Date night: Shelly and her husband have a romantic Japanese dinner at Genji

Shelly Lyonnais is a local elementary school teacher who has been living in Ottawa on and off for 20 years.  She spends her weekends in search of Ottawa’s great date night dinner locations.

This week we decided to have our date night dinner at Genji on Lisgar Street: we have been to this Japanese restaurant twice before and have loved it each time.

We made reservations earlier in the week, which is a must with this place on a Saturday night, because every time we have gone all of the tables have been full. On this visit we were seated at a table for two with screens on either side, and it was really nice to have such a secluded spot for our romantic dinner.

Miso soup at Genji

I started my meal with miso soup.  This cute little container kept the soup piping hot.  It was the perfect way to start the meal – a nice light soup with bits of tofu.

Stampede roll at Genji

My husband has always had a fear of sushi until he met the stampede roll.  This roll has sliced AAA beef wrapped around green onions, cucumber, asparagus, tempura bits and Japanese mayo (which is a bit spicy).  He dreams about these rolls!

The Boston roll at Genji

For my meal I chose two different rolls.  This one is the Boston roll which is lettuce, avocado, crab, shrimp, cucumber, green onion and the Japanese mayo.  I am a sucker for anything that has avocado in it: the lettuce gave a bit of a crunch, while the crab and shrimp kept it sweet.

Spider rolls at Genji

This other roll was my absolute favourite:  the spider roll has crispy soft shell crab, asparagus and Japanese mayo – this was heaven on a plate! My husband’s entree was the Nabeyaki Udon,  but I didn’t get a picture because my rolls were far too important to me at the time.  His bowl was filled to the brim with steaming udon noodles, tempura chicken, egg, and vegetables.  Normally this dish would also include crab sticks but he chose to have them excluded from his dish.  The egg is dropped into the bowl which you then mix into the steaming broth – it was incredibly filling and so delicious.

We would highly recommend this little place, the service has always been good and the food is amazing.

Thanks Shelly!