Restaurant GIWA is a modern Korean restaurant in Verdun, a small and quietly ambitious room on rue Wellington where tradition and innovation meet in perfect harmony. Its philosophy is deeply personal, rooted in memory: the traditional Korean dishes a grandmother once made became the foundation of the cooking here, their essence lingering in every bite as a way of preserving the taste of heritage. From that starting point, GIWA builds something fresh — honouring time-honoured techniques while embracing bold, creative flair, using thoughtfully selected seasonal ingredients to craft dishes that balance earthy, spicy, sweet, and umami notes. Fermentation adds depth, minimalist plating highlights the purity of each flavour, and the whole experience is conceived as a cultural journey, connecting past and present one course at a time. The goal, in the chef's words, is to modernize traditional Korean cuisine while preserving its authenticity — blending classic flavours with global influences to share Korea's rich culinary heritage in a genuinely new way.
The menu is short, focused, and made for exploring. Appetizers set the tone — a gimbap seaweed roll with fish of the moment and a gochujang vinaigrette; gochu twigim, stuffed green peppers with pork, tofu, and glass noodle; a refined yukhwe beef tartare with pear, sesame, egg yolk, and nasturtium; and the much-loved dakgangjeong, fried chicken lifted to another level by a smoked-Gouda foam, pistachio, and gochugaru. At the heart of the meal are the sot-bap, Korean stone-pot rice dishes cooked to order and served with carefully crafted banchan, whether the oyster-mushroom version scented with thyme and rosemary, the fish of the moment, or a soy-marinated beef. Prices run to around the high teens to high twenties for most plates. Ask, too, about the market-price Haemul Jang — a soy-marinated raw seafood platter for two, best requested when you reserve — and be sure to leave room for dessert, where the kitchen is at its most playful, from a gochujang-chocolate creation to a pear-and-perilla sorbet.
Warm, intimate, and beautifully presented, GIWA has quickly become one of Montréal's most exciting Korean tables since opening in early 2025. Seating is limited and the space is small, so reservations are wise; service runs evenings from 5pm, Wednesday through Sunday. It's quietly ambitious cooking, deeply rooted yet unafraid to colour outside the lines — a heartfelt, thoroughly modern love letter to Korean flavour in the heart of Verdun.