I saw this place with a Grand Opening sign up and 20% off everything therefore decided to give it a try to see how it is. This place is located on the ground level of the London Drugs plaza on No. 3rd Road, I believe this used to be Pepper Lunch?
When I walked in, was greeted by the staffs and was promptly seated. Inside the restaurant have booth seatings in the middle with tables to both sides and almost an open concept kitchen straight ahead. I think the layout is okay, but might be a problem during colder weathers because that drift of cold air will definitely hit the customers every time the entrance door opens.
The service is okay but could improve a bit in handling customer inquiries on some of the dishes because some customers know what they are talking about (wink wink!). To simplify things, I just ordered and see for myself. Here were the food I ordered;
1. Real crab sunomono. A nice refreshing taste, but pretty much like most Japanese restaurants using real crab, don't really do it for me, maybe I am more used to the actual fresh crabs.
2. Softshell crab. Almost got a bit confrontational when trying to ask what kind of batter they used to deep fried the crab, so I gave up asking. Closed my eyes and hoped for the best, luckily it came out the way I like it, just a bit small and tiny bit too salty.
3. Monkey brain. Ordered it cause a bit curious about it, the breading and sauces used didn't do it for me.
4. Beef tataki (triple A). It's sliced a bit too thick and the sauces over killed the taste. A bit chewy.
5. Deluxe sashimi. Everything was fresh, but a little disappointed with the chef's selection for this dish especially for the price; wasn't too impressive.
6. Chu Toro and bluefin Akami. Very fresh and tasty, that's a plus.
7. Foie gras. It came with a slice of fresh mango on top but a bit of the sourness of mango kind of killed the beautiful flavour of the foie gras. Nice to be creative but sometimes some food by itself is good enough.
8. Uni, uni with ikura and tobiko, toro nigiris. Everything was fresh and tasty the way they should be.
9. Real crab with uni and tobiko oshi. Very nicely done, the crab meat were tasty. Each ingredient didn't mask the other and the sushi rice was perfectly pressed.
I would say this place was very casual, with a decent amount of space between tables. The food were fresh but with a little steeper price for certain items. As for the service, the servers were nice and informative on each dish being served but could improve a little bit in terms of food knowledge of the menu. The Japanese scene is very competitive lately so it really have to be on top of its game to stay around; I could see that the owner is engaging with all the customers reviews regardless if it's bad or good so that's a good start and a smart way to know what's needed to be tweeted. Currently they are having a 20% off everything for the grand opening so give them a try for yourself and see how they fair. Best of luck to this business. read more