Crispy Roll

Crispy Roll
263 Queen St. West

The lunchtime quest for Sushi continues. I actually am beginning to realize that I should be going for places farther and farther away from the office at lunch so that when the weather eventually turns back to it’s Canadian “roots” of blisteringly cold, I won’t have far to go. But thats thinking ahead and we can’t have any of that! Todays venture lead me to a place I haven’t tried before, Crispy Roll.

In essence, their specialty is/are crispy rolls. Maki rolls with whatever + tempura bits. The menu is actually pretty large with plenty of maki, tempura, udon, etc. But this blog is about sushi, and the lunchtime specials are sometimes where it’s at. The Crispy Roll + Sushi ($6.99) looked interesting. The waitress was a wee bit unhelpful though. Roll + Sushi. OK, so it comes with Shrimp, Crab, and Tuna sushi. What kind of sushi? Eventually I just kinda gave up trying to figure it out, ordered it anyway, and it turned out to be Nigiri sushi.

For $6.99 you really can’t expect that much, so expectations were a little lowered. However, I don’t think there was really all that much great value in what I got. It was hardly a ripoff, but I’m spoiled. I expect a wee bit more out of my rolls. Firstly, it was all tasty. There are no complaints about the food in that respect, other than possibly the shrimp was marinated in lemon juice. The Crispy Roll was essentially a california roll with tempura bits. Good, but a pretty small roll both in diameter and in peices (only 6). The Nigirizushi was pretty darn good, though I would have preferred something other than the crab stick one. Crab stick is OK, but it is best complimented with other ingredients than by itself.

You know, I’m just not going to give this place a thumbs down. Had I ordered an even more slightly expensive lunch option (they ranged from $6.99 to $9.99) I’m sure I would have gotten more food. My mistake, not thiers. The interior was really quite nice and the chefs greeted me with a hearty hello! Traditional or not, not every place bothers. The little things count in thier favour. Thumbs in the middle, and this might be my own fault for not ordering as well as I could have.

As an aside, I’ve purchased my own set of nice chopsticks and a case to take them with me. The environmentalist in me worries about using disposable wooden chopsticks. We recycle everything under the sun, but these can’t be. How many millions of pairs of these things get pitched every day? I’m going to try and not add to the pile.