My friend was raving about this place so we went for dinner before our Lego movie (which was surprisingly “awesome!!” btw) at the theatre in International village (aka Tinseltown mall).  The restaurant was new. Modern, clean with a high ceiling which made it very open and airy. The cool, modern furniture also complimented the contemporary slick-ness. My friend wanted to sit at the big table with benches in the middle of the restaurant.

kanipon $6.25 negitoro roll $3.50 and 2 aburi salmon nigiri $2.15 each

I ordered negitoro roll $3.50, 2 aburi salmon nigiri $2.15 each and kanipon $6.25. So this is the first restaurant that I’ve seen where you had the choice of making your choice of nigiri into an aburi (flame-searing) for an extra 25 cents. I was extremely disappointed with the kanipon which was 1/3 crab meat, 1/3 cucumber and the last third seaweed. I am not sure what kind of fancy crab the crab meat came from but the portion was really small. I could have gone to T&T and bought a fresh whole crab for under $10. Nothing special to note about the flavour. The ponzu was a bit overpowering…

The negitoro was slightly disappointing as well. From the top it looks fine, but when you flipped it over, there weren’t that much rice and tuna at the other end. This means that when they made the role, they didn’t cut the ends off. This is not the only place that I have seen this, but I guess I noticed it even more after the disappointing kanipon. Taste wise was satisfactory though. The salmon aburi was interesting. It was flamed, so it shrunk. I was hoping for something that tasted like the oshi sushi but it didnt. I guess it’s not really the same thing…haha. Pricey for $2.40 each…

My friend also raved about the washroom a lot. He is studying interior design and said if he could design rooms, it would be the washrooms. He made it sound like it was the best washroom ever. With all the hype and raving, I was expecting to be blown away. When I went to find the bathroom, I got a bit confused and thought it was the staff bathroom because it was not what I was expecting. Clean, yes. Ok, there are mouthwashes and Q-tips available, but this is not the first time I have seen this. The shelf and small cupboard is vintage with candles as decor, but other than that, it’s a pretty normal bathroom. I have seen far greater bathrooms that this, so I couldn’t quite see what my friend saw in it. For the price of the food, I would just expect the washroom to be tidy and clean.

The service was excellent, but food didn’t really impress me, mainly for the outrageous price. After reading other reviews, perhaps I need to order something different off the menu. But it’s unlikely that I would return, unless my friend really wanted to go back.

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