Haru Zushi

Haru Zushi
1920 Yonge St.

Saturday in Toronto was for the most part a grey day. Not rainy, not cold, just overcast and dull. I didn’t really have anything planned for the day until after dinner, so I decided that rather than be unproductive and do things like house work, or watching TV, I’d head out to a random area of the city (more or less) and have lunch at the first sushi place I saw.

I hit google and punched in “Yonge Davisville Sushi Toronto”. The Glencairn bus goes right past my place and deposits me in an area of the city that I don’t often venture anymore. Strange, considering that I used to live out there. Google proclaimed that there was a place a couple of block north of that address, so off I went. When I actually got there and started walking north I ran across a restaurant a mere 5 or 6 doors north of Davisville. Well, it’s a sushi restaurant, so all of my criteria are met. I went in.

I think most everyone had already had lunch, or decided to stay in in case the weather delivered on it’s threat to rain. With only 1 other table occupied, getting a seat wasn’t exactly difficult. The interior was a little spartan, but nice. When it came time to order, I did my usual routine of ordering pretty much blind. But this time with a twist. I was hungry. Really hungry. So I went with 2 rolls, both a bit more on the expensive side and both leaning towards “rich and filling”. First off was an old favorite, the epitome of crabby goodness, the Spider Roll. For the second I decided to be a bit more adventurous. I haven’t had much unagi, but unagi with cream cheese? I went for the Haru Roll (Unagi, Avocado, Tempura bits, Cream Cheese, Tobiko).

My first impressions when the rolls actually arrived were “This is what a grey day needed. A massive dose of colour.” The Haru roll ($9.50) was just a pleasure to look at and take pictures of. But the best part came when I actually tucked in. The few times I’ve had unagi, my impressions were that it was the very essence of fishy. Fishy tasting, oily, with a slightly mushy texture. On its own, nothing to write home about. However if you throw cream cheese into that mixture… Bliss. Perfect combination. Slightly sweet from the cheese and large amount of Tobiko, I had to alternate peices between this and the spider roll to stop myself from inhaling it all. The Spider Roll ($7.50) was just as good as I expected. I’ve had a few of these and the nice observation I have to make is that thus far no restaurant has skimped on the crab or tried to pull a fast one and use crab stick. For some reason the lettuce works really well, and I’m a sucker for soft shell crab.

I liked this place. It had a “lunch” sort of feel, but the menu was pretty darn diverse. The rolls, for instance, ranged from $4 for the basic California Roll to $12.50 for an Ichiban roll. But I made a horrifying discovery. This place delivers. This places delivers and I am livin in the delivery area. Oh my, this isn’t good.

Thumbs up. I had a great lunch, and while it was a little more expensive than normal, that was entirely my own doing by being (somewhat) extravagant.