Plateau Sushi Pros Tri Express Open Petite-Patrie Outpost

The people behind Plateau sushi restaurant Tri Express have opened a second location, Le P’tit Tri, in Petite-Patrie.

Food blog Tastet reports that the Japanese spot is open as of Tuesday from the father-son duo of Tri Du (the Tri Express chef and founder) and Thierry-Tri Du-Boisclair. The site describes P’tit Tri as a natural continuation of the Laurier Avenue original, but younger and more casual — with just 11 seats, it’s more of a take-out counter, yet it reprises the original semi-nautical theme complete with life buoys, rope, and slightly rough sea shack-like white walls.

The new location, which takes over a dépanneur on the corner of St-Vallier and St-Zotique across from Restaurant Santa Barbara, is more of a project for Du’s son, who has taken the sushi offerings of the original and made various tweaks (particularly around the sauces), although the menu doesn’t read as wildly different to Tri Express.

P’tit Tri is offering two of the smaller omakase menus (Express does three) and three lunch hour specials; the newcomer is avoiding and deep-fried tempura options, though. Aside from a similar range of maki and sashimi options (which riff on Japanese tradition with moderate liberty, particularly in terms of the spicy sauces), there’s a lighter set of salads, including a seaweed/nori option and a somewhat Mexicanized ceviche-salad option. The new locale also takes on some of the not-quite-sashimi tartares from the original; Tastet’s article makes mention of a poke bowl option, although it doesn’t appear on the full opening menu below.

The possibility of a second Tri restaurant has been in the works for a while — in fall 2016, it was reported that owner Tri Du had purchased the building on the corner of St-Vallier and St-Zotique along with an adjacent space that was formerly the Nantel music school. Yet at that time, Tri Express representatives told Eater that there would be no second restaurant “for the moment” — evidently that moment is over now.

STATUS — Le P’tit Tri is open at 6697 St-Vallier from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday (closed Monday).

• Le P’tit Tri [Facebook]
• Tri Express 2.0 May Bring Sushi to Petite Patrie [EMTL]
• Le P’tit Tri: Le nouveau Tri Express ouvre ses portes sur St-Vallier [Tastet]