Aji Sai
467 Queen Street W
So over the weekend I was trolling a few blog sites trying to find new ideas for sushi places to eat. I have my own stand by of just walking down any street and picking one at random, but how about visiting a place that others think highly of? Well, someone mentioned that Aji Sai was good, it’s close to where I work, so I grabbed a few guys from the office and out we headed.
It seems to be primarily an all you can eat place, at least at lunch time, as the menus we were given basically only covered the all you can eat stuff. The only drawback to this is that there were no descriptions of the rolls. Suited me just fine, I ordered a pair at random with a “lets see what we get!” sort of attitude. The guys ordered salmon, deep fried tofu, teryaki chicken, miso, and tempura vegetables for starters. I only had the chicken, and while it wasn’t bad, a majority of it went uneaten.
The rolls were essentially ordered at random, I know there was Spicy Salmon, Avocado, Black Dragon, Rock ‘n Roll, and Firehouse ordered. I’ll concentrate on the few that I ordered or had more than 1 piece of. First there was the Firehouse (Shrimp Tempura, and Banana, topped with salmon, and tempura bits.) This was pretty good, and the first bite in I was like “Is this banana?” You bet it was. Interesting combination adding a bit of extra sweetness with the same general texture as avocado. Second was the Rock ‘n Roll (Salmon, cucumber, and tobiko, deep fried in tempura). I admit that I picked this one simply for the funky name. I’ve never had a deep fried roll before, and it was a nice change, being warm instead of cold. Definitely more filling than the usual roll, maybe a signal sent to the brain because it was cooked. I also had some of the Black Dragon roll (Shrimp tempura, avocado, and cucmber, topped with unagi). I like unagi, but only in small doses as it’s rather fishy and fatty tasting. The roll itself was really quite good though. Just the right amount of tempura batter covering the shrimp. You could tell it was there, but it wasn’t overpowering.
Pretty nice place too, stylish without being stuffy. The place does get busy at lunch though, and once it does the service slows right down. Took the better part of 15 minutes to get them to take and process the plastic. But I could see they were concentrating on getting the food out to other people, so I can understand.
I didn’t see a regular menu to tell what the individual prices are, but at $10.99 a head we certainly got our moneys worth.
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- Aji Sai
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- Aji Sai
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- Aji Sai – Starters
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- Aji Sai – Sushi
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- Aji Sai – Sushi
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- Aji Sai – Firehouse Roll
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- Aji Sai – Black Dragon Roll
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- Aji Sai – Green Tea Ice Cream
I love sushi, so will definitely make use of your blog! Almost every time I go out for lunch I have sushi… :s
Have tried Aji Sai myself and was disappointed to say the least. The salmon didn’t seem fresh to me and it surprised me that I didn’t get sick after eating there. Will not be returning.
I first discovered this place during a Christmas shopping trip with my son who was 15 at the time. He had alway said he hated sushi and other ethnic foods but that day he said he would give it a shot. We were their at 13:30 so the place was very quiet. Clean, quaint, quiet. Just the way a restaraunt should be. After we paid our $11.00 each we left with full bellies and my son had a new appreciation for sushi and japanese food. This is a wonderful place to discover the tastes of sushi and Japanese quisine. If your their to experience culinary excellence you will be disapointed. Dont be a moron and complain that the portions were small. ITS AN ALL YOU CAN EAT. Dont complain that the quality is not the best, IT COSTS $11.00 at lunch.
Enjoy a nice little place to quench your sushi craving until you get back to your favorite place.
HORRIBLE service! alright sushi, after neglecting our table for 20 mins + when the restaurant was dead, they purposely did not bringing any of the expensive dishes for the all you can eat dinner special such as the sashimi. They were EXTREMELY rude huffing and puffing when we asked for our food then asked us when we will be done. Finally we go to pay our bill and our waitress demands a tip and says that it is mandatory to tip with out comprehending that tip is for quality of service and not mandatory
ok so went there on the 14th the experience started out good but service deterioted service started out fast and then slowed down but the thing that was the kicker was the fact that the server spilled some some sauce fromm left over food from someone elses table all over my $100.00 j lindeberg golf shirt. She made no attempt to help me get my shirt cleaned up or anything. When the bill came i was expecting to get my meal for free because that is something that has happened to me before at other restaurants and have got free dinner. The fact that she went back to the other servers and told them and they started laughing and looking over at me. I was not impressed.
hey mr. blogger.
if you think all All you can eat sushi joints are the same, you should check out sushi D. I came across this blog a while ago and I’ve literally gone 3 times in the past week.
http://gracefulglutton.blogspot.com/2010/07/toronto-sushi-d.html
Been there.
http://www.toronto-sushi.com/2009/05/10/sushid/
Food was ok, but service was pretty bad. Food took a while to get to our table and they kicked us out after an hour. Waitress was rude to our table and rushed us to finish and get out. Still expected tip. Will not be returning.
I have nothing but contempt for Aji Sai and all their locations, especially the Belleville location. Not only have I been on the receiving end of some of their horrible sevice, I have heard it from many others. They have continually ignored me and my group. It takes over an hour to get a full order. They frequently “forget” or deliberately do not deliver food to the tables. The other day they did not give us 1/3 of our lunch and insisted we did get it. The food had been delicious but the chefs, servers and owners don’t care. We will never go back.