Momiji bets on Royalmount with sushi, skewers, and style

When you walk into Momiji, the first thing you're going to notice is the light: Soft and clean through floor-to-ceiling windows, it reflects off pale wood, zigzagging gold accents, and paper lanterns hovering like moons over the dining room.

It doesn’t look or feel like a typical mall venue, and that's the point for the newest restaurant from the Otto Group. Momiji ups the ante for its already ambitious host project Royalmount.

“It’s all about building trust with the guests to prove to them that it’s worth the trip,” says Gabrielle Dubé, who leads front of house. “Once you show up here, you'll just how different it is.”

She’s not wrong: This is a hybrid project that brings together the best elements from the team’s earlier successes, Otto Yakitori and Bar Otto, and folds them into something new. On one side: skewers grilled and glazed with layered sauces. On the other: precisely assembled nigiri. The middle ground is a bar-forward dining experience that can swing between quick drop-ins and multi-course nights out.