Restaurants
Kiyomizu
Kiyomizu! At least that's what I think they're shouting at us, as we enter this modest Japanese restaurant located on Spring Garden Road, north of Sheppard off Yonge. This quaint establishment has been here for more than 20 years, and the décor shows it.
But I didn't come here for the kitschy Japanese shoji walls. I came for fish. Raw, delicate melt in your mouth tuna. Chewy tender and slightly sweet Kani. Okay, and fine, maybe something deep-fried too.
We were escorted to our table, sat down, but only for a minute. Apparently something wasn't right (or maybe we smelled bad). As soon as we sat down, we were told to get up and move to another (identical) table. Raw sewage spill there or just something I said? At either rate, I came for fish, and awkward service wasn't going to hold me back.
Menus were slapped down before us on the decorative glass tables and drink orders were taken. I ordered the giant glug of Sapporo ($6) while my buddy enjoyed the (complimentary) green tea. Our drinks arrived quickly as did a complimentary hot noodle soup with green onion and a small bowl of crispy and perfectly salted edamame pods. Bonus! We were going to order a full order, but this small portion was just enough to satisfy.
Finished with the healthy stuff for the moment, I ordered the deep-fried beef gyoza dumplings ($5.95). Arriving a lovely golden brown and piping hot, I immediately popped one of these bundles in my mouth (of course after drenching it in tangy ponzu sauce) and it promptly burnt my tongue. I was hungry, what can I say? With no greasy aftertaste, the minced beef was perfectly seasoned with tiny bits of onion and several other fragrant spices. At six pieces to an order, there was more than enough to go around.
Lingering over our last gyoza, our mains arrived. While Kiyomizu has an extensive menu with loads of tempura, teriyaki and Udon options, my friend and I both opted for varying forms of maki rolls.
She went for the Red Dragon ($13.95) and Mountain ($11.95) rolls which came together on a single (massive) plate. The Mountain Rolls came stuffed with spicy salmon, with an extra sliver of the fish on top. The mighty Red Dragon holds a crispy fried shrimp tempura with — yes! — more salmon on top. My plate arrived a second behind, and right away won points for presentation with the small wooden boat holding my spicy salmon ($5.95) and spicy tuna rolls ($6.95) above the vegetarian avocado rolls ($2.95).
The rice surrounding the rolls was the right amount of chewy and compact, and since I use wasabi like ketchup, I was impressed with the amount that was already spread into the rolls, but still added more. All the fish was fresh, but the buttery salmon was the clear winner.
Our plates were cleared and we were offered a (free) dessert off their limited menu: orange slices or green tea ice cream. Um, green tea ice cream, please!
Aside from the strange service and rather crappy interior (wear a coat if you must use the bathroom) I would likely come back again. There is sushi north of Bloor — it's just not to be found in the prettiest of settings.
Discussion
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Also, I don't understand why there would be any doubt that good sushi can be found north of Bloor. North York, Richmond Hill, Markham and Thornhill all host a very large Asian population and a large number of excellent sushi restaurants.
You are the literal definition of a turd.
Richmond Hill and Markham own downtown sushi spots any day of the week.
This article is strange. On one hand, you clearly enjoyed yourselves, but you almost have a hard time admitting it at the end of the article, which almost negates all the positives.
Secondly, as already pointed out, ALL the best sushi places are north or bloor, so why it's a surprise to this author that the largest Korean population in Toronto has amazing sushi in it's neighbourhood is kind of funny actually.
Thirdly, you seriously ordered everything off the "picture" menu? You mentioned nothing about the special hand written menu that they do -- everything on this menu is amazing. You didn't even try the Kiyomizu rolls? The HOUSE NAMED ROLLS?
The service here is not weird. Perhaps you're just not used to really attentive and friendly service?
Oh boy. Well the plus side is that perhaps nobody is going to ruin one of my favourite sushi spots in my nabes. So that's a positive.
I think if I got told to move tables for no reason too i wouldn't dig the service either.