Ranked number 44 on Canada's top restaurants, one place higher than another great Montreal sushi restaurant - Park, Jun I offers a fresh and delicious twist from the traditional sushi cuisine.
The restaurant is named after chef Junichi Ikematsu.
Born in Kyoto, Junichi attended the Kobe French culinary school. In 1989 he moved from Japan to Montreal, Quebec where he worked as chef of different sushi bars. In 1995 he becomes the chef of Sotto restaurant where he worked until it closed in 2005. This is the year when together with former colleagues Ped Phimphrakeo and Jonathan Daunais he opens Jun I.
The address: 156 Laurier Ouest, Montreal.
We paid it a visit on a cold Thursday night. The room is packed, but we have prime places at the bar, which offers us a perfect spot to watch chef Ikematsu and his team working at a fast pace.
What brings customers time and again to Jun I is not just the quality of the sushi, but also the fact that chef Junichi Ikematsu offers much more on his menu which is best described as French-Japanese fusion.
We began with what is probably the most innovative tuna tartare in Montreal. It is topped with tobiko, lightly laced with truffle oil and paired with honey mushrooms and sprouts, along with a few taro chips for support.
Dancing Unagi (Red tuna, eel, tobiko, cucumber, avocado)
TNT – Fried red tuna, shiso served in a warm tensuyu sauce
Funny Maki – Fried red tuna, hamachi and avocado toped with spicy salmon
B-52 – Red tuna, rice crispies, spicy mayonnaise, avocado
Unagi dynamite – Rice crispies, grilled eel and shrimp, avocado, spicy sauce
Vanilla mille crepe
On y retourne? N'importe quand!
Dan Tomescu
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