What’s on the menu at Sushi Momo, a new vegan sushi restaurant on Queen West

Including a fish-free take on sushi pizza and a Big Mac–inspired roll

By Erin Hershberg| Photography by Ashley van der Laan

| September 13, 2024

What's on the menu at Sushi Momo, a new vegan sushi restaurant on Queen West

Name: Sushi Momo Contact: 1122 Queen St. W., sushimomo.ca/toronto
Previously: Hello 123 Neighborhood: West Queen West Owners: Christian Ventura, Mark Kupfert and Daniel Suss Chef: Christian Ventura Accessibility: Not fully accessible

Growing up just outside of the culinary hotspot that is Mexico City, Christian Ventura always knew he wanted to cook. His family, however, had other plans for him. “In Mexico, at the time I was coming up, there was no money or respect for chefs, so my parents made me study to become a doctor,” says Ventura. “I did what I was told to do but quickly got bored of school and dropped out.”

Ventura had heard that Canada was the place to be if he wanted to make money as a cook. In 2007, at 21 years old, he told his parents he was travelling to Canada for the summer to study English. “I didn’t do any research,” he says. “I know now that Quebec probably wasn’t the best location to support that fib.” Nevertheless, Ventura landed his first cooking gig at a tiny sushi restaurant in a Montreal suburb, where he worked for five years.

Ventura’s journey to veganism began with an injury to his arm. “I made the mistake of googling ‘left arm pain’ and panicked that I was potentially having a heart attack,” he says. “So I made some real lifestyle changes, like practising yoga and adopting a vegan diet.”

Christian Ventura, chef and co-owner of Sushi Momo

Though there wasn’t actually anything wrong with Ventura’s heart, the diet stuck, and he had to quit his job. “I couldn’t work with fish anymore,” he says. In 2014, he dove deep into all things vegan, visiting Indian ashrams, attending retreats in Bali and finally stopping in New York, where he discovered vegan sushi for the first time at a popular spot called Beyond Sushi. “I liked it, but I knew I could do it better,” he says. “When I got back to Montreal—with only $8,000 left to my name, a maxed-out credit card and zero experience owning a restaurant—I decided I was going to bring vegan sushi to Canada.”

Since opening his original 500-square-foot Sushi Momo in Montreal’s Plateau neighbourhood, Ventura’s plant-based portfolio has grown exponentially. He now has two Sushi Momo locations in Montreal, another vegan sushi franchise called Bloom, a poke bowl takeout spot called NoFish and a vegan burger joint called Burger Fiancé with Toronto restaurateur Mark Kupfert (Kupfert and Kim). Kupfert, who owned the vegan restaurant that previously occupied the space, wanted to replace it with a new plant-based concept. “Christian has been so successful and already had a big Toronto customer base in Montreal, so it just made sense to make the move here,” says Kupfert.

The Food

Ventura avoids the risk of preparing vegan sashimi that can’t live up to the real thing with a menu exclusively devoted to fresh salads, fried snacks (hello, shiitake arancini) and umami-forward maki. Standouts include anything that contains his vegan salmon—a fish doppelgänger made from a terrine of thinly sliced marinated konjac and tofu—and the Big M roll, a hulking rice paper roll stuffed with vegan beef and bacon, pickled onions, lettuce, shishito pepper, and Secret Big Momo sauce.

The Sashizza, Sushi Momo's take on sushi pizza — The Sashizza is Ventura’s take on the highly popular sushi pizza, which is typically raw tuna or salmon sashimi laid over a “crust” of crunchy deep-fried rice. In his plant-based version, Ventura subs out the rice base for crispy deep-fried dumpling wrappers and tops them with dollops of imported vegan Kewpie mayo before layering on thin slices of avocado. The star of the Sashizza is the soy-marinated konjac “salmon sashimi,” which crowns the dish along with some pickled red onion and radish sprouts. $16

Chef Christian Ventura puts the finishing touches on his Mr. Krunch roll — Here we have the Mr. Krunch roll, which Ventura developed a decade ago to impress a date. The four-piece maki starts with a layer of seaweed that’s coated in traditional sushi rice and roasted sesame. It’s stuffed with avocado, rolled and covered in baked rice pearls known as bubu arare. It’s then topped with a tartare-like concoction of olive oil–roasted king oyster mushrooms, Japanese shibazuke (a pickle of eggplant, cucumber and ginger), crispy tempura bits and house vegan truffle mayo. Finally, it’s finished with more of that mayo and a house shiitake-dashi-teriyaki sauce. $18

The Mr. Krunch roll at Sushi Momo in Toronto — And here’s the finished dish

The La Vie en Rose roll at Sushi Momo, a plant-based sushi spot in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood — “Some vegans don’t even like the taste of the sea,” says Ventura, who replaces the traditional seaweed wrapper with rice paper in the La Vie en Rose roll. The softened rice paper is stuffed with chopped and cooked beets; a blend of compressed soy-marinated vegetables (fukujinzuke); mayo with toasted sesame, yuzu and furikake; thinly sliced green apple; avocado; tempura bits; and Japanese mustard greens. It’s garnished with enoki mushrooms, rose petals, raspberry purée and miso-basil sauce. $14

The La Vie en Rose, a vegan sushi roll at Momo Sushi in Toronto — Voilà, la Vie en Rose

Chef Christian Ventura slices the Melitzana roll, a reverse maki of sorts, made with eggplant — Here, Ventura slices the Melitzana roll, a reverse maki of sorts made with eggplant

The Melitzana, a vegan roll made with eggplant at Sushi Momo in Toronto — The Melitzana is stuffed with oil-cured sun-dried tomatoes; panko-crusted, deep-fried vegan mozzarella; avocado; basil sauce and arugula. Thin slices of roasted eggplant are placed on top, torched like unagi and then drizzled with truffle mayo. Looks like sushi, tastes like eggplant parm. $15

The Artichoke, a rice-free, plant-based sushi roll at Sushi Momo — More salad than maki, the Artichoke is a rice-less roll that stuffs a thin sheet of soy paper with spring greens, shiso leaf, oil-cured artichokes, togarashi-roasted asparagus, fukujinzuke, tempura bits, green onions, house momo sauce, sweet soy and chimichurri. It’s garnished with Japanese wafu dressing and vegan caviar. $12

The Drinks

There’s a tight selection of natural wines and a list of fruit- and citrus-forward cocktails like the Lemon Lychee, a tropical vodka-based drink with a sweet-and-sour balance of limoncello, lemon juice and lychee syrup. The real fun, though, comes from a sake list that features an array of all-natural bottles, many of which are funk-forward and delightfully different.

Head in the Clouds, a cocktail at Toronto's Sushi Momo made with gin and Aperol — Head in the Clouds is a blend of gin and Aperol, the flavours of which are respectively mirrored with thyme and grapefruit. Pear juice and yuzu cut through the natural bitterness, and aquafaba (chickpea water) is the base of the smooth foam topper. $16

Like a fruity, gin-based mojito, the Queen B is a crushable highball made from muddled mint, fresh blueberries and lime juice. $16

An interesting selection of all-natural sake from That’s Life Gourmet is suitably displayed on the top shelf of the bar at Sushi Momo in Toronto — An interesting selection of all-natural sake from That’s Life Gourmet is suitably displayed on the top shelf of the bar. Prices range from $44 for a 300-mL bottle to $125 for a 720-mL one

The Space

The Japandi-style room is furnished with cozy booths and banquette seating made from blonde Canadian maple millwork and finished with plush sapphire-blue cushions. The centrepiece of the minimalist space is the sushi bar, where wooden half-circles mimicking maki artfully display a selection of wine and sake bottles.