JTime Sushi

JTime Sushi
394 Bloor St W

I put the call out to all of my friends, “Who wants to go for sushi?” and I got a few responses. This is good for two reasons, I get to be sociable, and the person who volunteers gets to pick the restaurant. Thereby guaranteeing that I’ll be going to a new place. This is what we call win-win.

This time around, my uber-running-dancing friend Jackie took me up on my offer and picked a place pretty darn close to where she lives. Right across the street from the Brunny and right next door to Nataraj (one of my East Indian haunts) is a place by the name of JTime Sushi. Now that I’ve had my eyes peeled for sushi places I’m noticing that certain areas are packed with them. JTime is indicative of the Bloor west explosion. Hey, I haven’t lived in that area in over 10 years, but these places weren’t there when I hung out…

But nonetheless, they’re here now and Jackie picked really well. While waiting for her to arrive I took a peek at the menu. This place goes into the inexpensive category, as all of the rolls were between $3 and $10. After Jackie arrived and copious amounts of tea was consumed, ordering began. While decisions are never really my strong suit, I figured “When in Rome” and went with the JTime Roll ($5.75). Now I don’t know if there is some sort of standard for the number of pieces, but this was on the larger side with 8. Crabstick, Cucumber, Salmon, Tobiko, and Mayo. Lately I’ve been somewhat hesitant to order rolls with Mayo, it either tries to mask a bland roll, or compliments it well. In this case, it was definitely the latter. Really delicious, and this is coming from someone who isn’t a huge salmon fan. My one complaint was that the rice was uneven and the end peices fell apart.

Jackie ordered something that I’d seen on various menus but never got myself. I just looks so “gaijin”. But whoever decided that a rice “patty” breaded and deep fried with mayo and fish on top was a good idea should get a medal. Yep, she ordered “Sushi Pizza” ($7.75). It was really, really good. I’m surprised she even let me have a piece to try.

The one other thing that sticks out in my mind with this place is that the people running it/working there are Japanese. Now while I don’t fall into the “they all look the same” trap, I do have difficulty with spotting the subtle differences between, say, Koreans and Chinese. But I can spot Japanese being spoken from a mile away. While I don’t care what the ethnicity is of the person who is making my food, the extra “authenticity” adds to the ambiance. Did I mention the tea? both Jackie and I nearly floated out of the restaurant as the cute waitress plied us with refill after refill. Kawaii!

It’s gratifying that I have yet to be disappointed by a sushi place in Toronto. Best part is, not only did I get to try a very good place that was new to me, I had good company as well! Thumbs up all around!