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| - authentic, great japanese food, no doubt. i didn't find the ambiance lacking; they do have proper lighting and some type of decor, it's not like it's a hole-in-the-wall place like Tomoe in NYC. waitresses are super polite, as japanese people are.
listened to my friend's advice and made a reservation for 2 at 1pm on a weekday; turned out the reservation wasn't necessary (maybe it's much needed for dinner time). was deciding amongst a few things, when waitress came and made some recommendations. ordered a chirashi and a sushi special (9 pcs) as she suggested, and made two a la carte sushi orders on top: uni (sea urchin) and anago (sea eel).
my bf's chirashi set came with a udon noodle in soup. the clear broth was sooooo good (close to the sukiyaki taste), we drank it all. my set came with a miso soup and house salad, both of which were on par. it seems that the chirashi (at least on that day) had a better variety of fish than my sushi; i liked his pieces slightly better than mine.
slightly disappointed by the a la carte orders. the uni was on par but not spectacular (trust me, i've had ones that made me go oooh and ahhh). the anago i've had usually lie fragilely on the rice, trailing on both ends. these two pieces i got here were truncated to match the length of the sushi rice, and i'm not too happy about that.
for dessert, we ordered one order (one scoop) each of green tea and black sesame ice-cream. the green tea is milky and tasted ok, but i personally prefer the darker ones that have a stronger, slightly bitterish green tea taste. the black sesame, on the other hand, was out of this world. it was dark like squid ink, and every bite was exploding with the aroma of sesame seeds. there were some grind sesame sprinkled on top too, which definitely improved both the flavor and the texture.
total bill came to about $65 for two; not bad for quality sushi at lunch time. however, truth be told, i have had even more superior sushi outside of toronto, and this place is kind of "in the middle of nowhere", so it may be a stretch to make this a regular dinner choice ("regular" as a visitor). but i AM tempted by their $50/pax omakase menu, so there actually may be a second time the next time i'm in town!
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