SushiD

SushiD
671 College St.

A few days ago I put the call out to see if any of my friends wanted to go out for Sushi on Saturday. My friend Christine (who has visited Japan) took me up on the offer and even had a suggestion for where to go! She’d always wanted to try the all you can eat place on College. Apparently named SushiD. Well, it’s a place I haven’t been, so I loaded up my new Canon Digital SLR and headed out to little Italy.

There were a couple of things I noticed right off the bat. Firstly, Christine is such a pro that she brings her own chopsticks with her. Probably a good move considering how much wood is thrown away after 1 use every day thanks to disposable chopsticks. Second, the all you can eat price is $2 more on the weekend. Actually, the whole concept of all you can eat made me skeptical. Do they put the same care and attention in? Am I going to be able to eat my moneys worth without being a glutton and eating for the sake of eating?

The first was easily answered. The food was great. The presentation was excellent. All you can eat (at least in this case) isn’t prepared under the counter by the apprentice. The second is debatable.

One thing that I noticed was that the variety of rolls was a little less complete than most places I’ve been. I also found that (what I consider to be) rolls with expensive ingredients such as Lobster were missing. A lot of crab stick though.

Christine went for the Caterpillar Roll (Spicy Tuna topped with avocado and masago), and the Scorpion Roll (Shrimp Tempura and asparagus topped with unagi). Strictly for the purposes of review of course I had a piece of each of her rolls. The caterpillar roll was delicious. Perfectly ripe avocado and not too much masago. The Scorpion roll I was a little trepeditious about. I’ve never had eel before. But you’ll never know unless you try it. Huh, tastes like fatty fish. Quite good in fact. Can’t say how good it was as it was my first time, but I’m sure I’ll be able to form an opinion in the future.

Next came my rolls. I opted for the Sunset (Crab stick and Avocado topped with Tuna) and the Tiger (Crab stick, tempura flakes, topped with spicy tuna and scallion). I actually deliberately chose the Tiger roll as it reminded me of a woman I went on 1 date with. She certainly had a thing for scallions. In this case she would have been bang on. What would have been a good roll was made great by having the scallions really “pop” the flavour. The Sunset roll as well would have been a little bland, but the fresh tuna on top was very good and I even want to say “refreshing”.

Christine then had a few slices of Sashimi to finish things off. I would have loved to have had some, but as much as I love it, my stomach doesn’t. I limit myself to only 2 or 3 times a year as the day long indigestion is hard to justify too often.

The service was fairly quick, but I found having 4-5 wait staff constantly hovering a little distracting. Plus we’d have several different waiters/waitresses asking the same questions. Christine had to inquire about her mushroom miso as it would seem our main waitress forgot to bring it. But I’m pretty easy going about this stuff, so it’s not a big deal in my mind.

Now to the pricing. Normally the all you can eat menu is $19.99. However, as it was the weekend this is bumped $2 to $21.99 a person. For the two of us (4 rolls, edamame, 3 pieces of sashimi, miso) it was almost worth it. Another roll and we would have come out even. Still, I don’t feel the slightest short changed. It was a good meal, looked and tasted delicious, and I had good company. Worth $22 in my books. If you’re not into the all you can eat you can also go with individual pricing. Specialty rolls ranged from $6 to $10.

I’m sold that all you can eat is a good deal. Now if only I can get some Lobster in it next time…