I had a sushi epiphany today sitting by my lonesome at Yuki Japanese at the side of Dufferin street in a strip mall. Actually a few of them:
1. Garlic and sushi are a weird combo. I never noticed the absence of garlic at other sushi restaurants I've been to, but its presence was obvious today. Both the salad and the glass noodle dish that came with my lunchtime Bento box were chock full of garlic. It didn't work. Rather than complement anything, it just overpowered the sushi. Feh.
2. The freshness of the peripheral dishes/elements are just as important as the sushi itself. Again - I never noticed this before, but y'know those beet/daikon/carrot ribbons that often accompany sushi? Turns out they play an important role - they signal freshness by being crisp and fresh themselves. At Yuki, the side dishes were a little tired looking. The glass noodles were over cooked and the beansprout dish looked like it was a few days old. Double Feh. It made me question the freshness of the fish and that is something you never want to do at a sushi restaurant.
3. Salmon sinew is kinda gross. Guess that's why most sushi restaurants clean it off before serving it in sushi rolls.
Contrary to my persnickety review, I'm usually pretty easy going with sushi. I'll even eat supermarket sushi when I'm hungry (hey, beats a sandwich). I rarely leave rolls uneaten. But I left food over today. I just wasn't interested in eating salmon that looked like it hadn't been cleaned properly. Made me wonder: what else wasn't cleaned properly?