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| - Overall Rating: ****
Food: ****1/2
Service: **1/2
Ambiance: ***
Located in the same plaza as J-Town, the Japanese "groceries" store on Steeles is Shiso Tree Cafe. It all started with just a bakery section within J-Town, but now they have their own cafe directly across from their bakery.
Shiso is a fusion lunch joint serving up Italian/Japanese fusion pasta dishes along with various items you'd find in a cafe (e.g. teas, coffees and pastries). Unfortunately, for those of us who don't live in Markham, this means that the only chance you may have to experiences Shiso is on your day off as they are only open for lunch service between 12PM to 3PM Tuesday through Friday.
Lunch sets are $8 and includes a soup, salad and "garlic" bread along with your choice of fusion pasta dish. I use the term garlic loosely as to me it was just a slice of toast with some butter on it - the garlic went AWOL.The soup of the day today was a Shoyu Bonito Broth, which appeared in our bowls in the form of a creamy soy sauce and fish soup adorned with croutons. The soups are served in cups, which makes for easy sipping towards the end, and the soup was quite smooth and rich. The croutons were a tad bit oily but still crunchy when brought to the table.
The Shiso Tree Salad was also very tasty, with its housemade Wafu dressing which is a soy-based dressing most often mixed with vegetable oil and mirin.
For mains we ordered the Okonomiyaki (sautéed onions, bacon and garlic dressed like an Okonomiyaki-style pancake), as well as the Tarako (cod roe, garlic, and shimeji mushrooms). Both were made with spaghetti. Of the 2, I preferred the Tarako as it was made with very simple ingredients, but was still bursting with flavour. I found that the Okonomiyaki, though still tasty, had too many flavours trying to vie for centre stage and as a result, nothing really stood out.The portion sizes were perfect and allowed room for dessert, coffee and tea afterwards.
We ordered a black tea and a green tea to accompany our meals (Asians are avid tea drinkers, and believe that warm tea helps "flush out" the grease), and I ordered a cup of their Organic Crême Brûlée Coffee to accompany dessert.
I was really excited to see the Green Tea Red Bean Cake on their menu and had my heart set on ordering it for dessert, but unfortunately because I had arrived 1 hour prior to their close time - they were sold out. Therefore, I settled on the Azuki Matcha Cream Toast and a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream. It is adorned with a homemade green tea sauce and sweet red bean with whipped cream. I liked that they gave you a choice of whole-wheat or white bread. The matcha sauce was very delicious but I didn't see any red beans in my toast? I think the server must've misheard me and just given us the Matcha Cream Toast. The bread was salted, probably from the use of salted butter. If it were up to me I would opt for unsalted butter.
Verdict:
All in all, I enjoyed my dining experience at Shiso Tree Café. The décor is a perfect example of fusion - with 2 traditional tatami-style rooms, a breakfast bar top, and an array of tables. I enjoyed the quaint décor and the bright windows. Instrumental music plays in the background to allow for a relaxing lunch or tea break. Perhaps the only thing that was missing was free wi-fi but I guess they don't want diners lingering for too long seeing as they are only open for 4 hours. A few things I noticed, but that do not overshadow the positives were: entrées being pushed out even before we finished our starters and that I didn't get to try the Green Tea Red Bean Cake, which judging from the many pictures I've seen of it, would've been nothing short of heavenly! I will most definitely be back on my mission to sample the Green Tea Red Bean Cake. The total bill came up to about $36 with tax and tip. I would recommend this restaurant if you're looking for a cozy place to relax and enjoy yourself!
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