Sushi Hidden Fish — Restaurant in Montreal

I had heard about this place from a friend and it was fully booked unfortunately. I did manage to come on a Sunday for dinner. It was still fairly busy, only 2 tables available. I have to say I don't have any idea how they have such a high review. This is likely the most overhyped and overpriced sushi I've had. The opposite of what I would call a luxury dining experience.

The first thing I'll say is the decor actually is quite nice. And the hostess was super friendly and kind and seated us quick. There was a more spacious table available and without us asking she came and asked if we wanted to change to a bigger table. We did. That's more or less where the better part of the experience ended.

Despite it being Sunday and not super busy when we went as nobody was seated after us, we didn't see the waiter for about 20 minutes. The manager who was standing about 3 meters away and watching didn't notice we hadn't been served water or asked for our drink order.

Eventually I did flag down a waiter and asked him if I could order. He said he would take out drink order but the food had to be with our server. I ordered a bottle of sake and asked him to flag our waiter for us. After 10 more minutes no one came and no drink so I flagged down another waiter to get ours. We again ordered a bottle of sake as the first hadn't been put in and some appetizers and sushi and rolls.

When I asked him to repeat our food order he had missed a roll. So I told him again. 15 mins later some food came out but still no drinks. So I flagged him down again and he asked me to repeat which drinks we wanted then said there was an error in the system and they would bring it out ASAP. As we had ordered a fair bit of food they put our sake bottle on ice away from the table, which at first seemed like a good idea, however our waiter never came back to refill our sake. From our MIA bottle. So we eventually finished the food and then I literally got up and moved our own sake bottle to the table. Waiter was quite surprised at the end when I asked for the bill and the bottle was empty as he even said he didn't remember pouring us the sake; which he didn't.

As for the food, the sashimi was okay, but overpriced and nothing to write home about. The rolls were a bit too salty for the most part, even without any soya sauce. The exceptions: unagi house specialty roll was great and probably our favorite. The roll topped with crab was also quite good. But everything else was pretty below par.

Scallop roll with truffle was so mild in flavour I didn't even know there was truffle on it. The hamachi signature roll was a bit salty which kind of mafe it a bit overpowering.

At the end again was a struggle to get service for dessert so we just got our bill.

Definitely can't recommend this place and wouldn't go back. Again no clue how it seems to be highly rated or reviewed. I have sushi weekly and there's way better sushi and value and just couldn't recommend hidden fish...

Amazing experience!

Me and my boyfriend came to Hidden Fish to fill our sushi cravings (we visited this past week on 4/10) and also to try out sushi in Montreal! We are born and raised in NYC and have our own sushi spot we absolutely love here but we wanted to see what Hidden Fish was all about.

We made reservations the day before and that went smoothly. Only thing to keep in mind is that they do charge you a hefty price for cancelling less than a day in advance or no showing per person! which is no surprise as it's shown to you during making your reservations.

Upon arriving we were greeted with warm welcomes and seated in a lovely table for two. Our first thoughts were how beautiful the ambiance was in there! Dark-dim lighting, beautiful decor representing the restaurant, and just overall so romantic. Our waiter immediately came to our table and offered us water and after we said we didn't want any he said he will give us some anyway which we loved! The water tasted great. He proceeded to give us menus and he was very quick the whole night to serve us. Anytime we spilled soy sauce on the table, or he saw our table needed a quick wipe he came and wiped it clean for us so we can continue eating on a clean table.

We order various things from the menu including a salad and GOD was everything just melt in your mouth perfection!!! We were so shocked at how delicious the fish was and the way everything was presented it just exceeding our entire expectation! Our waiter (which I wish I remembered his name) was so on point he even took the time to describe to us our dishes upon bringing them to us and suggesting which ones were best without any sauces.

We didn't order any drinks since we were already pregaming at our hotel and didn't want to mix but we did see a lot of people enjoying their wine selection and champagne. The icing on the cake for Hidden Fish was how sweet they were to listen to the comments we made in our reservation about it being our anniversary! Once we had asked for the bill, our waiter brought out this amazing dessert with sparklers on it and wished us a happy anniversary and we found that to be just so sweet and thoughtful of them to do.

The only negative thing we have to say is that we waited a VERY long time to get our bill (I'm talking like 30-35 minutes), we told our waiter multiple times to bring us the bill and never did and we saw other people getting their bills way after we even asked which annoyed us considering we were sitting there with no drinks at least to pass the time just basically staring at each other. We had to flag down another waiter who then finally got our waiter to bring us the bill. Other than that we would 100% come back here if we come back to Montreal and would 100% recommend this to anyone looking for a different take on sushi!

Food was 10/10 Service 9.5/10 Atmosphere/Vibe 10/10 Price was fitting for the type of service and quality of the food. Perfect for...

We had a semi-private room upstairs. It was beautifully designed, but also very cramped, and some of the fussy details didn’t make sense:

• There were decorative seashells hanging from the ceiling, but they hung so low that my male guests and I kept hitting them when we stood up or gestured;

• The chairs were very wide with curved backs, forcing you to slouch forward since you couldn’t lean back. They were also so wide that the sides touched the chairs next to you, making you feel trapped;

• I ordered an Old Fashioned, but the glass had a decorative streak of spices running down the side that was hard to see in the dim lighting and kept rubbing off on my hand;

• One wall had a tacky painting of a Geisha that looked like it was done by an inexperienced art student.

The room was also hot—my nieces complained, and I was almost sweating. The kind and attentive waiter, who had way too many tattoos and seemed a bit too prideful, said they didn’t have climate control, so nothing could be done.

We did omakase. The fish was high quality, and the presentation was good, but the sushi rice was a bit off—slightly undercooked.

The staff seemed stiff and inexperienced, and there were beams of douchebag energy coming of some patrons, many of whom seemed like tourists. One table had a group of women who looked like prostitutes—and not in a good way.

Worst of all, it took more than an hour to receive our first dish, and another 30-40 minutes for the second. Frustrated, we eventually left.

EDIT (in response to owner’s reply):

I appreciate your explanations regarding the food delays.

You're correct that we joined tables, affecting egress, but that doesn’t change the issue with the seat width and design. I would also argue that for a party of eight, it’s reasonable to expect to be seated together, not at two separate tables.

As for my comment about your patrons, I certainly wasn’t referring to "other families."

Your waiter was, in fact, a gentleman. I described him as "kind and attentive" in my review. My remark about his tattoos wasn’t mocking his appearance—he was quite handsome and well-dressed. I simply noted that he had too many tattoos. Tattoos are a personal style choice, not an immutable trait or a religious symbol. To analogize: if you had a disheveled waiter or one with a spiked orange mohawk, common sense suggests it would be reasonable to mention that...