Grand Ichiban Sushi at Spadina and Adelaide

not all of that came out... yea so anyways, you sound like a purist.. have you tried Hashimoto on Dixie? they do a great Kaiseki (:

moonflow in Ontario (including Toronto)

Grand Ichiban Sushi at Spadina and Adelaide

Wow... sorry to hear that your experience wasn't as great as mine... guess everyone has their own tastes,

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King Edward Hotel - Afternoon Tea + photos

I just went here a couple weeks a go for my birthday thing... and I was pretty disappointed ): I liked the little sandwiches and the tea was just kind of alright... I was expecting a lot of the pastries but the lemon curd in the lemon tart had a fishy taste to it, the pistachio square was.... to put it bluntly... nobody finished theirs.... and the madeleine was chalky. I did like the mascarpone cake and the cookie was nice and light, the scones were also warm and lovely. They also wrote in chocolate on one of the plates "Happy Birthday Katie!!" with cute exclamation marks with hearts as the points... the one problem is... my name isn't Katie. It was nice though and my friends had a good laugh about it. So all in all... tea was just alright, the only other thing would have been that I wished they sat us in the lobby, but we got stuck in the actual Cafe Victoria instead.. even though I did ask them when I made reservations to be seated in the lobby.

moonflow in Ontario (including Toronto)

Grand Ichiban Sushi at Spadina and Adelaide

I would have to say that out of the three that you've listed, blowfish is probably the best but that's just my opinion. I liked how they balanced sweetness from fruit flavours with the heaviness of the savoury items, but I did also think that at times it got a little bit too funky for me... but that's also because I prefer flavours that are spicy and rich opposed to sweet. I had the blue snow, kiwi lobster, kobe arugula rolls there and i liked the last one of the best. (Blowfish also has lovely clean presentation as well)

As for Crazy Sushi... I've been there a couple of years a go but I have yet to return. While they have some interesting rolls I didn't much like the presentation or the quality. It might just have been me, since my friends have gone there before and have had good experiences, but on my trip I found the rice to be a little dry and the fish was not at its optimal freshness. Japango is one that I have not tried but I hear that they are more famous for their noodle dishes than they are for the sushi menu. I would say that Grand Ichiban's fusion menu predominantly is spicy and savoury. The flavours that they incorporate are different from the traditional style of maki but also have familiar aspects to them so it doesn't throw people off from giving it a try. For instance, while I tried the Kiwi Lobster Roll at Blowfish and liked it, my date just wrinkled his nose at it and passed on giving it a go. Another thing was that the dishes at Grand Ichiban don't just taste lovely but they look nice as well. It's a pretty big thing when a sushi place with a mid-range pricing takes the time to appeal to other senses too which is a compliment I can't give to many Japanese restos that Toronto is riddled with.

Wow.. that turned out to be a really long response.. but I hope that helped (:

moonflow in Ontario (including Toronto)

Grand Ichiban Sushi at Spadina and Adelaide

So after putting it off for a month I finally went for dinner to Grand Ichiban Sushi at Spadina and Adelaide. The space is nicely decorated, really clean looking space, the decor as much as the actual place setting and chairs etc...

Unlike the other Ichibans in the city, Grand Ichiban has a different menu with items you don't see a lot of in Toronto. We started off with the spicy white tuna tataki which is a dish that just lightly sears the fish or meat just on the outside while keeping the inside raw. While we were still deciding what else to order after the Tataki our waitress came with a Sukidashi which she said is a complementary starter. It was just two pieces of spicy salmon roll that was deep fried then topped with calamari/cuttlefish salad. It was reaaaally nice and I asked what it was called and she just told me that it was a work in progress that the owner was thinking of putting on the menu. So after that we ordered from the Contemporary Rolls section Lobster Fantasy Roll, Volcano Roll and the Black Dragon Roll.

So firstly, the presentation for all the dishes were a definite hit for me. I'm seldom ever impressed with Japanese restos in this aspect(except for Kaji) but I was pretty wowed. You could definitely see the fusion influence on all of the dishes. But anyways to the most important part: the taste.

The tataki was seared nicely, great texture too and the spicy sauce added a nice edge to the tuna. It was served with yuzu sauce, but neither of us used it cause the spicy sauce was plenty. The Lobster Fantasty was a little heavy for me but my friend really liked it, basically it's a tempura-ed lobster tail with avocado served with a kewpie mayo sauce. If you like the dynamite roll and spider roll chances are you'll like this one. My favourite was the Volcano Roll which was actually pretty explosive with flavours. It had spicy scallops inside with tempura bits and I think it was avocado. The maki is then wrapped with salmon which is then broiled then has cheese melted over it and drizzled with spicy sauce and caviar. By the time the Black Dragon got to us we were both pretty stuffed, but we ate a couple pieces each anyways. The Black Dragon was a Dynamite roll wrapped with unagi and avocado with unagi sauce and a mayo based sauce. For all of the rolls my biggest compliment would have to be the rice, it wasn't too vinegary or too wet or dry.

The whole thing for both of us came up to around $60 but we were both really full. I would definitely go back and try the sashimi and sushi (especially the amaebi) and the tempura icecream sounded pretty awesome too. In general, great place to eat downtown.. service was good and fast, our waitress was also pretty cute as an added plus.

moonflow in Ontario (including Toronto)

Aki Da Japanese Seafood House at the Beaches

well I was under the impression that it was supposed to be buckwheat, but they came out as what looked like pale yellow flour based noodles reminiscent of ramen

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Aki Da Japanese Seafood House at the Beaches

I recently took a trip to Aki Da located at the Beaches at Queen East after errands at theTea emporium for my favourite Milk Oolong (delicious!) and Dufflet for euro and pumpkin tarts.

Now the first thing I'd have to say was that it was really cold.... I don't know if they had the heating on.. and it was a chilly day outside so it didn't help that we were seated close to the windows. I ordered the Hiyashi Chuka, Yaki Tori and Satsuma Age while my friend had the grilled eggplant and crab salad. After a pretty long wait, the Yaki Tori and Satsuma Age were served first, now the Yaki Tori is skewered chicken pieces served with Teriyaki sauce and the Satsuma Age were deep fried Japanese fish cakes. While I enjoyed the Satsuma Age, the chicken in the Yaki Tori was dry and lukewarm and was obviously not fresh, the teriyaki sauce was also way too salty. The Hiyashi Chuka (served next) was a Soba dish that was served cold and topped with tamago, pickled shitake mushrooms, artifical crab meat and cucumbers with possibly a ponzu style sauce. The soba was cooked perfectly but I found that the toppings were uninspiring and the presentation slightly sloppy.

My friend was in general pleased with her meal except that the ingredients in the crab salad were minced so it was difficult to eat with chopsticks, eventually she gave up trying to pick at the last morsels.

For dessert she had the green tea icecream and I the black sesame icecream (I know I said it was cold... but black sesame is hard to come by). The texture of the black sesame icecream was more like a sorbet, very icy and light. The flavour was excellent, and I liked that they had partial sesame kernels still left in the icecream.

The bill came out to around $21 and I found I was still a little hungry but in general it was a disappointment as I've heard praises for Aki Da from many of my friends who live in the Beaches. All in all I don't think I will go back, there wasn't really anything memorable about it.

moonflow in Ontario (including Toronto)

New Ichiban Sushi on Adelaide?

Wow so it literally opened yesterday

moonflow in Ontario (including Toronto)

Some Pictures from Kaji from Last year

I went to Sushi Kaji at Islington last year for my birthday during the winter and now that I finally have an account I can share the beautiful dishes I had (: If you have any questions on what some of the dishes are... feel free to ask and I'll try to get back to you with the best of my memory

moonflow in Ontario (including Toronto)