Chef Sato serves eighteen courses across the hinoki counter, two seatings a night, Tuesday to Saturday.
ReserveForty bottles from small breweries in Niigata, Yamagata and Hiroshima, plus a few made in Quebec.
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Haruki Sato trained for nine years in Kyoto before moving to Montreal in 2004. At Sato he cooks with Japanese technique and whatever Quebec is growing, fishing or foraging that week. The menu is built around a few rules he doesn't bend.
The menu changes when the market does. Fiddleheads in May, Gaspésie snow crab in spring, Quebec corn in August, squash and chanterelles into October.
Sushi rice is seasoned with red vinegar and served at body temperature. The fish is the topping. If the rice isn't right, the course doesn't go out.
Maple in the tare, sea buckthorn in the ponzu, Charlevoix duck on the robata. Japanese methods, local larder.
Omakase guests are served one piece at a time, straight from the chef's hand. Ask questions. Tell him what you don't eat.
Fish bones go into the dashi, rice trimmings into senbei, vegetable peels into pickles for the next day's service.
Japanese whisky, soda carbonated in-house until it bites, and a twist of yuzu peel over hand-cut ice. It's the drink we pour most, and the one we spend the most time getting right.
This autumn the bar adds a shiso gin sour and a hojicha old fashioned sweetened with Quebec maple. Both are on the list until the snow comes.
The one regulars order twice
Atlantic salmon is cured for two days in Quebec maple sugar and sea salt, then aged on the bone for a week. It's sliced to order, brushed with nikiri and torched for three seconds, just until the fat starts to shine.
Sato gift cards come in any amount, or as a full omakase for two.
Buy a gift card
The tatami room seats up to twenty for a kaiseki dinner planned with the chef. Birthdays, rehearsal dinners, the end of a long project.
Reserve
Most of what makes a meal here happens before you sit down. A few things we do every single day that you'll never see from the dining room.
Rice is washed until the water runs clear, rested, then cooked in small batches through the evening so no piece is served from rice older than forty minutes.
We break down every fish in-house. It lets us age each cut differently and use the parts most kitchens throw away.
Once in the morning for the kitchen, and again at 5 pm for the counter, because kombu and bonito lose their edge by dinner.
Parties of 8 or more, or same-day tables: call (514) 842-3300.
"The best omakase we've had outside Tokyo, and the chef remembered our names the second time."Émilie & Marc, Outremont
"I ordered the maple salmon nigiri twice. Then a third time. No regrets."Daniel K., Plateau
"Came for a drink at the bar, stayed for dinner. The highball is dangerously good."Sofia R., Griffintown
"Weekday lunch set is the best $32 in Old Montreal. Soba, tempura, pickles, dessert."Jean-Philippe L., Vieux-Montréal
"We booked the tatami room for my father's 70th. Every course had a small note from the chef."Aiko T., Laval
"Service is quiet and exact. You never wait, and you never feel rushed."Karim B., Westmount