While hunting down a decent meal the other night, my boyfriend and I decided it was time we give fairly new restaurant in our area a try. 5 Saisons Sushi opened a little more than a year ago and we have often thought about eating there, however, on our budget Japanese would be too expensive! On this particular evening, we were ready for a small splurge and took the plunge.

After sampling a couple of appetizers and a belly-busting assortment of sushi, I am now convinced that this it is one of Montreal's most authentic Japanese restaurants.

While their menu has a large variety of sushi and sashimi choices, the rest of the menu is fairly focused on Japanese cuisine, so you will not find General Tao on the menu beside their Wakame salad. Each dish is presented simply and elegantly with a shot glass containing a fresh edible orchid and some other decorative and edible garnishes, secured in place with a dab of freshly made wasabi.

5 Saisons Sushi offers three different types of tuna in their sashimi menu, Maguro (your typical red tuna), Hamachi (farmed yellowtail) and Albacore (white tuna). Many of their rolls are served with shiso leaf (a mint-meets-fennel-like herb), which is not your garden variety sushi ingredient. What's more, their ginger is yellow (not pink), which means that it has not been artificially colored with beet juice. Finally, they served a homemade Ponzu sauce with our order of soft shelled crab.

While delving into our delicious first appetizer, I suddenly had a craving for Buri-Kama. Buri Kama is a salt-grilled yellowtail collar, and is spectacularly succulent. I knew it was a long shot, but the waitress returned and offered me Hamachi Kama (still yellowtail, but farmed rather than wild). That is an awesome accommodation, and I readily accepted. My boyfriend had never savored this dish and I was eager to see what he thought of it.

When the Hamachi Kama arrived 15 minutes later, it was everything I had been craving and then some. The flavor is all yellowtail, but somehow sweeter and more buttery.

5 Saisons selection offers a unique, but not "trendy", selection of maki rolls and chef specialty rolls, and this sets them apart from many of the other sushi restaurants I have been to. They offer several combination plates, as well as a cooked combo for beginners who are not ready for raw fish.

We sampled the Honey roll (shrimps, tempura, avocado and sweet potato); the Chocotuna (white tuna sashimi garnished with fresh mango and grilled garlic); the Deep Sea roll (eel, tobiko, mango, shrimp and pepper); and the Rocky, which was probably the best tasting maki we've had in a long time (fresh spicy salmon, grilled salmon, avocado, shiso leaf and tempura). With this we also had orders of the Spicy Tekkie (tuna), a Hotate Dynamite (spicy scallops), and an assortment of sashimi.

We finished off our meal with a pot of Genmai-cha tea. This meal could have easily filled 3 or 4 people, so we were pleasantly surprised when the tally arrived! Appetizers, and over 40 pieces of sushi came to just a hint over 90$. While the outward appearance of 5 Saisons restaurant may not give the impression of a must do restaurant: the nondescript building could be just about anything, in fact, I believe it housed a daycare at one point: the quality of the food and the excellent service will definitely have you talking about your next visit.

The restaurant does not have a liquor license, but welcomes diners to bring their own wine and they do not charge an uncorking fee.

5 Saisons Sushi
5594 A Sherbrooke West
(514) 489-4555