Restaurant GIWA propose une sélection minutieuse de plats coréens authentiques qui allient préparations traditionnelles et esthétique contemporaine moderne. Les convives découvrent des assiettes axées sur des profils de saveurs équilibrés, mettant en vedette des incontournables tels que les banchan assaisonnés, les viandes grillées au feu et les ragoûts fermentés copieux. La cuisine privilégie une gestion précise des températures et des ingrédients de haute qualité pour maintenir l'intégrité des recettes classiques dans un environnement épuré et soigné. Chaque composition sur le menu reflète un engagement envers l'authenticité culturelle tout en présentant les plats à travers un prisme minimaliste et moderne. L'espace mise sur l'efficacité et la clarté, permettant aux couleurs vibrantes et aux textures marquées des protéines et légumes marinés de définir l'expérience sensorielle. Cette approche offre une exploration ciblée des fondamentaux culinaires coréens pour ceux qui recherchent une qualité constante.
Restaurant GIWA est largement reconnu comme une destination culinaire exceptionnelle à Montréal, célèbre pour son approche authentique et réfléchie de la cuisine coréenne qui dépasse les attentes habituelles. Les clients louent constamment la grande qualité des plats, soulignant que le menu saisonnier est à la fois créatif et méticuleusement préparé, avec des incontournables comme le sotbap, le poulet frit coréen et des desserts fusion uniques qui suscitent fréquemment l'admiration. Bien que le menu soit volontairement concis, cet accent mis sur la qualité et la technique est très apprécié, et la présentation de chaque repas est régulièrement décrite comme belle et élégante. Le personnel est constamment mis en avant pour sa gentillesse, son attention et ses connaissances, prenant souvent le temps d'expliquer les ingrédients et les méthodes traditionnelles aux convives. Bien que le restaurant soit parfois décrit comme étant un peu plus cher ou disposant d'un espace intime et restreint, la grande majorité des visiteurs trouve que l'expérience en vaut largement le prix, le recommandant comme un incontournable pour quiconque recherche un repas sophistiqué et mémorable.
I've had many good restaurant experiences in Montreal but this is the first one that has been so good that I need to write a review. The food was delicious, creative, & genuinely delightful (I loved the personal-sized portions of the side dishes, as well as the dishware itself). For the level of service & food quality I would have expected a much higher bill. Can't wait to return
Excellent Korean restaurant. The food is authentic & delicious. The esthetics are appealing & the taste is amazing. For Korean food, it is on the pricier side; however, it is well worth it. The waitress is knowlegeable & explains every dish. I truly recommend the yukhwe (beef tartare) & the haemul jang (raw seafood platter). The sotbap was excellent too. The rice & beef come with many side dishes.
Took my partner here to celebrate for a birthday dinner. The food was delicious & exactly what they wanted as they love little dishes & such.
The atmosphere is almost there. My best suggestion is that they match the light bulbs that are in the lanterns & only keep a couple screwed in or get rid of the brighter lights altogether.
The'bar' area can also use some thoughtfulness. There's stacks of boxes or something that make it an eye-sore & the lighting in the kitchen disrupts the lighting in the dining area. I'd put a wall up, separator & match the lighting altogether.
Beyond the lighting, the I'm really here to comment on the service that Hailey provided, which was sweet & thoughtful.
With the customer service bar so low these days, a smile goes a long way! She did that & so much more by not only being patient in our decision making process, but also, treating my partner to a little birthday ice cream.
Will be back to try other dishes, but hopefully the lighting is adjusted by then.
Kudos to Hailey!
5 févr. 2026
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Restaurant Giwa is not a'Korean restaurant' in the way that term has come to mean lately. It is something far rarer.
The focus here is ?? (sotbap): rice cooked to order in an individual heavy metal pot, layered with carefully chosen ingredients, then finished so that the rice develops structure & contrast (soft grains at the top & a crisp, nutty crust at the bottom). It's a dish that demands precision & there is nowhere to hide mistakes. This is one of the reasons sotbap is uncommon even in Korea & almost never the central focus of a restaurant.
I lived in Seoul for over a decade & only encountered sotbap in one neighborhood (ie Seoul's Seongbuk-dong) where it tends to appear in restrained tradition-minded kitchens, rather than the mainstream spots that one can find anywhere. In my lifetime of actively seeking out quality Korean cuisine, I have never seen a restaurant outside Korea with sotbap on the menu, let alone a place dedicated to the dish, & I would be genuinely surprised if anything comparable exists even in major Koreatowns like Los Angeles.
What makes Giwa exceptional is not rigid adherence to recipes or performative authenticity, but care. The menu is deliberately narrow, which is exactly what you want for a dish like this. This restraint signals confidence & quality, particularly when compared to the'all you can eat meat' restos of dubious quality or the'every Korean dish our chef is willing to cook' format. The sotbap itself is outstanding across the board. Every version we've tried has been excellent, from the vegetarian mushroom to the cod, & the rice is granted the role it deserves, as the true foundation of the meal, rather than as some sort of neutral filler or side.
The level of technique throughout the meal is striking. The appetizers are prepared with a precision on par with the sort of well-reviewed ??? restaurants in Seoul (formal Korean dining where a sequence of meticulously composed dishes replaces the idea of a single'main.'). The execution feels closer to high-end French or Japanese kitchens than to the casual Korean dining most people expect. There is clear thought behind every element. & there's also some creativity here: a doen-jang crème brûlée should not work on paper, but it does & it's memorable, it's the dish that some friends are still talking about a month after our last visit.
The banchan (side dishes) deserve special mention. In Montreal, banchan are nearly always an afterthought: bulk kimchi, nuclear-yellow danmuji & barely-seasoned bean sprouts that are interchangeable & forgettable. At Giwa, the banchan are clearly handmade, clearly intentional, & clearly cared for. You're served a generous spread, I think 10-12 items, & each one feels considered. This alone puts Giwa in a different category from nearly every other Korean restaurant in the city, if not the country. (We drove to Tofino & back last summer, & ate as much Korean as we could along the way, so I feel fairly qualified to say this.)
Context matters. Montreal is full of Korean restaurants right now, many of them middling, many not even Korean-run. Most seem to be lazily riding the rise of the K-food/K-pop/K-whatever trend without any sort of commitment to quality. Giwa cuts through that noise completely. It is traditional without being rigid, refined without being precious, & ambitious in the best sense.
This restaurant is genuinely unique in Montreal & arguably one of the most serious, thoughtful presentations of Korean food you can find outside Korea. The fact that it hasn't yet been written up properly in the local media is baffling. Giwa deserves attention, not because it's trendy but because it's excellent.
A Korean gem to have in Montreal! If there's one thing to emphasize it's their showcasing Korean ingredients & flavours not found elsewhere: omija in a cocktail, mugwort in their tiramisu dessert, marinated egg yolks for the rice dishes, perilla oil ice cream! The menu is small & well thought out, every dish showcases strong elements of Korean favourites & has great variety. The sot-bap (rice dishes) are beautifully presented & come with tasty banchan. The gimbap is airy, crunchy & packed with flavour. The fried chicken is a MUST, the smoked Gouda foam sends it through the roof. & do ask what the chef's dessert is because he's always coming up with a creative combo of Korean ingredients. Sharing some pictures from their holiday special set menu, features regular menu items but in a smaller format for this special menu.
Made a reservation here for someone who loves Korean food on their birthday; the food was surely the highlight of our night. Each meal was served with sides, & you could clearly see the chef's creativity shine through with the unusual ingredients they chose for their dishes; they all complemented each other perfectly well, each bite tasting different. The Giwa was perhaps one of the best desserts I've been served since a very long time: with matcha mousse, chocolate & vanilla ice cream hiding a biscuit cake underneath it all. All in all, I would go back without a hesitation.
I had such a wonderful dining experience at Giwa! The food was absolutely amazing. The appetizers were delicious; especially the dakgangjeong. The cheese sauce on top perfectly complemented the sweet & spicy chicken, making it so addictive! The beef sot-bap was also incredible, the meat was full of flavor, & the side dishes paired perfectly with the meal.
& the dessert... wow! I loved how it wasn't overly sweet but still so satisfying & delicious. You can truly taste the time, care, & love the owners put into every dish.
This restaurant is truly a gem, & unlike anything else in the city.
The raw marinated seafood was one of my favorites - so thoughtful & intentional, especially the raw marinated crab, which is usually hard to eat with the shell but here felt effortless. The other seafood dishes were just as memorable.
The korean fried chicken was beautifully elevated, & the cheese foam complemented it perfectly. I also loved the sotbap with mackerel, made with seasonal ingredients that kept it fresh & special each time.
Other standouts were the beef tartare, the refreshing & beautifully presented watermelon salad, & the gimbap, which felt elevated & refined.
A special mention goes to the desserts. I'm usually not a dessert person, but their korean-fusion creations completely won me over.
Ultimately, Giwa is worth a visit if you're in Montréal. It's elevated Korean food with intention behind every dish.
Cozy little restaurant tucked away in Verdun; a hidden gem around Montreal. Service was amazing & the food is nothing else like I've tried here!
The menu is very well curated with each dish being delicious & purposeful. The sotbap, gimbap & dakgangjeon tasted so yummy & comforting while dishes like the hwachae & yukhwe were very bright & refreshing. The haemul jang is extremely unique & the way it's prepared makes this type of dish easy to enjoy-allowing you to focus on all the complex flavours. The desserts are also delicately prepared & the hodumaru is to die for; perfectly sweet with a little bit of umami spice.
Giwa is a modern take on Korean classics & they do it with lots of care & finesse. Wanted to try everything on the menu because it was all so amazing.. I will be back again!
Wowowow! Small menu but each dish is special in its own way. The service was super helpful & nice helping to navigate the options. The dishes felt very authentic & cooked perfectly. Sat on the patio in the front which is removed a bit from the busy Wellington street. Will come back & try all the things we didn't & & DEFINITELY GET THE CHICKEN AP AGAIN. So so so good.
Tip: ask for extra spicy sauce if you like a little heat.
