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| - Came here for a quick dinner on a Sunday evening. I was in the Yonge-Eglinton area and I remembered that I'd been wanting to check this place out after seeing a decent amount of good reviews on Yelp.
First of all, it isn't the easiest place to find... It's located at the back of a convenience store and, to the best of my recollection, there is no obvious signage that clearly indicates what this place is called. There is no separate entrance, so you have to go through the convenience store to get to the restaurant.
I was the only person there at 8 PM on a Sunday. I was greeted and seated promptly and a cup of tea (lukewarm and bland) arrived soon after. Although it wasn't busy and I arrived long before closing time, I felt very rushed throughout the entire meal. The hostess came around me if I was ready to order at least 5 times within the first 5 minutes of sitting down. Conversely, after she brought my food, she disappeared completely. No "how is everything?" No offer to refill the tea. But then, miraculously, she appeared again as soon as I had finished my plate to clear the table and bring the cheque. No offer of a dessert or anything.
Now the food. I ordered the wakame salad and the volcano roll (salmon, cucumber, masago, tempura bits in a roll topped with spicy salmon). The wakame salad was average. The flavour was very one note, lacking acidity and the roasted savouriness from sesame seeds/sesame oil. The wakame also lacked crunch, which suggested that it had been sitting in the marinade/dressing for way too long. The volcano roll tasted pretty good and it had an appropriate ratio of rice to fish, but the roll was sloppily made and presented on the plate =(
After reading the largely glowing reviews of this place on Yelp, I was kind of disappointed by the food that was pretty average and the service that was pretty poor... Maybe I will return when it's a bit busier and they might actually give a damn.
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