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| - In summary, way overpriced for mediocre food.
Came here with a Groupon, which was meant to be a "5 course tasting menu for 2" with a regular price $128 (groupon was $72).
There is a large parking lot for the hotel, but it was completely full, so we had to drive around for a while, which was a little annoying. But its free parking (although this is Markham so thats kind of expected). Enter the restaurant and the lady who greets us does not smile nor even really make eye contact... basically just asks to process the groupon. The restaurant itself is on the smaller size. Customers are very casually dressed.
Seemed like almost all of the restaurant, if not all, were using the Groupon, as we were all getting the same food. From my experience, most restaurants don't count the amuse-bouche as one of the "courses", but this place does.
The food was only okay:
-amuse-bouche (Seafood Sunomomo: Tiger shrimp, Hokkaido scallop, and kanikama on a bed of grass noodle and seaweed) was okay. Visually, this was probably the only thing that even came close to what I expect from a Tasting Menu (ie was at least somewhat creative)
-appetizer (Chawan Mushi: Fresh Nova Scotia lobster and egg custard in a tarragon and black pepper lobster bisque) was actually pretty bad. The lobster piece was tiny, and pretty useless. In fact, when I saw & ate it, I had no idea what it was. It's only after when I looked at the menu again that I noticed it was lobster. The dish essentially tasted like egg
-sushi was okay... quite comparable to decent AYCE places. I'm a little suspicious of the quality of the fish given they covered each sushi roll with generous amounts of sauces
-entree (cod) was the highlight... actually tasted nice, although the portions were very stingy
-desert was also decent, but again stingy portions
When I see the words "Tasting menu", I expect to see some creativity. But that was lacking from this meal. Unfortunately the unfriendly service just makes things worse. I would feel very ripped off if I paid the full price for this meal (and this would have been a 1 star review). Based on the groupon price, I'd give it 2 stars.
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