I finally went to check out Nome Izakaya at their new location at Shops at Don Mills. I'd been meaning to check out Nome for over a year now because it has great reviews and a lot of my friends love it, but I absolutely hate driving to Yonge and Sheppard because traffic is a shit show and there's never any parking there. So once I found out that they were opening a brand new location at Shops at Don Mills, my friends Maegan, Tuta, and I immediately set upon a date to go there for dinner. The new location is far more spacious than their original location, well-decorated in dark woods and shades of grey with a wall mural of koi fish to keep in line with their Asian motif. Floor-to-ceiling windows line the front of the restaurant that face out on to a patio, giving the place plenty of sunlight and a feeling of openness. Tuta knows the owner of Nome, so he greeted us warmly and had reserved one of the best seats in the house — a big, plush corner booth right by the windows — for us. After perusing the menu, and along with Tuta's recommendations, we decided on our menu for the evening:
- 20 P.E.I. Malpeque oysters ($1 oysters on Tuesdays and Wednesdays!)
- Octo-Wasabi: Pickled octopus with chopped wasabi stem and roasted nori
- Takoyaki: Deep-fried octopus balls served with tonkatsu sauce and mayo
- Shrimp Udon Salad: Fresh spring mix with shrimp on a bed of udon noodles topped with a wasabi sesame vinaigrette
- Monkfish Tacos: Deep-fried monkfish with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, kiwi, edamame, yuzu zest, and yuzu tartar
- Tiger Shrimp: Deep-fried shrimp tempura drizzled with sweet chili mayo and served with prawn crackers
- Japa-Burgers: Homemade sliders made with sliced rib eye meat and topped with tomato, spring mix, onion, smoky BBQ sauce, and house garlic mayo
- Honey Bread: 4" toasted bread with butter, topped with honey, strawberry and blueberry preserves, honey cream, vanilla ice cream, and raspberries, and dusted with cactus honey powder
Wow, wow, wow. Thoroughly impressive in variety, flavours, freshness, and presentation. The owner transferred the head chef of the original Nome to this location so the quality of the food is maintained, and it shows. I can't even pick highlights, because everything was good. They offer oysters for $1 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so obviously, you should take advantage if you're an oyster fan. The only items I wouldn't be prone to ordering are the sushi/maki because I think it's wasted on izakayas (if you want sushi, go to a sushi restaurant, you know?), but everything else is fair game. I will go again and again just to try everything on the menu. I will say, however, to forego all the other desserts (most of which come from The Cheesecake Factory) and get the Honey Bread. It takes 15 minutes for them to make fresh, but it's so worth it; massive cubes of bread are coated with honey and butter and toasted to a perfect golden hue so the outside is crispy and the inside is soft with the ideal ratio of salty to sweet. It's topped with a mound of honey-tinted whipped cream and vanilla bean ice cream, and it's the most addictive thing, ever. Even Maegan, who doesn't like honey, loved this dessert. Nome has proven to be one of those restaurants that you immediately wanna go back to the moment you leave. So we're already planning our next visit.
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