JJ Sushi

JJ Sushi
431 Roncesvalles Ave

Ah Saturday. The nice slow, lazy day where you can take a couple of hours to transition from a zombified state to something approximating consciousness. The nice part of realizing at 1pm that you haven’t had any lunch yet is that on a Saturday you can go anywhere you like. Just over a month ago, after I checked out Vincent Sushi I got an email from someone at the Roncesvalles Villiage BIA thanking me for the review and bringing another Roncesvalles sushi restaurant to my attention.

So I held onto that email for a month, and every day it mocked me. Mocked me that I hadn’t geared up and headed back towards a neighborhood that I’ve almost lived in twice. So, since I had all the time in the world this afternoon, I kitted myself out with a good book and my camera and hit the TTC for the mini-trek to Dundas West subway.

I actually almost missed the place, it’s right on the corner of Roncesvalles and Ritchie, and the building kind of slants down Ritchie, so if you were driving by and not looking sharp you might miss it. From the outside it appears to be retrofitted into what was (once?) a house, and when you get inside it becomes very apparent that this is the case. How many restaurants do you know that have a bricked up fireplace, but the mantle remains? The seating wasn’t exactly the height of elegance either, as two of the four available tables were  glass outdoor patio furniture. Nothing wrong with that, just seemed a little out of place.

Scanning the menu it was obvious that this was a more “traditional” place, heavy on the makimono and Nigiri. I’m nothing if not adaptable, so I decided to try a Maki combo rather than a couple of crazy rolls like I normally do. They had an excellent deal, with 6 Tuna, 6 Salmon, and 6 California maki for $12.95. It came quickly, which was a good thing as I was hungry. Oh boy, I’m glad I was hungry. It was really only then that I did the math and realized that I was getting 18 pieces of sushi. I knew that this was going to be a struggle to the death. Either the sushi dies or I do.

First, the tuna and the salmon maki. I was actually kind of surprised that the rolls came out the way they did. Usually in my experience, monomaki has been small rolls with the nori on the outside (Hosomaki). In this case it was the usual size that most would be accustomed to. The only problem with this is that there was a lot of rice. While the amount of fish in each piece was very generous, no matter how fresh and tasty it was (and it was!) it left the pieces somewhat bland. I’m loathe to use liberal amounts of soy sauce on sushi, as I figure it’s like dousing a good steak with A1. But these rolls needed a bit of pep. Maybe just a dash of 7 spice powder? The California rolls left me a little flat as well, but I think thats mostly because my palette has moved on a bit. They tasted good, and the avocado was a welcome flavour, but it just felt a little dull.

Overall the service was good, and the sushi was well prepared, but both the restaurant and the food I ordered was just kind of … meh. Thumbs are definitely in the middle. However, if you’re a Nigiri type of person, this place might be for you. Be forewarned though, they only take cash.