Eat & Drink
More Maki Please! Todd Clayton Eats His Way Through Toronto's Sushi Landscape
Back in May an email from Todd Clayton arrived in my inbox prodding me to check out his new site about Toronto sushi restaurants. At the time there were only a couple of reviews so I asked him to get back in touch with me when he visited some more places.
Three months later and Todd has now posted reviews of 38 restaurants, each with photos of the sushi, sashimi or maki he shared with some of his friends. While his progress represents a small dent in the hundreds of sushi options that dot Toronto's landscape, it stands as one of the more comprehensive collections of sushi reviews that I know of. He has wolfed down raw fish at some personal favourites of mine including Aji Sai and Japango and there are no signs that he's slowing down.
In between bites of spicy tuna temaki, Todd took some time out to tell me about his sushi adventures including his best and worst sushi meals to date.
What have been your best and worst sushi experiences in the city?
There have been so many really good experiences so far that it's really hard to pick. People ask me "Whats the best so far?" and I really have to ask for criteria. A good value? An upscale venue? But I keep going back to J-Time sushi on Bloor. A wide menu at very reasonable prices, and friendly and attentive staff.
The worst is easy. Asakusa on King West tasted like my own failed experiments into teaching myself how to make sushi a year or so ago. It's the only place so far that I've had a couple of pieces, paid and left.
What's an underrated sushi place you'd recommend that most people probably don't know about?
I'd have to go with Vincent Sushi on Roncesvalles. Whoever heard of sushi in little Warsaw? But it was very good, presented well, and it seems to be a nice small family run restaurant.
What's your favourite AYCE sushi place?
I don't know that I have a favorite AYCE place. I'm not convinced that it's really a good value. But with a group of 4+ it can be a good way to sample 10 or a dozen different rolls. I'd have to give the nod to Sushi Island on College St. They had a very wide selection, and everyone with me that day got to pick their favorites!
Do you notice a difference between Korean vs. Japanese owned sushi restaurants? Do you have a preference?
I think that the restaurants are predominantly Korean, but for the most part I can't tell unless it's really obvious. Though I did have lunch with a friend at a place at Yonge and St. Clair a few months back and the staff were Chinese, Mandarin was being spoken. I don't really think that the ethnicity of the chef or staff plays any roll in how good the food is. Realistically that's all that really matters. How good is the food?
Anything else you'd like to tell us?
The big one of course is to check out the blog at toronto-sushi.com. I encourage people to try out some of the restaurants I've visited and blogged about and let me know what they think! Mine is far from an expert opinion, and I'm always interested in other perspectives. Maybe next time you go out, try a place at random like myself!
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I just wish there were a easy on the eyes rating scale he would used for his reviews. Still, it's a place that I will look when deciding where to go next.
har har.
its known as "kimbap" a tasty item to be sure
What a useless site. Unless, of course, you're looking for information on lame-o discount sushi.
but anyways, at least useful for the names of some places....
Didn't even mention the decent Japanese restaurants around town (Ematei, Konichiwa, Hiro, etc)
I also find that Japanese owned sushi restaurants are typically better than Korean or Chinese
The cucumber "tasted fresh"? Wow, thanks for that amazing insight.
Maybe he should tour the city's Swiss Chalets and report back to us about the fries and sauce at each one.
My only.... really, whine, is that they are following the Toronto trend of slutty rolls shot with mayo+srirarcha. I know they have more inventiveness than that.
They will be your BFF if you order mackerel.
Thanks, Todd. There are plenty of people out there who like "inauthentic" and yup, racially impure sushi. We'd like to be able to pick out nice, reasonable places to eat a meal without snobs butting in and sneering about their superior tastes.
Face it -- not everyone needs haute cuisine every time they step out. Sometimes we just want a satisfying, reasonably priced meal.
And please, let's stop asking about who owns a restaurant and judge it by skill. A Japanese chef is just as capable of being guilty of making cheap food as any other. I find all this characterization of Korean and Chinese owners as inferior and needing to stick to what they know incredibly distasteful. I've never heard any other criticism so blatantly and publicly racist as that of Japanese restaurants.
And where can you get the best training? JPN, of course, where the standards in the food industry are much higher than they are in CND. For one thing, chefs in Japan need to be licenced and spend years devoted to learning their craft.
In contrast, chefs in CND can be any Joe/Jane off the street. And anyone wanting to open a JPN restaurant here can with little or no training (as evidenced by The Star article here: http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/631705 ).
Although it seems that people who bring up the chef's race are misguided, there may be some validity. Because Japan is a largely homogenous society, those who are trained and licenced in Japan are very likely Japanese (of course, there are exceptions). So, if you're looking for a JPN restaurant in Toronto with a well-trained chef, then race does come into play. Those who are non-JPN have likely not been trained in JPN. However, the reverse isn't true. Just b/c one is JPN doesn't mean they have been trained in JPN.
(And just to underscore a tired point about how many freaking sushi joints there are in this town: between Todd's 38 restaurant visits and my 14, you know how many we have in common? One.)
he said that sushi star at spadina and college was a decent place for sushi, minus the decor, but i've been there on several occasions and it's been more misses than hits. OH THE STOMACHE ACHES!
it's also funny that he's been to masa on charles street, yet he hasn't eaten at tokyo kitchen, which is by far superior.
And so what if he doesn't order everything on the menu? At least it gives him a good basis of comparison. Going to one restaurant and ordering the Fois Gras then trying to compare that to a vegetarian pasta dish at another restaurant is somewhat unhelpful.
If he goes someplace, orders his spicy tuna roll, he probably knows within the first couple bites how the place stacks up in terms of its quality.
To those say he orders the 'wrong things' on the menu and thats why he maybe had a better or worse experience than he should of should really understand that quality on a menu should be consistant through the whole thing.
Don't offer it if it is not up to the same standards as other food on the menu. Failing at doing this makes you a bad restaurant. Period.
Though I think it would be a good idea to experiment more with different items on the menu in addition to the old favourites. Perhaps some original variation that is unique to that location. It might not be useful for comparision, but would make the reading more interesting and less...repetitive feeling.
and i agree that he should review a wider range. i would like it if he reviewed sushi and sashimi as well and not just maki. maki is boring and for n00bs.
I live in the neighbourhood, have been about five times and finally had enough of not only the shockingly bad service (there is one female server who stands mere feet away from your table glaring at your plates until she can aggressively whisk them away) but the horrendous food. The fact that Todd gives it a thumbs up leads me to believe that he has no idea what he is talking about and so I don't trust his other choices!
Big Sushi is and always will be my favourite stop for decently priced sushi along Bloor. It tastes the closest to the sushi I had while living in Fukushima, Japan. Always fresh, the service is generally good (much better than the angry-to-serve-you Sushi Island waitstaff).