Ottawa Foodies

I went to Genji last night for the second time. I was, unfortunately, disappointed with the experience. The first time I went, the food and service were both good.
But last night, both were terrible. The waiter, a stalky Asia guy in his 20s or early 30s with spiky hair, was so bad. SO bad. He was rude and he simply did NOT listen. He got three of our dishes wrong and forgot to bring one of our soups. And, to make matters worse, whenever we would ask him to get the correct food, he would return to the waiter station and make comments, roll his eyes and do all of this within earshot of our table.

I don't know if this is a coincidence or not, but the sushi we ordered was lousy. I had a bad feeling that he had asked the chefs to mess with our sushi. Each roll was SO spicy. We ordered spicy tuna, spicy salmon and sweet potato maki. We had eaten these three rolls in the past and always found them spicy but pleasant. Last night they were utterly inedible! The spice was so over the top it completely ruined the experience.

I will give Genji one more try, but if I'm not pleased, I may have to go somewhere else.

I went here for an early birthday dinner with my boyfriend, mother and her partner. We had a giant plate of assorted vegetarian makis and they were all very good. The presentation was beautiful and I particularly enjoyed the Sweet Potato maki. Age-dashi tofu fell a little bit flat, but otherwise I really loved everything. Having moved back from Vancouver in June and South Korea/Japan before that I wasn't expecting to be so impressed by an Ottawa sushi joint, so this was a nice surprise!
Hooray Genji!

I sometimes go months without eating Japanese food but once I get started I can’t stop...really, I can’t. For my 2nd Japanese meal in so many days, I went to Genji.

I agree with most everyone--this place is great for sushi. In addition to freshness, I think that what makes Genji's so interesting is the creativity of what is on offer. Sushi can sometimes get in a rut (a delicious rut but a rut). Genji's sushi can be a good antidote to the same 15 items that are always on the menu of any sushi place (not to mention the ubiquitous subpar supermarket sushi).

I don’t know if anyone has mentioned the beef at Genji's yet but it’s really a highlight. Their beef teriyaki is fantastic; lovely beefy flavor, tender and perfectly cooked. Although I rarely order beef teriyaki, I always make a point of ordering it at Genji. My husband had the tempura which was light and crispy but the dipping sauce lacked a bit of taste. All in all, I prefer the tempura at Wasabi.

Although Genji is one of the great Japanese places in Ottawa, I lament the lack of Bento boxes on the menu--to me one of the best parts of a Japanese meal is the variety. I was relegated to picking off my husband’s plate to get my variety fix. Also, and this is likely because they are more of a lunch place then a dinner place, but the service, while attentive, can be a bit rushed. At one point our tabled was groaning under the weight of half eaten dishes. Overall, Genji is a great value for sushi, teriyaki...now on to the next Japanese place for my daily fix.

Great sushi, best in Ottawa. I always share the Sakura sashimi plate and then some rolls. The salmon-skin roll is amazing!

ok, I really don't want to come off as a sushi snob, but hey, this is a foodie forum, and come on...how many sub-par sushi joints does one have to eat through in Ottawa before finding the El Dorado of Japanese cuisine? The answer in my case is approximately 7 since moving here from Winnipeg last year.(note: if in Winnipeg, Edohei is where it's at - just don't walk there at night).
And then we finally made it to Genji. Meat Man nailed it in the comment below...right down to the Stampede Roll.
I can't say for certain if I've become so desperate to find decent Sushi that I'm spazzing out about this place... but like Mr.Burns said, "You know, I'm no art critic, but I know what I hate. And... I don't hate this".
There. I'm a sushi snob.

My colleagues and I go to Genji once a week, as we work just aorund the corner on Elgin. For lunch I usually get the vegetarian maki set, that comes with soup and a small salad. This is such a great lunch place. It fills up quick during the week. But if you get there right at 12:00 pm you should get a table no problem.

I had lunch here for the first time with some colleagues last week. I had yet to find decent sushi in Ottawa since moving from the west coast. Well the sashimi at Genji sold me. Fresh, served at the right temperature and pleasantly garnished. I appreciated the work that was put in to all our food. I had 4 different types of fish on my sashimi set for only 17$ - excellent value. My friend bought us a treat to try: Genji's Stampede Roll which features barely seared steak strips on a roll. Now I am not one to drift from the fish at a sushi joint so i had my doubts... WOW was I wrong! I was really impressed - the steak was tender and very tasty. that roll alone can be a meal on its own. Genji will be a staple establishment on my list

I love this restaurant....yummy miso soup, crisp salad, good specials and the sashimi is always fresh. The sushi pizzas are especially good. Friendly service but it can be painfully slow at times. Highly recommend Genji!

Genji is probably Ottawa's best sushi restaurant. I say probably because the quality varies so much from day to day here and at other restaurants that it's almost impossible to guarantee a good meal. I guess the ocean IS far away. The chefs have changed over time and none of them are truly trained. Perhaps some of the past ones were better than currently. I expect a chef to know how to properly cut salmon at least... the owner had to yell at one of the new guys after he saw it.

However, there is a variety and creativity on the menu that is refreshing and if the fish is good that day can be very satisfying. Expensive compared to any similar quality place in Toronto or Montreal, but this is Ottawa. As a second choice, try Ichibei which has a smaller menu but is more traditionally Japanese.

Hi everybody! I had a wonderful lunch today at Genji.

It my first time at this restaurant and my first time eating Japanese food - and it definitely won't be the last! I ordered the Kaiso salad (3 types of seaweed with genji dressing) which was fresh, light and very flavorful (tangy). Then, I had the beef ramen noodle soup which was excellent- see the noodle section for my review.

The service was fine (the waitress was friendly enough), the ambiance is great and I really like the decor of this place. I will definitely go back for more ramen or maybe i'll try the soba noodles :)

I went to Genji expecting the best sushi in town, I was disappointed. Almost all five rolls we had were terrible. The sushi was good, although each piece was too big. Way over priced and I hate to say it, only has better presentation than an AYCE sushi restaurant. They're also slow!

"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.

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??

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.)