Sushi Bong

Craving sushi?  Don’t have much money to spend?  Go to Sushi Bong!  I have to admit that it’s not the absolute best sushi, BUT, it is great value.  Portions are large, rolls have tons of filling, not a lot of rice, and most importantly, the ingredients are fresh.  When I used to have a random craving for cheap sushi, I would settle for T&T sushi.  I’m so glad I found Sushi Bong.  No more supermarket sushi for me. 

We ordered a spider roll, dragon roll and a salmon roll.  Everything together was under $25, pretty reasonable I thought, till I opened my take out boxes.  HOLY amazing deal!  We got in total 2 large sized square Styrofoam containers.  I thought was a bit strange at first, considering the size of the T&T rolls I normally get, I assumed everything would fit into one single square Styrofoam container.  Turns out that one container held the spider roll.  There were 2 huge rolls in there, for one single order. 

Spider Roll

The dragon roll and salmon roll was in the second box.  The hubby normally doesn’t comment much on his food.  He just eats.  This time he was like, “OMG, look at the amount of salmon in this roll!!!  There’s so much fish, more than rice!”  Proportionally, there was definitely more fish than rice.  In all 3 of the rolls, there was definitely more filling than rice.

Dragon Roll and Salmon Roll

Sushi Bong has 2 locations.  Both locations have very minimal seating.  So if you can, try to do take out instead of dine in.

Sushi Bong

7181 Yonge St.,  Unit 27

Markham, ON

L3T 2B2

Phone:  (905) 597-2200

Izakaya Tsuki

Another restaurant I visited during my diet's food introduction phase.  The night started out with me at a bar.  My friends who I haven't seen in 10 years wanted to meet at a bar.  I couldn't eat anything there or drink anything there.  So I only stayed for a short while, and searched for a place that would have some food for me to eat.  By that time, it was too late for me to buy groceries and then go home and cook.  I thought of Japanese food, since there's some sashimi.  Yes I realize sashimi is fish.  But because of my food limitations, thats what I had to resort to.  Izakaya Tsuki was nearby and they use brown rice instead of white rice!  Means I can have maki as well! While we were waiting, I called up another friend that lives nearby to join us, since I haven't seen him in a couple of months.  More people means we can order a larger variety of food.

Izakya Tsuki has quite large menu with large variety of raw and cooked items ranging from sushi and sashimi to ramen to takoyaki balls. For the three of us, I think we ordered a lot of food.  But that's also because my friend can eat quite a bit. :)  We ordered sashimi salad, takoyaki, ramen, tuna tataki, grilled squid, grill beef tongue, gindara, sushi+sashimi plate

The sashimi salad was pretty much the same fish as the sashimi and sushi plate.  I still haven't acquired the love for salmon yet.  So I pretty much ate tuna, and some other fish that I don't know the name of.  Was, just ok I think.  Wasn't mushy and overly fishy smelling and tasting.  So a pass for me.  I also can't compare to other sushi joints in Toronto.  When you compare with places like Japan and Vancouver, you just can't.....

Sashimi Salad

Sushi+Sashimi Platter

Tuna tataki is usually my go to dish.  For some reason I find that with the slight sear on the fish, it gives the fish a better texture than fully cooked or fully raw.  So I ate quite a bit of this one.

Tuna Tataki

The best dish of the night (of what I did eat) was the gindara.  I think it's better than Guu's!  The fish was not fishy at all.  Cooked perfect which a slight crust, while being moist on the inside.  I think I ate most of this dish too.

Gindara

The squid was just so-so.  Not the best that I've had, and not the worst.  I would say order something else instead.  I didn't try the beef tongue or the ramen.  The boys liked the beef tongue.  The ramen was meh.  They have their favourites downtown.  They also liked the takoyaki balls.  But when looking at it, it looked firmer than what I remember from Kyoto.  But then again most Japanese restaurants here in Toronto make them firm.

Beef Tongue & Squid

Ramen

Takoyaki

I think if I were to return, it would be for the gindara.  So many other restaurants along Yonge St. for me to try.  It is super convenient for people who take the TTC since it's on the subway line.  And I just noticed they also have a location in Markham.

Izakya Tsuki
5182 Yonge St.
North York, ON
M2N 5P6

Phone:  416-229-6719

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 5pm-2am

http://www.tsuki.ca

Inaho Japanese Restaurant

My friend suggested we meet at this restaurant.  He frequents it quite a bit, at least once a week he said.  But this particular week, it would be his second visit.  We didn't make a reservation, and when we walked in, all their tables already had the plastic reserved plaque on them, and this was a weeknight!  Must be a good place since they seem to be so busy, regulars I assume.  So we sat at the sushi bar.  And as it turns out, they were all regulars.  From what I observed, everyone that walked in seemed to know the owners, and they seemed to all be like family.

My friend ordered some soba noodles, and hand roll, both of which I forgot take pictures of.  And I ordered a tempura don.  The reason my friend said that he loves this place is because the fish is fresh. He spent the last few months on the west coast eating really fresh fish, and he says this is the closest to the west coast he's had here since he's been back.  I took his word for it, since at that time I was still anti-fish.  My tempura don was ok, nothing to be crazy over.  I personally found the tempura batter to be a little heavy.  The sushi rice underneath was flavoured well.

Tempura Don

End of the meal came with choice of either ginger, green tea, or black sesame ice cream.  Pretty standard.  The only 'downside' was the little roach critter that I saw scurry by our feet.  I'm sure other restaurants have the same thing, but would have been better that I didn't see it.

Inaho Japanese Restaurant
155 East Beaver Creek Road,
Richmond Hill, ON,
L4B 2N2

Phone: 905-889-8533

Inakaya

June 21st, a few of my friends got together to participate and raise money for cancer.  This event was called Relay for Life.  This even occurred from 7pm to 7am, none of us slept.  It was a lot of fun.  I was a bit hesitant at first, but now I think I may do it again next year.  For additional details, go to the Relay For Life website.

After that fun night, our group wanted to get together again and celebrate.  I guess it was just more of an excuse to go out to eat.  Doesn't matter what the reason was, as long as my stomach was happy at the end of the night, I'm happy.  The meeting place was at Inakaya, a small, and hidden izakaya in North York.  The food here was pretty good, even the two non fish eaters were able to leave with a full belly, so thats always a good sign.  Price i'm not sure if it's on the higher end of izakayas, or if we just ordered way too much food for 5 people. That can be decided after looking through the pictures.

Overall I think the food was of good quality and fresh.  If I was in the area, I would consider going back again, but it isn't a restaurant I would make trip just to go eat at.

Beef Tataki

Miso Cod

Seafood Seaweed Salad

Spider Roll

Whole Flounder

Kaarage

Sashimi Plate

Deep Fried Monk Fish

Volcano Roll

Squid

Inatei Japanese Cuisine

Inatei, a restaurant that I have always been curious about.  It’s been opened in Richmond Hill for quite a few years, and I have visited other restaurants in the same plaza.  One thing that held me back was the fact that I have a lot of friends who have tried it, and just say, it pretty expensive.  They mention nothing of the food quality, but just that it’s pretty expensive.

One day, I had a craving for Japanese food, and I never really crave Japanese food! Plus we had to meet up for some friends who we haven’t seen in a long time.  It was decided that we would dig a little deeper into our pockets and try Inatei.

Since there were 5 of us, we got to try a good variety of dishes.  We ordered a chirashi, sashimi ‘boat’, sushi ‘boat’, tempura don, chicken katsu curry, kaarage, pork katsu don, spider roll, crab meat chawanmushi.  The fish looked fresh, and I didn’t detect any sort of fishy smell.  The other diners with me seemed to enjoy the fish.  The cooked dishes, meaning the katsus, tasted pretty good, nothing too spectacular, but can there be outstanding katsus?  If there are, please let me know!  From reviews that I read, their spider roll was worth ordering.  It was larger than other sushi restaurants, and you can see pieces of soft shell crab, not just deep fried soft shelled crab crumbs.  The chawanmushi was very good.  The egg was soft and silky, and there were chunks of real crab meat, no imitation stuff.  When we asked for the bill, the waitress brought over a shot glass filled with a lychee pudding.  It was very creamy and tasty, with a piece of canned lychee at the bottom too.

Overall, I’m not too sure that Inatei is worth the extra money to go to.  I would much rather to go Le Café Michi instead.  Lower price point and the food just as good!

 

Chirashi

Sashimi Platter

Sushi & Maki Platter

Tempura Don

Curry Chicken Katsu

Karaage

Pork Katsu Don

Spider Roll

Crab Chawanmushi

Lychee Dessert

Inatei Japanese Cuisine

9021 Leslie Street,

Richmond Hill, ON

L4B 0B2

905-881-9500

Hours: Monday - Sunday 11:30am - 2:30pm, 5:30pm - 10:30pm

https://www.facebook.com/InateiJapaneseCuisine

Sushi Kaji

This post is late, way too late.  My hubby treated me to Kaji for my birthday, which was in July.  Even after all these months, I still remember how good the food was.  Yes it was expensive, but boy was it worth the money!  I will leave this post short text wise, and let the pictures do the talking.  Enjoy!

Menu

Menu

Sesame Tofu

Simmered Eggplant with Dashi

Lotus Root Gelee with Lobster

Assorted Appetizer Plate

Marinated White Fish with Plum Sauce
Chicken & Green Peas in Tomato Cup

Cold Butter Squash Soup

Lily Bulb Cake

Green Tea Noodle 

Grilled Scampi Shrimp

Sashimi Plate

Grilled Eel Sushi

Toro Sushi

Salmon Sushi

Scallop Sushi

Forgot what kind of fish :(

Shrimp Sushi

Lobster Sushi

Yuzu Panna Cotta

Fruit Jelly & Macaron

Macaron

Sushi Kaji

860 The Queensway,

Toronto, ON

M8Z 1N7

416-252-2166