Dai Ichi Sushi - Mississauga

The co-workers and I went for Friday lunch.  It was my first time, but the rest of the gang had been here a couple times and enjoyed.  It's probably better suited to interviews or business lunches with the slightly higher prices that I would normally like to pay for a regular Friday lunch.  They also have cute little booths that are fairly private.

For $15 all in I enjoyed the shrimp tempura with bulgogi bento box.  It came with soup, salad, rice, potatoes and a sprout salad.   The tempura was delicious, but the bulgogi was not the best I've ever had. 

We Eat Ottawa - Wasabi

A few days later my memory is fading, but basically everything was good, although a little pricy.

For three of us, we spent about $100 for dinner including a couple beers.

The meat eater got a $30 sushi platter and really enjoyed. We were all in awe of the massive pile of good looking sushi and sashimi!

The veggies got edamame, age tofu, pan fried dumplings (particularly good), veggie & shrimp tempura plus three rolls - mushroom, avocado and yam. This place was surprisingly busy for a cold Monday night - I imagine on a Friday or Saturday you either have to make a reservation or come early.

Here's the link.

The Lazy (Wo)Man's Sushi (Salad)

For the cheap and/or lazy, this is pretty easy to make at home to satisfy some maki cravings. Assemble in a salad the following:

• Short grain Japanese sushi rice - white or brown.
  
• Splash on some rice wine vinegar with sugar and salt premixed. Let cool slightly.
  
• Cook some fish (salmon, or really any fish will do so long as it's not battered or fish sticks etc)
  
• Chop up red peppers, cucumbers, carrots
• Tear up some nori, toss on at the end
• Cubed avocado
• Optional - roast some butternut squash or make into veggie tempura
  

New Generation

Now that we've moved to the burbs, we don't frequent New Gen quite as much as we used to. In April of 2009, I proclaimed New Gen to have the world's best veggie sushi.

I am officially rescinding that title. My "G Yam Maki Set" was an incredible value at $6 for a set of cucumber rolls + yam/avocado rolls. Also came with soup and salad. I'm not quite sure what went wrong, but the rice just didn't have the usual "je ne sais quoi" that it used to.

Momiji

I have now discovered another Momiji location in Mississauga, but this post refers to the one in the Kingsway on Bloor.

Ian and I went for a birthday dinner and ordered some old favorites. The grilled eggplant was ok, but not grilled enough and was missing the addictive salty carrot-ginger topping that we love so much! Far less tasty than normal.

Then another appetizer - deep fried tofu (age-dash tofu I think is the official name). Very good and a hearty portion.

Main course was a beef bento. Tempura was good as usual and Ian was impressed by 3 large shrimp and I liked the veggies. Teriyaki beef with rice & veggies was a disappointment this time. Beef was extremely raw, chewy and the teriyaki flavor was rather sparse. In the past we have loved this dish so I'm not sure what went wrong in the kitchen tonight! Soup & salad also included.

Salmon roll & avocado roll were both very good.

168 Sushi Japan Buffet

Since it was apparently worth Janice skipping work last week, we decided I needed to go out and check out the 168 Sushi Japan Buffet. The short summary is I was not disappointed and I'd likely be willing to skip work too to take part in this delightful smorgasbord of tastes.

For an all you can eat sushi place I was impressed with the sushi. For the regular buffet they have salmon, white tuna, red snapper and various cooked or non-fun types. I stuck with those big three fishes for my sushi eats. The fish was great in all 4 of the rounds I ordered in it.

The next thing that impressed me was the speed of the service. No sooner did we fill out the menu card then there was food arriving at our table. Overall the service was great which is certainly something you don't usually say about all-you-can-eat places.

In terms of other food, we also ordered a range of things: tempura, a few maki rolls, various non-raw rolls for Janice, gal-bi, grilled veggies, various pizza slices and maybe some other items. Nothing was disappointing.

For dessert Janice strongly cautioned against the banana tempura so I stuck with a scoop of red bean ice cream and green tea ice cream. Both were good and amazingly Janice actually somewhat liked my red bean ice cream.

In a sharp contrast to last week's fiasco at Al Mac's, the pop and beverages are included. I had Coke but wisely kept to only two glasses to save room for all-you-can-eat goodness. Janice stuck with water which was free. (Al Mac take notice!)

The only complaint I have is that sashimi is not included in the lunch buffet or the deluxe buffet. You have to order it a la carte.

At 14 + tax + tip for lunch, it's not cheap but we'll definitely be back.

168 Sushi Japan Buffet (Mississauga)

I gave into peer pressure, ditched a potentially useful lunch-time seminar and went out with the coworkers to all you can eat sushi/japanese/korean on Dundas.

The food came out quickly despite busy-ness, the tea was replenished and the empties taken away with great efficiency.

For food:

- Edamame was decent
- Grilled eggplant excellent although too oily
- Korean style galbi beef ribs good
- Bulgogi with random veggies - good
- Skip the teriyaki sushi
- Shrimp tempura was a hit with trays of the stuff passing by regularly
- Rolls - skip the spicy salmon, but the mushroom tempura, squash tempura, avocado plain, crispy avocado, spicy tempura california roll, grilled eel, salmon etc were all fantastic
- Sushi - the coworkers devoured a lot of salmon, grilled eel and other misc fish plus a salmon rose & salmon pizza
- Skip the tempura banana for dessert. The ice cream seemed more popular with other tables.

All this for about $18 including tax & tip (at lunch). Here's the website so you can check out the menu.

Momiji Sushi

Now that we live in the Kingsway, Momiji is part of our regular dinner spots.

It unfortunately comes with expensive Kingsway-esque prices, but I guess that comes with the neighborhood.

Ian and I usually share the tofu teriyaki or beef teriyaki dinner. Both exceedingly tasty and enough meat/tofu for two to share. Also comes with soup, salad, tempura and the like. The beef is about $17 and the tofu about $12 I think.

Also good is the grilled eggplant with magic orange/ginger stuff (hard to explain). Chicken yakisoba is decent although a little salty for Ian. We usually opt for a cheaper roll or two - avocado for me and salmon for Ian ($4 each).

For a higher end food place, the service is surprisingly bad with the hosts/table seaters particularly rude and un-responsive.

We generally end up spending about $35 for dinner, so certainly not in the same cheapness range as New Gen for example.

New Gen Troubles

Not good - a murder at our favorite cheap sushi joint!!!!

Here's the link

World's Best Veggie Sushi

At New Generation! While living in the Annex, we frequented this place more than I'd like to admit.

To break from old traditions, we spent it up and ordered an appetizer of edamame for $3.95. Not a bad value for quite a lot of salted green bean action. And is seems healthier than our usual plan of going for dessert to future afterward for cake.


I've only strayed from the G, yam maki lunch set ($5.99) a few times and I've always regretted it! I love this veggie sushi so much that while I moved away from Toronto, I would actually make the squash tempura-avocado rolls at home!


Here's a close-up of the world's best flavor combination...

Ian generally gets the #1 bento box with beef (also $5.99), but due to Good Friday he ordered one of the lunch sushi sets. All was good except for the egg sushi which he does not eat under any circumstances.

Total bill was $21 including tax and tip!!!

Sushi Inn

It was a little tough to get here as Ian, who works in the area, led us down the wrong street initially. He eventually figured it out and we sat down in a rather crowded but chilly restaurant. A third door on the double door might be a good plan for winter!


Ian went with premium bento & I went with silver bento. Not pictured are the delightful salmon and cucumber rolls and miso soup that came with the boxes.

My box had veggie tempura, tofu, salad with great dressing and teriyaki mushrooms. All pretty yummy except for the mushrooms. Light and flavorful squash and eggplant tempura more than made up for the boring mushroom stir-fry.

Ian got a whole lot of good stuff - salmon teriyaki, salmon sashimi, 2 spring rolls, tempura including a couple big shrimp.

Good value for $28.30 including tax and tip for 2 in Yorkville.

Made in Japan A Teriyaki Experience

When it's cold, we head over to the Cumberland food court where I hit up the Made in Japan A Teriyaki Experience place. The special every day is steak and chicken teriyaki for $6.44 all in. The first time I went, like a fool I just got chicken even though it's the same price as the special. Since then I've never made that mistake again.

The food is reasonably tasty. I stick to one small scoop of sauce to ensure I'm having a stir fry with rice not a soup as other people do. My main complain is the small serving. The meat serving is actually reasonably generous for the price (Although I still fondly remember Edo's Sukyiyaki beef for 3.99 that allowed you to double the beef for only 99 cents more). The rice however is a little stingy. I'm left hungry by 4 and I have to dip into my reserve of chips.

And with the lack of choice in that food court, I'll definitely be back.

Mikasa (Montreal)

From the looks of the website, this is a Montreal area mini-chain. We ventured out to the downtown peel location.

This seems to be quite a popular place and it was starting to get busy about 5:30 on Wednesday night. By the time we left, it was starting to fill up.

The meal started well with some yasai tempura (veggie). Light and crispy topping with great vegiges including mushroom, squash, eggplant and zuchini. Others seemed to enjoy seaweed salad with grilled octopus.

Main course was a fantastic custom veggie sushi platter including mini avocado, squash tempura rolls and a rather expensive fruit sushi ($13 I think for 4 pieces). The other sushi was a bit more reasonable at $4 to $6 I think.

Others liked salmon sushi & grilled seafood platter. I would definately go back, but not too often due to price!

Photo credit to Stephen S.

Japango (Beaches)

During a small bike ride detour, we came across Japango on Queen Street.

I had the salmon teriyaki lunch special ($7.95 I think). This was a pretty decent deal as it included some tasty miso soup, Vietnamese style glass noodle salad, green salad, rice with black sesame seeds and half an orange for dessert. There was quite a lot of salmon in a thick and tasty sauce. It was so much fish, I gave Ian half!

Ian ordered the beef bulgogi ($8.95 I think) and like my salmon, it was good. It came with the same sides as my salmon.

Nakama (Pittsburgh)

My co-workers are obviously in the know in Pittsburgh - they took me out to a joint that is apparently #1 in sushi as well as the best restaurant in the Pitt....at least according to their website...

We got to Nakama about 6:30 on a Wed night and it was already rather packed. The host basically thought we were complete fools for showing up without a reservation. She did manage to squeeze us in at one of 10 hibachi grill stations. We started with a Majic Hat #9 beer and some edamame. I also had one of my boss's spicy california roll. Everything very very deelightful. I then ordered the grilled flank steak. With the meal, I got brothy soup, green salad, grilled mushroom appetizer, grilled veg, choice of steamed or fried rice and my meat.

The dude doing the cooking had all sorts of little tricks and it was a very entertaining show!

The flank steak was delicious when dipped in either the ginger/sesame/soy sauce or the thousand island dressing type thing.

My entree was $21, so not terrible value either!

Crazy Sushi Mississauga Style

I was formerly against this place, but am now a moderate convert to this suburbia sushi joint conveniently located near my office.

I went with some veggie bento action. Came with miso soup and assorted korean side dishes = potato pancake (a bit greasy but yummy), sprouty bean sprouts, grated carrots and mystery white veggie with vinegar and cucumber type salad.

Bento came with salad, rice, veg tempura, 2 california rolls and mystery white veg in sauce (possibly potato, but could have been squash or turnip etc).

Gordie has a sushi combo that he seemed to moderately enjoy.

Price was decent at about $25 for 2 including tax, tip and tap waters.

Home Cooking Tastiness (and Cheapness)

Home made veggie sushi action by Janice!

Sushi Inn

Ian and I ventured out to Yorkville for a car emissions test. While waiting, we headed over to the Sushi Inn.

The joint was already pretty busy when we arrived at 11:55 or so!

I went with the "Silver Box" which included 6 makis (3 salmon, 3 cucumber), miso soup, salad, rice, veggie tempura, fried tofu and teriyaki mushrooms. A fantastic deal for $9.95.

Ian had "combo H" with 6 maki and 5 sushi for $7.95.

The miso soup was surprisingly tasty although rather hot (I guess that is good though?). Always classy Ian dumped some water into the soup to cool things down.

The maki was rather small but cute and better than normal. My bento box items were all very good and extremely hot. Even with Ian's help, I did not come close to finishing everything. Ian seemed sufficiently pleased with his sushi.

Sanko Japanese Store

We came across this delightful little store, Sanko, at 730 Queen street East.

They had quite an extensive, but expensive, collection of Japanese pottery items for sushi, tea, bento boxes and the like.

Also a decent collection of food including seaweed, snacks (I bought some rice cracker snacks), veggies, frozen food, noodles etc etc.

Sushi Star

On the way to pick up a burrito the other day, an amazing sign caught my eye. It had three key features "$9.99", "All you can eat" and "Sushi". Those three bits made the sale and so for Thursday lunch I convinced the lunch crew to go.

This new place is the Sushi Star on Spadina adjacent to the Red Room. They also advertised cheap lunch combos but of course we went with the all you can eat. The all-you-can-eat menu was somewhat limited though: 2 types of sushi (salmon and red snapper), 7 or 8 types of rolls and a bunch of stuff from the kitchen. We quickly filled out our first order and the food started rolling in. I skipped the soup and salad courses to ensure I could take full advantage of the sushi but people seemed to enjoy them. First for me came the shrimp tempura. Pretty good, better than Ho Su's tempura but a little too bready to rank amongst my best ever. Then the rolls started appearing. We went for the multiple of everything policy without knowing what any of the names rolls were and that seemed to work out well. We ended up with some salmon skin rolls that I quite liked and a bunch of others.

We devoured all that and there was still no sign of the sushi so I was starting to get a little anxious that the big numbers we had put down for number of sushi pieces had scared them off. But not to worry, the sushi eventually showed up and we quickly finished that off.

For the next and final round of orders we basically repeated our first order with a few new items from the kitchen.

Overall for 13 bucks with tax and tip it was definitely a good outing. As one guy who just finished remarked, "I only wish this place was around 4 years ago when I started"