generous bed of zucchini and asparagus.
* Mango Ice Cream - Generous portion, okay taste.
Nothing really bad. Flavours were somewhat underseasoned. The tempura, beef maki, and teriyaki chicken were the high points. Genji is still a solid contender in Ottawa's Japanese culinary scene, but with the passing of Ichibei I'm at a bit of a loss to say which place is now best.
In the photo is the Kaiso Salad. My wife likes seaweed salads and we were both impressed by the size of this ($8.50). The dressing was a very mild sesame concoction, too mild even for the already-mild seaweed flavours.
Service was friendly, efficient, and wonderfully polite. No complaints there! Tables and chairs had some slightly sticky spots, which is something that seems to happen to some Japanese restaurants over time.
We mostly shared, and together we had the following items. I ordered the generous "Set Dinner B" for $31, which accounts for many of our dishes.
* Amuse-Bouche - nice spicy marinated bean sprouts with tofu and mushrooms.
* Kaiso Salad - described above.
* Miso Soup - very good, but it usually is.
* Salad - okay ginger dressing, okay lettuce.
* Genji Appetizer - Shrimp wrapped in seaweed and tempura-fried. More unique than good.
* Shrimp Tempura - Excellent, with a nice variety of vegetables!
* Beef Maki - Grilled beef wrapped around asparagus. Very nice!
* Waving Unagi Roll - Pretty good.
* California Roll - Good.
* Sashimi - Tuna and Salmon. Completely tasteless but that's a good thing for sashimi. ;-)
* Teriyaki Chicken - Tasty, nicely browned, on a generous bed of zucchini and asparagus.
* Mango Ice Cream - Generous portion, okay taste.
Nothing really bad. Flavours were somewhat underseasoned. The tempura, beef maki, and teriyaki chicken were the high points. Genji is still a solid contender in Ottawa's Japanese culinary scene, but with the passing of Ichibei I'm at a bit of a loss to say which place is now best.
2010 Nov 28
I had the Chicken Teriyaki from the Genji take out menu a couple of weeks ago.
It's $10.50 or so, and it comes with a little bit of soup (not sure what its called, is it Miso soup? - I do know however that it is the standard sushi restaurant soup), a teriyaki chicken breast which is placed on top of wilted lettuce and a few vegetables. It also comes with a bowl of white rice and a very tiny bit of salad.
All in all, it wasn't anything special. The chicken was bland and just OK. I'm not a fan of lettuce once it has been wilted too much. In this case it was wilted too much. The rice was just white rice.. The soup was good, but again, I didn't even know it came with soup, so it was nice to have, but nothing special either. Lastly, the salad had an awesome dressing (again i think it was miso).
I will not order this again. However, I have yet to try genji sushi, and I hear good things. So I will have to try their specialty.
I would much rather get the "thai special" from the now non-existent So-Go. But I guess this is a redundant comment.
It's $10.50 or so, and it comes with a little bit of soup (not sure what its called, is it Miso soup? - I do know however that it is the standard sushi restaurant soup), a teriyaki chicken breast which is placed on top of wilted lettuce and a few vegetables. It also comes with a bowl of white rice and a very tiny bit of salad.
All in all, it wasn't anything special. The chicken was bland and just OK. I'm not a fan of lettuce once it has been wilted too much. In this case it was wilted too much. The rice was just white rice.. The soup was good, but again, I didn't even know it came with soup, so it was nice to have, but nothing special either. Lastly, the salad had an awesome dressing (again i think it was miso).
I will not order this again. However, I have yet to try genji sushi, and I hear good things. So I will have to try their specialty.
I would much rather get the "thai special" from the now non-existent So-Go. But I guess this is a redundant comment.
2010 Aug 17
Our experience.... was okay. The food was good and fresh. I thought it was quite pricy for what you got though. What also made are experience a bit skewed was that we waited almost 2 hours for our food. I don't know if this is normal, so I wouldn't completely base it on my comments. I don't think the waitress realized that we had been waiting for so long. We were a table of 6, and the resto was quite busy.
I just kept myself busy with my camera! Here is the picture of their menu, which was very pretti.
So, we started with a complementary appetizer, cucumber marinated in fish sauce and hoisin.
Finally, the sushi came! My usual favorite the dragon roll.
Next up, the platter that my husband and I shared... I know, we eat allot. There is some unagi (mmm...eel) rolls, dynamite roll, salmon sashimi, some mango tango thing (not that great)...
And of course, my routine Green Tea Ice cream! This was delicious! Best part of the dinner ;P
See more pics at theovalley.blogspot.com
I just kept myself busy with my camera! Here is the picture of their menu, which was very pretti.
So, we started with a complementary appetizer, cucumber marinated in fish sauce and hoisin.
Finally, the sushi came! My usual favorite the dragon roll.
Next up, the platter that my husband and I shared... I know, we eat allot. There is some unagi (mmm...eel) rolls, dynamite roll, salmon sashimi, some mango tango thing (not that great)...
And of course, my routine Green Tea Ice cream! This was delicious! Best part of the dinner ;P
See more pics at theovalley.blogspot.com
2010 Jul 29
Great spot for sushi! I had all vegetarian selections and they were awesome, crisp and flavourful veggies, and nice size rolls. I agree with others that the atmosphere is a plus as well; quiet, casual, comfortable. I also agree that it's definitely not the best I have ever had, but worth going back again!
Older
2009 Jan 14
"I'm looking for a good sushi place that allows patrons to sit up close to an open-concept kitchen area and chat with the chef."
MHK on Merivale has a central kitchen that is open to the patrons. There are a few seats right up in front of them, but not too many - most people sit at tables like a more traditional restaurant. But when I've gone solo I sit in front of them and the chefs will chat with you.
MHK on Merivale has a central kitchen that is open to the patrons. There are a few seats right up in front of them, but not too many - most people sit at tables like a more traditional restaurant. But when I've gone solo I sit in front of them and the chefs will chat with you.
2009 Jan 14
I'm looking for a good sushi place that allows patrons to sit up close to an open-concept kitchen area and chat with the chef. I went to a great place in Vancouver like this -- not only had AMAZING sushi, and not too $$, but the place absolutely buzzing because it encouraged this sort of thing.
Is Genji the place for this in Ottawa??
Is Genji the place for this in Ottawa??
2007 Jul 26
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.
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.
2007 Jul 3
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....
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....
Older
2006 Nov 15
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.
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.
2007 May 25
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!
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!
2009 Jun 24
I had the beef ramen noodle soup and I was so happy to finally get to taste this egg noodle because I have been looking for it ever since I saw that stupid movie "The Ramen Girl"! I know I have nothing to compare it to, but the noodles were thick and a little chewy, which I liked. The broth was flavorful and the beef was so tender. They also put sprouts in. The portion was perfect - not outrageously big but big enough to fill up this hungry lady. I think the soup cost $9.95 which is quite reasonable.
I asked the waitress if the noodles were made fresh there and she said that she thought they were packaged. But then she went to go ask the cook and he said the noodles were made on-site but then they were frozen. Either way, they were freaking excellent.
I asked the waitress if the noodles were made fresh there and she said that she thought they were packaged. But then she went to go ask the cook and he said the noodles were made on-site but then they were frozen. Either way, they were freaking excellent.
LF