Kuni Sushi Ya

Kuni Sushi Ya
20 Baldwin St.

Saturdays are made for wandering around with your camera, just seeing the city and snapping pictures of whatever tickles your fancy. However this Saturday there was at least a bit of an agenda. My sister, who accompanies me on a number of these sushi outings, needed a ceiling fan installed. She proposed that lunch would be bought for me, and she knew of just the place! It’s really strange. Somehow I managed to completely forget that Baldwin village existed. There is a chinese bun shop in there that I visited with my old roomates of mine 15 years ago. My brain placed it in Kensington and I thought it had disappeared. Rediscovery win!

There were about 4 places to choose from, one of which didn’t open until 4pm on Saturdays. With our extremely scientific selection process, we went to the next place along the street. I did make a note of the other places and filed them away for future visiting. Kuni Sushi Ya (which shall be henceforth abbreviated to Sushi Ya) seemed quite inviting with the pictures of the dishes right on the sign and a nice patio out front. When we got there it was still gray and threatening to rain, so we ventured inside. On another day, sushi in the sun would be wonderful.

For those who are new, Laura is a non-militant vegan and adds her $.02 on the vegetarian options. Since she had had a late breakfast, she kept it lean with a salad and something that intrigued me. A veggie california roll ($4.25). Pretty clever. They chopped carrot ever so fine so that it actually kind of resembled crab meat. I’m not the biggest fan of vegetarian foods, but I wouldn’t turn my nose up at this. For my own sins I grabbed a Green Dragon (Unagi, Cucumber, and Tobiko topped with Avocado) and one of my favorites, Salmon Pizza, both at $7.99 each. The Green Dragon when done well is a work of art. Thinly sliced avocado hugging the contours of the roll, complimenting the richness of the BBQ Eel. This was no exception. Very well made and tasty as all get out. I was a little disappointed with the small portion of Unagi, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The Pizza was different from what I’m used to, and quite good as well. It was much lighter than the usual pizza, with the rice patty being a lot less fried than what I’m used to. Not greasy at all. Darn it. Someone has managed to make unhealthy sushi healthy again. Curses! But while it was different, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good! Generous thick slices of salmon with spicy mayo, a whack of tobiko and onion. While I missed the heavy richness of well fried foods, this was quite good.

This was a nice place with quick service and good food. Whats not to love? Next time I’ll have to try the patio. Lets just hope that the Toronto weather stays nice enough long enough that I can do this in 2009 and not 2010.