Biiru Izakaya Montréal

Biiru Izakaya is a Japanese fusion izakaya restaurant in Montréal that’s inspired by Tokyo’s lively back alleyways and the vibrant energy of downtown Montréal. The restaurant serves a variety of small, meant to be shared Japanese fusion dishes as well as signature cocktails and alcohols on the menu. Step inside the restaurant and you’ll see how the inspirations are reflected in the way they decorate the space. The Japanese artworks painted on the walls, the vibrant neon lights illuminating different corners of the room and the Japanese paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling certainly reminiscence of the energy one would find while walking around the street of Tokyo. The restaurant has plenty of seatings that could accommodate everyone from solo diners to big groups, making this place a great spot for every occasion.

I went to Biiru during my trip to Montréal because my friend suggested the place. She’s been there a couple of times before and liked the food so she wanted me to try it to while we’re in town. It was a Thursday night and we tried to get a last minute reservation online but there’s no table available for 7:30 pm on the system. Since we’re not in a rush, we decided to just try our luck with walk-in. And guess luck was on our side because they actually have a table available for us at the outdoor area. The weather wasn’t too cold (it was early October and the outdoor area was covered with heater lamps on different corners of the area) so we thought sitting outside is probably okay.

Since we’re at an izakaya, we decided to just order a bunch of dishes to share between the two of us so we can try different things. What we ordered:

🍹 Onsen (C$15.95) | 8/10

Sparking Wine, Shiso, Green Tea Syrup, Grapefruit, Passionfruit

My friend ordered this one and she said it was good. She liked it and finished the whole thing.

🍵 Matcha Matcha (C$10.95) | 8/10

I ordered the Matcha Matcha mocktail. Nice matcha, not too strong, not too bitter, not too sweet. It has a nice earthy taste and definitely not something that I usually taste in an iced matcha (in a good, interesting way).

🍽️ Korn Korokke (C$11.95) | 7.5/10

Corn Croquettes, Japanese Curry, Cream, Fukunjinzuke

The croquettes were nicely fried and the curry wasn’t too strong. 

🥟 Pork Gyoza (C$10.95) | 8/10

Homemade Pork Japanese Raviolis, Gyoza Sauce

Great pork gyoza. The gyoza skin wasn’t too thick and the pork was flavorful. 

🍳 Okonomiyaki (C$12.95) | 7/10

Bonito Japanese Pancake with Mushroom & Cabbage, Truffle Oil

The okonomiyaki was just okay for me. Seasoning was a bit under for my personal taste but texture wise, it was pretty good.

🍽️ Kaisen Don (C$20.95) | 8/10

Salmon, Tuna, Emeabi, Ikura, Eel, Tamago, Kampyo, Shiso, Cucumber, Furikake, Sesame Seed, Rice

The Kaisen Don was pretty good. It tasted fresh and and light.

🍽️ Gyudon (C$14.95) | 7/10

Sliced Beef, Caramelized Onions, Beni Shoga, Rice

Honestly I was excited to try their gyudon but the beef was pretty dry for my personal preference (I like gyudon with more tender, juicier meat and a little bit of sauce). Taste was okay, it’s just the beef that we got was a bit dry.

All and all, although I liked some of the dishes better than the others, the food overall was pretty good for a modern Japanese fusion izakaya spot. Service was great and the staff who waited our table was nice. The noise level at this place was pretty high though since it is a drinking place and the acoustic of the outdoor area isn’t necessarily the best one. We were seated next to a table of ladies who were drinking quite heavily and at some point me and my friend had to shout while talking to each other because they were talking so loud. We left not long after we finished our meal because I had no energy left to shout over the noise of the room. 

But if you’re looking for a good Japanese fusion izakaya spot with great drinks menu and lively atmosphere in Montreal, Biiru is worth to try.

 

Biiru Montréal

Address: 1433 Rue City Councillors, Montréal, QC H3B 1B1, Canada
Telephone: +15149031555
Hours: Monday-Friday 11:30am-2:30pm, 5-10pm | Closed on Sundays

Instagram: @biiru_mtl
Biiru Website

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Busan Cinema Center • 영화의전당

Ken (@seoul_stateofmind) joined me on me third day in Busan and we started our day bright and early visiting Busan Cinema Center (영화의전당). Busan Cinema Center is the official venue of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) and probably one of the more well-known place in Busan. The building architecture was built by an Austrian architecture firm, Coop-Himmelblau, who won the design competition for the venue. After it was completed, the venue has won several different awards including a Guinness World Record for the "longest cantilever roof" in the world, covered with dynamic LED lighting surface.

Sadly, there was some kind of event going on on the day of our visit so the whole complex was covered with all kinds of event banners and stage set ups. It was almost impossible to get a clear shot of the building so we didn't get a lot of good shots of the architecture. I got a couple of shots from some parts of the venue tho, the non-banners-covered areas. I definitely have to go back again to see this place again and hopefully next time during both day time and night time.

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National Maritime Museum • 국립해양박물관

To be honest, National Maritime Museum (국립해양박물관) got into my 'places to visit in Busan' list because of the architecture of the building. Saw the picture of the building online and thought it's interesting, so I thought it would be fun if I stop by and check the place out. First of all, the building was huge. And so was the complex for that matter. Took me a while to just walk around the building and see it from different angle. It's definitely interesting tho.

After exploring outside, I went inside to check out the museum. There are 4 floors in the building and they have all sorts of things that are related to maritime and ocean life—old boats and aquarium included. I was fascinated to see the historical marine vessels that they have on display—the shape, the design, and the different usages that they have. Didn't really take a lot of pictures inside since I was actually trying to look at the exhibit and reading the information cards they have on display. There were a lot of families walking around the exhibits. Parents chasing their kids, kids asking their parents what everything is, and some mothers who were waiting for their kids to wake up from their naps were the common sights at this place. I left the place when I'm done checking out all the four floors in the building and started walking towards the bus stop wishing that it'll come right when I got there.

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Amisan Observatory • 아미산 전망대

After a bumpy (and somewhat long) bus ride, I finally got off at the bus stop in front of the Amisan Observatory (아미산 전망대) and made my way up the hill to get to the main entrance. The place was quite. The location is kinda in the middle of nowhere and maybe because it's still early, not a lot of people were there. I walked around the small outdoor area they have around the observatory and found the spot where I can view the Nakdong river (낙동강) and the surrounding area from up here. I stared at the view while accompanied by the singing cicadas. Not my preferable soundtrack I should say, but hey, at least with the combination of the breezy wind blowing it totally made it feels like an actual summer day. I remember thinking that this place is a good place to get some thinking done. The atmosphere was very serene and although everything seemed to be very still, I can still hear the sound of the rustling leaves here and there when the wind blew.

I encountered a Korean couple who were visiting from out of town during my walk around the place. They asked me to take a picture of them with their camera since they didn't have any picture together. It still amazes me to this day to see older Korean couple who still take trips and travel together. Maybe because I grew up seeing a lot of husband figures who rarely want to travel together with just their wives. Most of them prefer to stay at home and unless the whole family is involved, they usually seldom take leisure trips.

After I'm done with my exploration I sat around for a bit enjoying the view and the breezy wind. And after I think I heard enough of the cicadas singing, I walked down the hill and made my way to the bus stop to catch the bus back to the city.

Updates: It's been a hectic pas couple of months of work and traveling and now I'm back (hopefully) to update this blog. There are more trips to come too in the next two month, so stay tuned guys! Will be rolling out new posts in the next couple of days :)

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Jagalchi Market • 자갈치시장

As you all probably figured from my previous posts, the weather has been really hot here in Seoul and in the past week, I've been staying indoors most of the time. Exploring (and sometimes even finding the will to walk around outside in this hot weather) has became rather hard and air-conditioned restaurants and cafes have became my refuge during these 35°+C hot summer days. With that said, thought I'd share with you some of the shots from my trip to Busan last summer that I haven't got around to post to mix it up with all the cafes and restaurants posts ;)

So last year, I decided to go to Busan for a couple of days just because I never been there before. I was there for 4 days and spent the first two days alone. That was officially my first solo trip outside Seoul in South Korea. It was quite an interesting and fun experience. I was a little bit nervous to be honest, since Busan is not a city that I'm familiar with. But I guess that's what made it fun at the same time. Plus, since I'm alone, I didn't have to worry about anybody else and got to do everything in my own pace according to what I felt like doing. Should I take the bus or taxi, skip this place or stay here longer, should I eat lunch now or later, or should I simply stay in at the hotel because the weather's too hot—these kind of questions I could just winged it depending on how I felt. A pretty nice feeling I should say.

One of the places I visited on my first day was the Jagalchi Market (자갈치시장). Jagalchi market is probably one of the common place that is closely associated to Busan, so I thought I should at least give this place a visit. I just have to checked this off my list because this was my first visit to Busan ya know. I arrived pretty late in the afternoon around 4pm so the market wasn't too busy. There were people buying fish here and there, a couple of tourists groups, and fishmongers who were cleaning their stalls or trying to convince passerbys to stop at their stalls to at least take a look at their seafood selections.

I ended up ordering the Korean raw fish, hweh (희), from one of the stalls at the market. Didn't have a specific reason, really, other than the ahjussi who was manning the stall was friendly and nice. I can't remember which fish I had but I do remember that the hweh wasn't as good as I expected it to be. Maybe I just didn't order correctly, since I know very little about fish, let alone which fish is good for hweh. Anyways, one side of the fish was for the hweh and the other side was deep fried and it was served with rice and banchan (반찬). I did enjoy the deep-fried part better than the hweh for sure. It was delicious.

I went back to the stall after I finished eating and the ahjussi was kind enough to let me took pictures around his stalls and even posed for me holding the big crab. My first seafood market experience was definitely interesting and I couldn't get over how much colors there were in this place. A lot was definitely going on despite the lack of crowd. I left the market thinking I probably should ask one of my Korean friends to take me to a good hweh place so I know what a good hweh tastes like.

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