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| - Okay, this is a Homer Simpson review. I think it's the only four-star in the bunch. But I can justify it, nothing was so terribly wrong as to merit two stars off, and the food was really excellent.
My husband and I and three friends went for the Tuesday night dinner, which is 20% off. The place was packed. The decor is standard mellow dark-wood Japanese restaurant style, and very comfortable. Largely accessible without stairs, although the bathroom sink requires some contortions to avoid getting wet even if you're standing on your feet. Oh, artsy plumbers, I love and hate you.
This is not a buffet. You get a menu and a checklist at the table, and you write down how many you want of which items and give it to the waitstaff. Then they bring the stuff out. It's all made fresh, which is why some things are slow (anything tempura) and others are speedy (sashimi). Hint: don't order from the appetizer list first! Most of those items are cooked and will take longer. Make sure your first list has lots of sashimi and sushi on it so that you aren't sitting and waiting for the appetizers like we did. I wasn't expecting everything to be made fresh to order (come on, it's AYCE!) and if I had I would have figured that out beforehand.
In general the service was slow but very friendly and helpful. If it's slow it was either because the food was taking so long (which is a very good reason!) or because there just weren't enough staff for all the tables.
Okay, the food. I am a sushi n00b -- this was my first time in a sushi restaurant since I started eating meat again. I'd never had sashimi. My first bite was a very pretty slice of salmon and then some white tuna, and I was impressed. How can fish taste better raw than cooked? The tempura items were perfect, crispy and hot. The rolls are very artfully done, with just the right proportions of quality ingredients. My favourite was probably the Crispy Boston roll -- rice and fish with nori around it, then fried tempura-style, and topped with tobiko and hot sauce. I wish there was a more detailed menu so that I could tell exactly what kind of fish was in the rolls. I can't remember everything we got, but it was all perfect. Finish off with the tempura banana. Ours came with maple syrup rather than the described chocolate sauce, and was really excellent.
Oh wait. There was one item that was not perfect. Did I mention I'm a n00b at sushi? I ordered 'crab sashimi', which turned out to be neither crab nor sashimi. It was those precooked minced-pollock sticks, or as we call them in my family, krab-with-a-k. Well, they charge you extra for anything you order and don't eat, so we ate the krab. Just don't order anything with crab in it and you're fine.
There's a little soup-and-salad bar that you can nosh from between plates, if you want. It's mediocre. Order lots of sashimi and you won't be waiting too long between your plates. The one thing on the bar that was worth going for was the ice cream -- a cooler full of Japanese-style flavours like green tea, red bean, and ginger.
The $3.99 pint can of Sapporo (which apparently is made in Guelph for the North American market) is the perfect thing to sip between sushi plates.
I'll definitely be back for more of this.
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