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| - Let me start off with the punchline: I am DELIGHTED to have high quality sushi mere blocks away! The fish was tender and flavorful, and generously cut, for a very reasonable price. My only niggles here would be the rainbow roll, which was delicious and huge, had a tad too much goop on the inside, and coupled with the rice's annoying inability to stick well, made for messy eating. But, once shoveled into my mouth, delightful!
Billed as "Italian-Japanese Fusion" its more a case of dueling sides of the menu (the trifold style menu they use reinforces this impression). All of the food I tasted was delicious though. My partner tried the Italian side, and let me sample a slice of her pizza. It is fantastic: crust perfectly done, flavourful, sauce with a sharp tomato taste (will be great to try with summer tomatoes in peak condition), cheese nice if a bit too much.
The place itself seems to be trying to find an identity. I mentioned the conflicting menu, but the decor too is struggling to find itself. The textured white walls and dark wood trim and furnishings from its days as Galla are still around, but now featuring wall hangings reinforcing the Italian side as they boldly declare "pasta! spaghetti! meatballs!". Large flatscreens have hockey on around the place so the fine dining also suggests bar. The lovely wine cellar is on display but the wines on offer probably should be drank sooner rather than held for multiple years. And reasonably loud pop/dance tunes add the final touch of incongruity to the scene. Service seems still pretty new, one server was pretty excited by the smells of all of the food coming onto the floor. For some reason we wound up with two different condiment trays--also beware, the soy sauce dispensers have a bit of a dribbling problem.
Still, the food is excellent, the chef well pedigreed, and I wish it good fortune for its future on 17th ave. I for one will be back for more (the ossobuco demands a try next I think).
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