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| Squid Teriyaki |
Anyone who knows me knows I love sushi. If you know I love sushi, you know I love AYCE (All You Can Eat) sushi. Japanese food is just my favourite. Anyway, yesterday I had a day off and had to run some errands with my mother. My mom was actually the one who started me on my sushi addiction, letting me try this cucumber roll from No Frills as a teen. Since then I'd graduated from cucumber rolls to California rolls, to raw salmon to basically every kind. Every once in awhile we like to get AYCE sushi, that's kind of our thing.
Every sushi lover has a "spot". My Sushi spot originally was Kyoto House, which is a block or two away from the Eaton Centre. That place is still very dear to my heart and anytime I find myself downtown, I'm sure to stop by for $12 AYCE lunch. I quickly grew tired of making a 1.5 hour bus/train trip to and from downtown just to get my fix, so when Omi Sushi opened up on Kingston Road near morningside, I was in love. Unfortunately, with time I found that their dishes became less and less consistent with a noticeable dip in quality. They also had a terrible habit (as is typical with many AYCE restaurants) of forgetting orders. One day I was on my way to work when I saw that they closed. My heart sunk a little only because I was dreading going all the way downtown for sushi again. A few days later, I saw a banner go up that said Sail Sushi, and I knew I was saved. I went to their website and shed a few happy tears.
Not only is Sail Sushi an AYCE restaurant, but their menu is 3x as extensive as Omi's was and the quality is THERE. I also loved the addition of ordering with iPads. Being able to have a visual idea of what I was getting made it easier to make decisions of what I wanted and when.
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| Wasabi Mussel |
My mom and I ordered quite a lot (we were super hungry) but a few dishes really stood out to me. Pictured above is Sail Sushi's Wasabi Mussel. My mom had it (I should have ordered a few myself) and said it tasted amazing. Visually, I think it's beautiful. It's vivid and inviting, I almost didn't want her to eat it. I can imagine how well the wasabi mayo paired with the fish eggs and oceany taste of the mussels.
I also had the Squid Terikaki (pictured above) and honestly, I was a little worried about it when ordering. A lot of people tend to overcook squid. When overcooked, it gets hard and rubbery and not so easy to chew. Not only was the Teriyaki sauce amazing, but every part of that squid was cooked to perfection. Even the small tenticles. Sail Sushi has many Teriyaki options including beef, salmon, etc. I had ordered both the Salmon Belly and Salmon Head Teriyaki, those got devoured before I could even snap a pic.
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| Squid, Salmon Roe, Salmon Belly, Octopus Sushi |
Last and certainly not least, the sushi. The sushi rice itself was at the perfect temperature, and with the salmon it all kind of melted in my mouth. The salmon itself was the perfect thickness and cut, with beautiful ribbons of fat seperating the tender slices. My salmon roe sushi had just the right amount; too much salmon roe can be extremely salty and offputting but the rice to roe ratio was perfect. My squid was also thoughtfully portioned (raw squid that's too thick can be extremely hard to chew with an unpleasant texture) and with the soy sauce, tasted amazing. My octopus was great too. My biggest problem with octopus sushi is that there's either too little or too much rice, or the seaweed is wrapped too rightly around it which causes the rice to fall out when picking up with chopsticks. I didn't have that problem yesterday.
All in all, Sail Sushi is a worthy successor that can (and probably will) give Omi Sushi a run for their money. With a more extensive and higher quality menu which happens to be allergy/food restriction friendly, iPad ordering, better service, and Deep Fried Milk (SERIOUSLY!! I WAS BLOWN AWAY WHEN I TASTED IT. IT'S SO GOOD.), Sail Sushi is my go-to sushi spot and I'd happily recommend it to anyone whether they were a sushi/Japanese food fan or not.
