Sushi Gen

Sushi Gen
1502-04 Yonge St

It’s interesting how I can update my Facebook status to say that I’m going to have sushi today, and half a dozen people pipe up with suggestions. My friend Missuh suggested Sushi Gen, and considering that it isn’t 80 miles from my apartment, I decided to give it a whirl.

Now normally I don’t do All You Can Eat. Generally it’s not economical for me. I don’t sit down and stuff my face until I need to be rolled away from the table. Plus the fare is usually pretty pedestrian, and sometimes they cheat by putting so much rice in that you fill yourself up quick. Not here. AYCE rang in at $12.99 (and this price is the same week in and week out, no extra for the weekend) and the selection was quite good. Everything that was on the regular menu, and a lot of stuff like udon and teryaki that usually isn’t included.

To start off with I went for Salmon Pizza (Yes, a huge shock I know), a Cucumber and Avocado Roll, and a Spicy Crunchy Crab handroll. A hand roll is Temakizushi for us Gaikokujin (foreigners). Basically, if you haven’t had it before, it’s the usual contents of a Maki roll in the form of an ice cream cone. Very “handy” to eat and they make a nice to-go snack. It’s also a good way to sample a number of rolls without filling yourself right up.

However, Sushi Gen let me down a bit. Even though you tick boxes on a form to choose what you want, they managed to mess up my order. The cucumber avocado roll came without the avocado. Unfortunately, I have no photographic proof of this as I inhaled it anyhow. Also, the Temaki was simply a crab hand roll. No trace of spicy or crunchy. I asked to see the paper I filled out in case I made a mistake, but it would appear that it wasn’t me. However, you’ll note that I inhaled them anyhow. Hey, it’s all you can eat and it was really good. Plus I was hungry. I pointed out the error and continued chowing down. The Salmon pizza came just right, and I was curious to see how they would prepare it.

There doesn’t seem to be any set standard for Sushi Pizza. This is actually a good thing as each chef can try something different. In this case the rice patty was bound together with egg, and while you could taste it was there, it complemented as opposed to over powered. A good addition. Just spicy mayo on this one and a touch of oyster sauce. Could have used a bit more mayo and sauce, but thats just my junk food craving kicking in.

Finally, to give them a chance to try again I ordered another Spicy Crunchy Crab handroll. This time there was success as gone were the cucumber strips and in was tempura bits and spicy mayo. Both hand rolls were excellent. Just enough stuffing that you got a good taste of what you paid for. Neither too much or too little. Thumbs up.

Since my order was messed up I can’t in good conscience fire both thumbs in the air, but everything that came was really quite well prepared and tasty. Missuh says that the Volcano roll is to die for, but I couldn’t find a description on the menu and you can’t assume that one wacky roll is going to be the same as another at another restaurant. Thumbs in the middle, but only for the ordering issues.