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668 Bloor St. W. Tastefully draped in minimalist woody tones, the cramped interior is lined with private booths. There's a well-lit but small open area near the sushi bar. Several waitresses buzz about, giving the air a busy feeling. The food is elegantly arranged in decorated bowls. The selection runs the range of Japanese and Korean tradition, but leaves out anything exotic. It sports lots of Korean noodle, dumpling soups and hot kimchee alongside Japanese miso, teriyaki and tempura. A bottomless pot of digestion-easing roasted rice tea accompanies the meal. The kitchen supplies plentiful free nibbles to whet the appetite, from apple-potato salad to miso broth, rice pancakes and more. The salads are basic Japanese. Wakame (seaweed) salad ($3.95) comes with a heavy, bottled sesame sauce, but the seaweed is moist. The sunomono salad ($4.95) has a good variety of seafood, especially curled lengths of octopus, mixed with a fine vinegar sauce. A hot bowl of miso soup comes with most of the mains. The barbequed eel (donburi) ($14.95) is flaky and tender. The long slab of browned fish comes on a laden platter. A gentle, sweet dipping sauce gives the boneless meat a complex, smoky flavour balanced with light oils, though the sauce is far too sweet for the meat. Better is the teriyaki salmon steak ($14.95). It's served with soup, salad and rice. The salmon is fresh, though the teriyaki is heartless and overwhelms the fine rose-pink flesh. The sushi list is standard, with unagi (eel) and roe the most exciting attractions. There are lots of sushi dinner combinations, as well as sushi a la carte and in rolls. The eight-piece combination ($13.95) is fine for beginners. It comes with salmon, grilled eel, octopus (tako) and a few other pasty nameless fish. Unfortunately, the rice is too sticky and lacks appropriate sushi flavour or texture. Filling up on the mediocre sushi will needlessly run up the bill. The wine list is ridiculous. Instead, try the inexpensive sake, plum wine or the Japanese beer (Kirin). Street parking available. |