1891 Kennedy Rd
Scarborough, Ontario
Cuisine(s): Sushi, Bento Boxes
Date visited: July 2010
So yesterday we were supposed to go to our usual sushi dig, Ama Sushi (AYCE), but we were still full from lunch and decided to hit up something new. I've seen this place dozens of times seen good reviews about it. Here's our (my) take on it:
Food: 3/5
For all sushi restaurants, the key, absolute key, is the spicy salmon roll. We ordered spicy salmon and hamachi (yellow tail) maki, red dragon and edamame. The edamame was nice and crunchy with some salt to boot (we forgot to ask for it sans-salt, as we find it tasting just as good). The price for the "simple" maki's were quite cheap, so I had my suspicion that the outer part would simply be the seaweed, and not another layer of rice. Yup, I was right. The "spicy salmon" was disappointing - not spicy at all, and the rolls weren't very big (well, for the price I guess it's what you'd expect). Hamachi was alright. The only good thing was the red dragon roll. In fact, it was really good. The salmon, avocado and tobiko on the cali rolls were very generous and it was really good.
Service: 3/5
Service here was good to start. The fellow was quick to take our order, he said "you're welcome" to every "thank you", and topped our tea frequently. The woman however, lacked any kind of enthusiasm. No smiling, very robotic. As our meal progressed, it took more than 5 minutes to get anyone to recognize our attention-seeking gazes so we could order another roll. The place is quite small and all tables visible so it's not like they couldn't see us. They didn't come back to check up on us after food was served nor did they come top off our tea. We were hoping to get a scoop of green tea ice cream, but the kicker was that the woman brought us the bill without us asking and when I asked if we could just get it added to the bill, she did not understand. How hard is it? The bf's mood was spoiled and he said to forget it, so we paid and left. As we were leaving, she looked up from the cashier and without a smile said "thank you". Do you really take it as a "thank you" if it's robotic without any emotion?
Atmosphere: 3.5/5
The restaurant sits on the corner of a busy plaza at a busy intersection. From the outside it looks a bit sketchy but when you enter it looks like a decent japanese restaurant. There weren't too many tables (maybe 10?) to generally seat 2 or 4 people. It looked clean (enough), and decor was average. You could see the people preparing the sushi which is always kinda nice. Didn't hit up the washrooms.
Price/Value: 4.5/5
This place was quite cheap compared to some of the places we've eaten at. The "simple" maki (6) rolls ranged from 2.99 to 3.99 but they're quite small. The "special" ones like red dragon and soft shell crab came in 8 and were about $8. However, there was a lack of selection for the "special" ones. The menu offers bento boxes for an extremely low price - ~$10 for soup, salad, salmon/beef/chicken teriyaki, rice, 6 cali rolls and dessert (there might be another item in the deal). Even the "dine-in special" looked like a good deal - for $14.50 you get up to 27 (pre-selected) pieces of sashimi and rolls (some specials include hand rolls). In total we paid like $32 for edamame, "spicy salmon" maki, hamachi maki and 2 orders of red dragon. Not a bad deal.
Overall dining experience: 3/5
For us, the food wasn't that great and the service was the clincher. Had the spicy salmon rolls actually been spicy and a bit bigger of a portion (I don't mind paying more for bigger rolls, but I guess that's how they roll here), and had the lady server been nicer/more attentive/smiling, then we would have enjoyed it more. Despite the cheap price, I don't think we'll return.
