Sushi Bar

Sushi Bar
703 Queen St. East

One of the big boosts to this site so far has been the couple of plugs I’ve gotten from TasteTO.com As it turns out, one of the co-proprietors of that site has DJ’d with me in the past. Imagine my surprise when it turned out that Greg Clow (and Sheryl!) were food bloggers of several orders of magnitude higher than myself! As I said, they’ve generously plugged this site a couple of times, and I decided I would return the favour as best I could. How could I? Well, they mentioned a couple of new Sushi restaurants in their TO Tidbits from this past Sunday.  I decided that I was going to head out to the east end and take up the unwritten, unspoken challenge.

Since there was two places to choose from, I flipped a coin. Actually, nothing quite that random. I chose Sushi Bar because it was right across the street from a place I wasted a small part of my youth in, Jillys.

As soon as I stepped in I realized that this restaurant was wasted on it’s location. It’s far too nice for the ruins that make up Queen and Broadview. But maybe, just maybe, it’s an indication that this stretch of queen is going to be reclaimed. It’s been several years since I last was out in this area, probably last time was for a concert at the Opera House. But I could swear that the exterior has been remodeled. The interior has nice soft, diffuse lighting courtesy of dozens of paper “lanterns” hiding pot lights in the ceiling. After every few tables there is also a divider to increase the feeling of intimacy without any claustrophobia. Everything is nice and shiny, it’s obviously a new place.

But on to the food! The menu is laid out with a few tiers of sushi, from least expensive at around $5 to the gratuitous $14 rolls. Since I’ve been a little extravagant with the funds lately, I decided on a couple of less expensive rolls: The Spicy Snow Crab at $5.95 and the Unagi Philly roll at $7.95. But before the food even had a chance to arrive, food arrived! Yep, complimentary appetizers are a good way to curry favour with me. Little bowls and plates arrived with Edamame, Seaweed Salad, Miso and Noodle soup, and fried tofu. The soup was quite good, but I just don’t have the mastery with chopsticks to eat noodles “politely”. The best was the fired tofu. I have no idea what the sauce was, but tempura fried tofu with it is *really* good. Edamame is always welcome.

The rolls arrived moments later and did not disappoint. Not too big, not too small, yet neither the size of Montreal. They were just right. The Snow Crab was a bit of a misnomer, as I’m pretty sure it was just crab stick. Probably the “higher grade” I’ve mentioned in the past. Throw in some cucumber, tempura, and spicy mayo and you have a roll. It was possibly a bit on the spicy side for me, but I enjoyed it! Now on to what is becoming one of my favorite combinations. Unagi (BBQ Eel) and Cream Cheese. Here they call it the Unagi Philly roll. Whatever you’d like to call it the combination is good. Sushi Bar also understands that the key to using cream cheese is not to go overboard. A little goes a long way. These are the ultimate in rich creamy rolls that I’ve found thus far. Very well done, and the only complaint that comes to mind is that the ends of the roll were falling apart. Still, a very minor nit pick. Dessert was an Orange. I’ve always really liked the orange for dessert thing that a lot of asian restaurants do. Especially when they’re artfully peeled, sliced, and served with a toothpick.

The service was excellent as well, with the tables being discreetly observed. The food arrived quickly, and I was able to get the check and have it paid in moments. Queen St E is looking up for sushi lovers!