Faced with the challenge of finding a restaurant that could provide a healthy alternative to the stuffing and gravy of a traditional Christmas meal, we were a little stumped. Christmas isn’t Christmas without the customary pie and turkey (or tofurky), so we went in a different direction altogether, opting for traditional Japanese-and no, that does not only mean sushi.
The Okonomi House (23 Charles St W) is a little restaurant that you’d easily pass by unless you were looking for it. The layout isn’t fancy-you can choose to sit at a table along the side or at the counter in front of the grill. The restaurant specializes in okonomi, a cross between an omelet and a pancake, made of flour, egg, milk, chopped cabbage, green onion and pickled ginger, topped with teriyaki sauce.
The appeal of this seemingly simple dish was lost on us until we tried it. It was amazingly flavourful and the dining experience itself was entertaining, the best part being sitting at the glass pane in front of the grill and watching everything being made. The okonomi makes a nice-sized lunch for a reasonable price, hovering around $6.00 depending on which of their optional fillings (meat, veggies, or seafood) you choose.
There’s also optional anori (dried seaweed) or katsuobushi (bonito flakes) for $0.50, though a diner with a little more okonomi experience told us that they have roughly the same effect as adding salt to your eggs. Nevertheless, the novelty added to the traditional meal experience.
Because the teriyaki sauce was so enjoyable, we branched out and tried the chicken teriyaki ($7.95) and the tofu version ($6.55). There was nothing green to be seen, aside from a couple pieces of broccoli with the tofu, but the delicious sauce made the meal. Other options include the Yakisoba ($7.25), a dish of chicken, beef, shrimp, veggies and stir-fried Japanese noodles with a bowl of miso soup. The highlight here was the savoury soup, but all the yakisoba needed was a little more soy sauce. Like the teriyaki dishes, it would have been nice to see something green … or anything other than brown, really. However, the sauce soaked into the beef, making it very tender, a sure hit for all you carnivores.
We couldn’t go to a traditional Japanese restaurant without trying the edamame (soy beans), which when boiled in salt water make a very tasty snack.
For the complete experience, try the sake (rice wine) with your meal ($4.55-small, $8.75-large, but a little goes a long way), or the plum wine (similar to a port or dessert wine for $4.15), with dessert of homemade custard pudding ($2.35) or standard green tea ice cream ($2.95).
The restaurant’s service left something to be desired. All the servers were polite but rarely seen, as they were constantly running from table to table. The servers might be forgiven, however, as the place was busy-a clear sign of a good, authentic restaurant.
Try the Okonomi House for an affordable and unique dining experience. Stir-frying at home is fun, but watching a master whip together several dishes at the same time makes you realize that you have a lot more to learn-much like school.
