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| - Another King Street sushi spot bites the dust. Too bad.
I knew of Oniwa's troubles from when it previously rebranded a few years back, but I doubt that even a name change could have helped it.
Oniwa was a decent, but somewhat underwhelming, sushi restaurant in the city core. Despite being right across the street from a major venue, it never seemed to shake off its "hole-in-the-wall" status. Every time I went, the place just never seemed to be that busy. Despite the food being generally good, the biggest failing was the price point.
I used to come here for bento boxes, which were pretty much the only halfway-filling dish on the menu. The tempura vegetables were always light and the portion size was usually just right for me. A la carte options always seemed to be expensive, and I remember that on one of the occasions that I visited during the Toronto International Film Festival, one of the managers sheepishly admitted that a type of fish they served was imitation meat when a friend asked them about it. The miso soup was almost always uniformly salty and underwhelming, like they were trying to compensate for it being stale by overloading it with other ingredients to mask the taste.
The best part of the place was the decor, which made you feel like you were in a quaint Japanese garden. I always opted for this restaurant above others because I enjoyed sitting beside the fountain.
In the end, I'm somewhat saddened that Oniwa couldn't make a go of it, but not entirely unsurprised. Better luck next time.
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