Sushi Island

Sushi Island
571 College St.

Once of the nicest things about deciding to visit every single Sushi place in Toronto is that it requires help to do it. I’ve eaten out with people more times this month than I probably ever have in my life. Of course, my VISA bill looks like a Japanese billing department exploded on it, but I’m willing to suffer for my “art”. Luckily Jackie, Heather, and John were willing to take one for the team as well!

I picked this place out of a list from BlogTO. Funnily enough, Japango is on that list as well, and people during this meal were talking about how New Generation was awesome. Maybe, just maybe, the people at BlogTO are on to something. As it turns out Heather eats here all the time. Apparently this was one of the first Sushi places in Little Italy. I can’t say as I dislike the trend they started!

Since there was 4 of us, going for the all you can eat seemed like a good idea. Instead of having the table littered with plates we could simply order in stages. As it turned out, Heather took charge and started ordering like a woman on fire. I can’t even begin to keep track of most of what we had specifically, but I know that there were multiple Crunchy Rolls (Salmon, Tobiko, Avocado, Tempura, and Mayo)  ordered. Usually when I’ve had these they’ve come with crab stick and the salmon was a real refreshing change. Since it was a new novelty to me Sushi Pizza was ordered. I’ll say it again. Breaded pan fried rice patties are a gift from heaven. I don’t even need the mayo, tuna, tomato, etc. to go with it. The one we had this time I dubbed “Japanese Bruschetta”. Looked just like it, but tasted much better IMHO.

I did my usual routine towards the end of the meal and ordered a pair of rolls simply based on the name without looking at the contents. It’s total random chance. This time I managed to order two very similar rolls. Amigo Delight (smoked salmon, crab meat, hot peppers, and tempura) and the Fire and Ice (tempura white tuna, hot pepper, and spicy mayo). They were both disappointing and proof that sometimes this method isn’t the smartest. Both contained hot peppers and while I was intrigued by the promise of “spicy” the peppers completely obliterated the taste of anything else in the roll. We might as well have been eating rice and peppers. I was forced to finish off most of my choices by my fellow diners lest they charge us full price. Everyone had a piece or two and the opinion on these was unanimous.

Now for the good and the bad. First, the sushi was all good. Both the Crunchy Roll and the Firecracker Rolls (tuna, tempura, spicy may0, toppe dwith seven spice powder) disappeared at an astonishing rate. While the exterior of the restaurant is anything by attractive, this inside is attractively decorated with a definite College st feel. The sushi itself was a bit heavy on the rice, but thats almost to be expected with all you can eat. Get ‘em to fill up on the rice so we can keep the price down. Speaking of the price, including the weekend surcharge of $2 the AYCE was $18 a head. Considering that there was very little crab stick to be found in the rolls, I’d have to say that we each got our moneys worth. There were more expensive options that included different kinds of sushi, but as much as I love it, Sashimi doesn’t love me.

It’s a good deal for All you can eat, and worth the trip to Little Italy.