Nikkei: the perfect neighborhood nightclub

The age of to club will never pass me by. The urge to climb on my high heels to go out often overtakes me even if I do it very little.

Weeks organized like clockwork, family dinners to make sure homework is done well, to plan lunches, schedules for soccer matches and mom-taxi followed by weekends enjoying the colors and picking flowers. season. It was the tire change summons that arrived in my email box last week that stunned me and made me want to forget everything for an evening chik-a-boom-boom.

It happened on the first day of the Lantern Festival at the Nikkei on the Plateau-Mont-Royal and which will last until Halloween. A neighborhood restaurant-bar, with DJ Claudel, spectacular cocktails – including one served in a smoking lantern and another on a Japanese-style sand patch with bonsai –, club atmosphere for a chic dinner (but it’s far from being a prerequisite here) and being served entry-level dishes to the high end of this extraordinary cuisine that is Nikkei cuisine, a fusion between the fine tradition of Peruvian and Japanese cuisine.

Feeling your 20s again

The wildlife is family, I saw the boss’s baby there with its shells in its ears, Quebec TikTokers, neighbors from the neighborhood, groups of friends and couples. A clientele as I like it of its time, that is to say for everyone.

Until the end of October, the Nikkei presents the Chôchin Matsuri lantern festival to usher in autumn. Lantern festivals are classic throughout the year in Japan. At home, we associate them with Halloween and fall. I almost got the feeling for having forgotten my disguise as the atmosphere of the last weekend of October reigns supreme in the establishment.

The five-course menu offered for the occasion is copious, it’s a pleasure. It comes with an aperitif. And if you extend a few dollars more, a wine pairing is offered. Whether you trust the chef or decide to go à la carte, the nigiri de res is rolling on the floor and you have to order it. Raw fish is replaced here by an exceptionally delicious filet mignon tataki with a crust made from nearly ten smoky-tasting Japanese spices.

Five new cocktails are making their debut on the drinks menu. Visiting this menu is worth the detour to the restaurant’s website to read the explorations of extraordinary dedication on the part of the mixologist. I dipped my lips into each of his inventions with absolute surprise at each of my discoveries, including one that mixes cognac and chai tea (Santo Momiji). As a Chilean from Sainte-Foy who enjoys the Chile-Peru rivalry surrounding the authorship of the pisco sour, I give them first place for the pisco sour reinvented by their mixologist, Jeremy Escolano, in a wonderfully successful fruity version with ginger liqueur and passion fruit puree. When going to see the colors on Mount Royal, mark your final destination with a visit to Nikkei, you will not be disappointed.