Sushi-Yama

Nina, Rebecca and I recently ate at Sushi-Yama, at Broadway and Guelph. I've been there a few times before, and always enjoyed it. We were eating dinner before going to friend's house for drinks on a Friday evening, not in a rush but not interested in a full meal experience.

We sat quickly with menus. I've had to wait there before, but they have since nearly doubled in size, so there were a few tables open. The wait table were very typical for a sushi place: fast, young Asian women, quick to smile and pour tea. We chose a few dishes to share and a few for ourselves. Our waitress came fairly quickly, and we ordered:

Garlic Tai (red snapper with roasted garlic in ponzu sauce)
Agedashi Tofu
Gyoza (pork and vegetable)
Miso soup all around
Negitoro maki (chopped tuna and green onion)
Japanese radish maki
Chopped scallop maki
and the amazing Salifornia roll: salmon, crab and something else in a huge deep-fried roll.

I also ordered a few pieces of nigiri: salmon belly, tuna and salmon.

The garlic tai was quite good (soft, barely warmed) but not as good as the tuna tataki which I've had before and we thought about ordering. I love ponzu sauce, and the garlic perfectly complemented the dish. The agedashi tofu was hot, soft, nicely crisp on the outside (lightly battered) and the broth wasn't too salty. The rolls and gyoza were fine (not outstanding, but it's pretty cheap); the Salifornia roll was a monster of deep-fried fishiness. I would hesitate before ordering it again but it was a fun experience.

The nigiri were disappointing, and I won't order those pieces again. The salmon was rubbery, the tuna oily (didn't even try it). We never received our miso soup, an oversight that can be forgiven once.

In total the bill was $29.90, and we were fu-ull. I will definitely go back (it's only three blocks from my house), but I will have to think about the nigiri. It's no Toshi's, that's ferdamnsure, but nothing is.