Japanese/Italian Fusion at Shiso Tree Cafe

This cute little restaurant is located in J-Town, which is a plaza that houses a Japanese grocery store and many other Japanese/fusion restaurants.  We've actually tried most of the restaurants in this plaza and I dare say we've enjoyed eating at all of them!  Particularly, Shiso Tree serves up a number of Japanese/Italian fusion pasta dishes, which sounds odd but actually tastes really good!  This is definitely one of our favourite uptown dinner spots (read: we come here often).

At our most recent visit, we brought some friends and ended up trying some new dishes!   Unnecessary snacking before dinner ruined our appetites so we decided to get something for the table to share, and split a pasta and salad between each couple.  (To be clear, each order of pasta does come with a small salad.)

Smoked Salmon Hors D'Oeuvres ($8)
Smoked salmon, Japanese mayo, ikura (salmon roe), caviar & dill on toasted garlic bread

This was one of the new items we tried- unfortunately, I would say it wasn't very memorable and probably would not order this again.  Not because it tasted bad.. there are just better offerings here.  Also, I should note that garlic bread does come with each order of salad or pasta so the garlic bread seemed kind of redundant.  If you are considering a starter, I would recommend getting the Bolognese Fries ($7) or the Okonomiyaki Fries ($8).

Kinoko Salad ($9)
House salad with sauteed Japanese mushrooms, nori & homemade garlic croutons


I am a huge fan of Shiso Tree's salad dressing and soft, soft lettuce- I find that restaurants rarely serve soft lettuce and it is such a treat when they do.  Adding a generous portion of sauteed mushrooms on top of the salad can only make it better :)  I was quite shocked that this salad was so large; this is definitely a meal-sized salad.

Smoked Salmon Wafu Salad ($10)
House salad with smoked salmon, ikura (salmon roe), caviar & homemade garlic croutons

I didn't try this salad but based on my friends' positive comments, I presume they also enjoyed the salad.  As you can see, it came with a healthy serving of smoked salmon and roe.

Sukiyaki ($15)
Thinly sliced beef rib eye cooked in house made Japanese soya sauce (shoyu) blend & beef jus.  Garnished with mushrooms, green onions, nori & shiso.


The Sukiyaki Wafu pasta is one of the hallmarks of Shiso Tree Cafe's offerings. The pasta sauce, seaweed garnish, and tender beef slices are loaded with umami goodness. The spaghetti is always served al dente with a side of toasty garlic bread. The dish demonstrates the appeal of Japanese/Italian fusion cuisine.

They have a fairly large menu and there's definitely something for everyone here.  Our favourites are the Bolognese and the Sukiyaki Wafu pastas- quality is very consistent but time spent waiting for food will vary depending on how busy the restaurant is..  Recently, they started offering Chef Specials which seem to change quite frequently.  We've tried several of these dishes and they were also very delicious.  Of course, I'm usually the one getting the Bolognese/Sukiyaki and Stan is the one getting something more daring.....

Some of the specials we've ordered in the past are pictured below:

Meatball Spaghettini

Beet Tagliatelle