.

[keanefan]

-Thanks for your replies


***

[pay_dan]

I read in the newspaper that there is a 15% discount right now at the restaurant

[ferkel]

it looks okay inside, but I bet its bad... it looks like the couldn't decide on a name.. hahahaha. This place has two names.

[N1_EVO]

*WHoops daisy, this Review was for the one located @ Pacific Mall lower level.**

I'd tried there on Sunday night..Not too busy but all the orders were right and quick. Not to much on the rice on the rolls, soft drinks came in cans. Downfall is not too much items on the menu as some other AYCE. Missing the fried scallop, beef enoki rolls, and a couple others. Overall, I would recommend it to anyone even it is still like a karaoke bar feel. My friend knows one of the owners and he still on the process of making flyers, etc. Menus are pretty simple telling you how much pieces there are but, I found out that they were missing the miso soup option..LOL. As for service, the waiteresses(sp) were pretty prompt and were very friendly.. I would recommend it to anyone if you wanna try another AYCE. , Im not a critic but I would go again. BTW, theres a discount still in use over there. Either 15-20% off. 10% service charge applies...

[Raggie]

Is Japan Fusion next to Star Walk Buffet?

[rdx]

Just came back from them.

The food are very good (both raw and cooked stuff). Very fresh sashimi and very tender and juicy beef spare ribs. Only thing not better than Wasabi is decor, but they still have above average decor !

The first one to offer FULL sashimi menu for lunch (no difference than dinner) menu). $11.99 lunch for weekdays, $1.99 more for weekends. They actually say 15% outside for promotion but they didn't get it to me for some reasons ..........

Anyway, pretty happy with their quality. Choices are fewer than others, but you get most of the common items.

Definitely worth a try.

[Iron Chef Ajax]

Is the promotion over?

[rdx]

No, I just had lunch there yesterday. You can pick anything on the menu for lunch, including sashimi.

[bell02fantasy]

No, I just had lunch there yesterday. You can pick anything on the menu for lunch, including sashimi.


So you get the full Sashimi for lunch??? whats the sense of having two different prices for lunch and dinner if there is no difference in what you can order???

[rdx]

To cover the overhead, not many people want to have heavy lunch. But the restaurant needs to cover their overhead as well. So, even breakeven is better than nothing. Lot of restaurants charge premium on the same item they sell in lunch time.

Anyway, why do we, consumers even bother to ask ? It is to our benefit unless you want them to charge you $19 for lunch or $11.99 for dinner :cheesygri

[rdx]

As I said, they need to cover the overhead, so probably no meat from the lunch price but at least breakeven.

Same as why you pay less for movie before 6 pm for the same movie. There are always people will go at nite.

[trueno92]

yes- a few steps away.

same parking lot.

no, thats wasabi.

japan fusion is to the right of tim hortons, facing steeles

=

guys, its all just supply and demand.. such as the movie example above.. its just when people can make it out, and some prefer not to eat too much at lunch anyways........


SO, I CAME, I SAW, I CONQURED.

Full review + PICS, coming soon.

for now, all i can say, the AYCE bar has been raised & a la carte has met its match. I may have "cried wolf" once or twice before, but this past weekend, I visited a few old friends of a la carte excellence downtown in hopes to get my sushi skills back up to snuff, and my pallette has been refreshed.

STAY TUNED.

[bell02fantasy]

no, thats wasabi.

japan fusion is to the right of tim hortons, facing steeles

=

guys, its all just supply and demand.. such as the movie example above.. its just when people can make it out, and some prefer not to eat too much at lunch anyways........


SO, I CAME, I SAW, I CONQURED.

Full review + PICS, coming soon.

for now, all i can say, the AYCE bar has been raised & a la carte has met its match. I may have "cried wolf" once or twice before, I visited a few old friends of a la carte excellence downtown, and my pallette has been refreshed.

STAY TUNED.


So trueno, should I take my wife here for dinner??

[trueno92]

So trueno, should I take my wife here for dinner??

well. in short, they exceeded my expectations in terms of quality of food and selection is very decent. Decorum so far is very nice, clean and spacious. i would go for lunch as the value cannot be beat..I mean, you get a dinner selection for half the price! and spend the rest of the day walking it off........ :lol:

however, for those of you in the office during the week, service is painfully slow... if i didn't hold rank at my office, i would have certainly been reprimended with my 2 hr absence.. :|

I'll try to have the pics.. posted by tonite.. believe me, you will not be dissapointed.. I never had to whip out the cam so many times over one meal....

[bell02fantasy]

well. in short, they exceeded my expectations in terms of quality of food and selection is very decent. Decorum so far is very nice, clean and spacious. i would go for lunch as the value cannot be beat..I mean, you get a dinner selection for half the price! and spend the rest of the day walking it off........ :lol:

however, for those of you in the office during the week, service is painfully slow... if i didn't hold rank at my office, i would have certainly been reprimended with my 2 hr absence.. :|

I'll try to have the pics.. posted by tonite.. believe me, you will not be dissapointed.. I never had to whip out the cam so many times over one meal....


I called and the 15% off is good till at least the 17th.

[trueno92]

i had it done and friggin maxon (ie2) went to the crapper.. i hate when this hapopens........asdglalgjal;kjagl;kajngalk

pretty stuff will come tomorowowoeoww, maybe. :evil:

[littlefish]

looking forward... :)

(maybe i'll go try it this weekend with my roommates, since its TTC accessible its perfect for a saturday out brunch + shopping in the pmall afterwards :)

[ferkel]

Is it run by the same people that run the restaurant next door? Both these places have different names on their signage. The Sichuan Cuisine's real name is Red Chili and the Japan Fusion is called something else on the sign.

[silvermist99]

well. in short, they exceeded my expectations in terms of quality of food and selection is very decent. Decorum so far is very nice, clean and spacious. i would go for lunch as the value cannot be beat..I mean, you get a dinner selection for half the price! and spend the rest of the day walking it off........ :lol:

however, for those of you in the office during the week, service is painfully slow... if i didn't hold rank at my office, i would have certainly been reprimended with my 2 hr absence.. :|

I'll try to have the pics.. posted by tonite.. believe me, you will not be dissapointed.. I never had to whip out the cam so many times over one meal....

awesome! how much is it on weekends for lunch?

[trueno92]

J A P A N F U S I ON
Trueno92 - AYCE Sushi Review
trueno92@gmail.com

In my more recent reviews, I found that I was getting used to the quality of food @ AYCE, so I decided to take a break from the feasting and return back to some of the sushi-masters of the a-la-carte downtown scene. Many of them are still strongly opposed to the AYCE nature of their fine ‘art’ however, they are becoming a bit more aware of the AYCE-factor, even though there is a “glass wall” that seems to keep AYCE sushi North of Bloor, for the most part.

Being tipped off, I decided that a complete AYCE sashimi offering at lunch cannot be a bad thing, unless its REALLY bad… and the odds of it being horrible I figure were pretty slim. It would also give me an opportunity to slam an AYCE house, something I absolutely enjoy doing…. So, did Japan Fusion get to feel my wrath?

Walking up to the establishment, I could note that the parking lot isn’t as large as I would have expected it to be. I suspect it is joined to the No-Frills plaza along the rear somehow, but in my office-lunch adventure, I didn’t get a chance to confirm that. Either way, the signs along the top of the establishment advertise the place directly as Japan Fusion, with an All You Can Eat banner along side. Stepping inside, the décor is certainly something worth noting.

http://img305.imageshack.us/img305/2771/nec20517pl.jpg

Similar to the nearby competition, Wasabi, has a modern décor that is difficult to explain, but is pleasing to the eyes. I’ll leave it up to the pictures, but I will say that the dark stained tables and cushioned chairs provide a warm ambiance with just enough modern accents to raise the restaurant into a level by itself. Neatly organized and well arranged with enough clearing space between them for servers to make way. Oh, and there is lots of bamboo to feed the pandas.

http://img305.imageshack.us/img305/8374/nec20522or.jpg (http://img305.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nec20522or.jpg)
Bamboo says: Treehugers and Panda's welcome!!

Ordering the food is different than other places. Good or Bad? Hmm, well each table is numbered. And that corresponding number is written down on this paper where you specify which dishes you would like and how much of each you would want. In picking apart their ordering logistics, there are columns on this paper where the food are separated into sushi/sashimi etc etc. Check out the picture, these columns are then cut and distributed to each of their respected kitchen units, sushi chef, cooked food stations, salad etc. So each dish is brought out with what should be the same slice of paper with the table number written on it. Pretty ingenious. I was pretty impressed with the extensive thought they put behind this process. The restaurant wasn’t busy enough for me to witness any mistakes, but I hope it plays out as well in practice as it does in theory.

http://img305.imageshack.us/img305/4097/nec2053medium4wn.jpg (http://img305.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nec2053medium4wn.jpg)
NOW!! YOU TOO can Practice your AYCE Ordering Skills AT HOME!!!

As you can see, the menu is quite consolidated, with the focus on a selection of dishes, not scattered across 200+ items but again, not constrained to only selected dishes for the lunch special. I prefer to see a place concentrate on a few of the more notable dishes, rather than spread themselves too thin over a broader selection. Our orders went in and we waited for our dishes to arrive. I visited about 12:30pm on a weekday and the place was empty. Noticing this, I thought it was rather unusual that the food took a tad longer than most to arrive at our tables. A reasonable amount of time is required for sushi to get to the customer. Any quicker and I would suspect that the food is premade. Either way, the managers I was with decided to take our time or we didn’t mind as we received our salads and an appetizer of cooked, chopped salmon gunkan maki sushi, one per person. I could hear a pin drop since we were one of 2 occupied tables, but its nice to be noticed by the chef so we got on with our meal to a good start.

If its anything, the service here is pretty good. The waitresses are quite attentive and prompt to keep your cups of tea full or suggest something to drink. English is understood as well as Cantonese/Mandarian.

http://img305.imageshack.us/img305/3456/nec20540tf.jpg
yes folks, this was available @ LUNCH.

The sashimi is the first of the entrées to make it out to our table and it was certainly something that exceeded my expectations, especially at lunch time. This plate of sashimi easily costs over $18 at any a la carte consisting of Salmon, Tai, Makeral and Butterfish. In tasting it, the texture, flavour and freshness of each slice was something I have only expected at a la carte-only establishments. You can judge for yourself from the pictures, I can honestly say this is the best Tai (red snapper) sashimi I have tried anywhere, hands down. None of the fish were spongy, soft or defrosted. This was as if the fish was alive just yesterday. Mackeral is enough to make some squirm, but it was above average here as well as the Salmon and butterfish. Less importantly, full marks awarded for arrangement and presentation, none the less.

http://img305.imageshack.us/img305/574/nec20554kg.jpg

A few moments pass and some of our cooked food gets to the table, then our rolls and tempura round out the first order. The rolls were done very well, and the rice here isn’t seasoned as much as at Ikura, HOWEVER, and this is a very important point, the rice here is prepared with a different attention to detail. In enjoying each piece of maki sushi, you can clearly make out each grain of rice and its soft yet holds it own quality. Unlike some places where the rice is caked on to each roll and has a pasty, heavy texture, the rice here has a significantly different texture that feels lighter and compliments the maki, instead of being a base that is the weight of each roll. As you can see, the rolls are well done and presentation is simple, but skillfully planned in its execution. Rainbow, Black, Green, White, and Yellow Dragon rolls are simply the same California roll base, with an assortment of different corresponding ‘toppings’ adorning each. Although repetitive, the quality of the rolls go up a few notches with their softshell crab roll and tempura shrimp roll getting special attention as both crab and shrimp were excellently prepared, still warm and crisp. NOT too salty as SAKE, or simply lacking as with other places, but generous portions are rolled skillfully into each maki roll. I would have to say that the maki here is really well done.

If you glanced over the picture of the menu carefully, you will notice that there is an usual absence of temaki, ( handrolls ). I am not sure if this is lacking in general or is only unavailable in the lunch menu, but to no matter, I would trade up to sashimi instead of handrolls any day of the week.


The Tempura arrives and this, my friends, is the perfect example of how tempura should be. In my attempts to find Genuine tempura worth of a true Japanese restaurant, I have have had breaded tempura, and battered tempura to the point where the batter is caked onto the poor shrink, to even having butterflied shrimp that’s been battered and breaded. Now, none of the places have come to making tempura quite like this.

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/5856/nec20565ys.jpg

Yes, the picture you see is tempura how tempura is supposed to be done. Each piece coming out as if its been electrified or in this case, electrifried. Haha, okay, to elaborate, crisp, fresh and full bodied shrimp were served up, with no thick batter, or lackingly-light bread crumbs. This was some of the best tempura I have ever had, bar none.

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/6136/nec20572cl.jpg

A special guest that I have seen yet to be offered anywhere else, for lunch, and only at one establishment for dinner (Tenichi @ Sheppard) was TATAKI. Yes, the rawest of rare blue beef, served here at lunch!~!!! I couldn’t believe it and promptly ordered 3 plates of 6 slices each. Each chilled plate was home to paper thin slices of beef so good that even my colleagues that swear off eating raw food bent over in agreement. This is certainly a fine treat that complimented all the seafood very nicely.

After being out of the office for what must have been an hour and a half now, we ordered up some ice cream and bananna tempura. Strawberry does a stand-in for the more popular redbean and its quite a treat. As my colleague said it reminded him of Hong Kong as the flavor is smoother, not so sweet and more consistent, unlike the icecream available in north America. I couldn’t really relate to that as I haven’t had ice cream in HK, but it is certainly fragrant. The Bananna tempura here is done equally well as some of the best places serving up slices of bananna that are crisp all the way to the end, but instead of syrup, the slices get a dusting of icing sugar to add a hint of sweetness, ending off a very impressive meal.

[trueno92]

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/2060/nec20581rj.jpg

Coming off of a good roster of a la carte dining for the weekend I thought I would be unusually harsh on my refreshed expectations of what to get from a GOOD ayce. Everyone thinks AYCE food could be seen on a level lower than what you would get from a dedicated a-la-carte, however this notion is not the case at Japan Fusion, where you can certainly see, the food makes its own impressions and doesn’t only rival most a la cartes but clearly surpasses what you may well define is a decent place to begin with. The only faulter is the slow kitchen service. The waitstaff was doing double duty waiting on the customers tables but also waiting for the kitchens to finally bring out some food. It took us 2 hours and a lot of waiting to patiently enjoy our lunch, but I hope this isn’t the case or at least they will grow out of it as the restaurant gets a bit more mature. In any case, the ambiance is bright, comfortable and nice enough to fill that void. The quality of the food here has been some of the best I have had, and head to head against Ikura and the legendary benchmark, Sushi on 7. I would have to take my lunch time appetite here with Sashimi available in such fresh and abundant selection, you can’t argue that it’s value that cannot be ignored. If the dinner menu is on par with lunch and offer even a few more dishes, then this is the place I would bring my friends to enjoy sushi that even I think is impressive.

====================
Ambiance: This place has a steady rotation of Korean, mandarin, Cantonese and jpop loosening up the athmosphere but it’s a bright place that has a very good selection of dining furniture and is well spaced out, and elegantly styled in a modern fashion. Bamboo reeds satisfy the tree-huggers or unsuspecting pandas.
Character: Sushi AYCE
Service: Kitchen staff lagging, but the food was worth the wait. I can see room for this improving considerably before either factor starts taking a nose-dive.
Expense: Mon-Thurs Lunch: $11.99, Dinner $18.99, Weekends: + $2, 10% gratuity included
Spotlight Says: Everyone thinks AYCE food could be seen on a level lower than what you would get from a dedicated a-la-carte, however this notion is not the case at Japan Fusion, where you can certainly see, the food makes its own impressions and doesn’t only rival most a la cartes but clearly surpasses what you may well define is a decent place to begin with.

Hours of operation: The hours are: Lunch: 11 am to 2:30 pm Dinner: 5 pm to 11 pm
Address/contact info: (left business card in the car, will update)

[Fobulous]

Great Review Trueno! looks amazing!

[littlefish]

Excellent review! DROOL....I'm going soon i hope...

sashimi looking beautiful! never tried beef sashimi before tho, do you also dip it in soy sauce and wasabi? or just the ginger+green onion? +soy sauce?

[trueno92]

Excellent review! DROOL....I'm going soon i hope...

sashimi looking beautiful! never tried beef sashimi before tho, do you also dip it in soy sauce and wasabi? or just the ginger+green onion? +soy sauce?

i just take a bit of the ginger and wrap it in each slice with my chopsticks. no soy, but wasabi sometimes.

[trueno92]

trueno92 ,

Great review and pics! Thanks.

Do you know the difference between the dragon rolls?

Golden dragon roll = raw salmon (?)
Black dragon roll = unagi/bbq eel (?)
Green dragon roll = avocado
White dragon roll = tuna
Yellow dragon roll = mango (?)

raw salmon should have been called red dragon roll.


thanks man, it was way longer than i expected. if you can update the thread title to reflect that there is a review, greatly appreciated..

i am not sure if the rolls taht came out were the ones it was supposed to be.. but either way, the insides are all the same, just the topping

black dragon is unagi, yellow, i didn't try it, but its probably mango..
golden dragon not sure.. i thought the salmon one was a mistaken rainbow rolls..

[Anessa]

excellent review trueno :) ..I may check that place out sometime since it's very closeby.

[littlefish]

Thanks Trueno!

YAY I'm going tomorrow :P

[crabby1997]

great review trueno!! hehe, gotta get my stomach ready!

[bell02fantasy]

great review trueno!! hehe, gotta get my stomach ready!


Trueno---I am checkin it out 2nite with the wife, can you tell me what exactly was in your pictures so I can look like I know what I'm talking about 2nite!!!!

Plus - Any recommendations on items - not run of the mill stuff

[trueno92]

Trueno---I am checkin it out 2nite with the wife, can you tell me what exactly was in your pictures so I can look like I know what I'm talking about 2nite!!!!


HAHhaha damn man, this seriously made me laugh...


let me update my review,

Well on a Monday night, I would expect it to be similar to the pictures, as it shouldn't be retardedly "weekend busy"...

Read over the review and my others for a better understanding of what to look for, but from what I can lend so far.

to look like a cultured, bohemian pro:

Sashimi - if you can stomach raw fish, look for cold meat thats firm when you touch it with your chopsticks. Good sashimi is full bodied and it shouldn't be overly limp, wet, or spongy. If the fish looks more dry than moist, then its even better, as the meat will condensate and eventually go limp when its left out... so look at the tai (red snapper) and u can see in the pics its very dry-ish looking. tai is a fish that should be very firm, where as salmon is not as firm, butterfish comes off as being softish and the mackeral is almost like a cold cooked texture. Surf clam should just be clean and not have too much water.

they don't serve hand rolls here, so don't worry about that.

the nigiri sushi (fish on rice)i had here kinda sucked. no where near Ikura or Son7, as it seamed it was a thin slice of sashimi on a ball of rice.... not how it should be done...leave these chefs to rolling maki or slicing sashimi.

normal maki rolls - the Soft Shell Crab rolls are very good. The rice should be of delicate individual firm grains. It should not be heavy or pastey, or even mushy. also there shouldn't be a whole lot of rice on the rolls, which takes away from the AYCE as the rice fills u up faster. the rice here tho is prepared a bit differently, and each grain is light still firm, instead of like a heavy base.

tempura should be exactly like in that picture i posted. light, electrified and not greasy. the batter is light, not heavily coating the shirmp, just adding for a crisp compliment to the shirmp, barely encrusting it, not COATING it. basically, if you are eating tempura but it reminds you of battered fish and chips, you are eating bad tempura....

must try's to look like a pro:
beef tataki - paper thin seared blue beef, with ginger and green onion with a vingrette wash.

sashimi that is just touched with a hint of soy, not soaked in it.

cooked foods, well you have to try the deep fried oysters which are available, as well as the green onion beef rolls and various steak-style offerings, chicken terriyaki..etc. the menu is basically the same at dinner as it is what i posted up for lunch in the picture. I can't remember them all off hand but above all, don't just pack it away but try to savor and enjoy the meal as well, they don/t seem to enforce the wait time, and remember, the food doesn't come out real quickly, so you may be waiting on some dishes

oh and MUST TRY the STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM.. i have tasted it and it IS different from normal american strawberry icecream. personally, i really liked it, as it completely brought back childhood memories of strawberry Quick, or more recently, STRAWBERRY POCKY STICKS.. :!:

http://ordinarylife.hautetfort.com/images/medium_pocky.jpg

[bell02fantasy]

HAHhaha damn man, this seriously made me laugh...


let me update my review,

Well on a Monday night, I would expect it to be similar to the pictures, as it shouldn't be retardedly "weekend busy"...

Read over the review and my others for a better understanding of what to look for, but from what I can lend so far.

to look like a cultured, bohemian pro:

Sashimi - if you can stomach raw fish, look for cold meat thats firm when you touch it with your chopsticks. Good sashimi is full bodied and it shouldn't be overly limp, wet, or spongy. If the fish looks more dry than moist, then its even better, as the meat will condensate and eventually go limp when its left out... so look at the tai (red snapper) and u can see in the pics its very dry-ish looking. tai is a fish that should be very firm, where as salmon is not as firm, butterfish comes off as being softish and the mackeral is almost like a cold cooked texture. Surf clam should just be clean and not have too much water.

they don't serve hand rolls here, so don't worry about that.

the nigiri sushi (fish on rice)i had here kinda sucked. no where near Ikura or Son7, as it seamed it was a thin slice of sashimi on a ball of rice.... not how it should be done...leave these chefs to rolling maki or slicing sashimi.

normal maki rolls - the Soft Shell Crab rolls are very good. The rice should be of delicate individual firm grains. It should not be heavy or pastey, or even mushy. also there shouldn't be a whole lot of rice on the rolls, which takes away from the AYCE as the rice fills u up faster. the rice here tho is prepared a bit differently, and each grain is light still firm, instead of like a heavy base.

tempura should be exactly like in that picture i posted. light, electrified and not greasy. the batter is light, not heavily coating the shirmp, just adding for a crisp compliment to the shirmp, barely encrusting it, not COATING it.

must try's to look like a pro:
beef tataki - paper thin seared blue beef, with ginger and green onion with a vingrette wash.

sashimi that is just touched with a hint of soy, not soaked in it.

cooked foods, well you have to try the deep fried oysters which are available, as well as the green onion beef rolls and various steak-style offerings, chicken terriyaki..etc. the menu is basically the same at dinner as it is what i posted up for lunch in the picture. I can't remember them all off hand but above all, don't just pack it away but try to savor and enjoy the meal as well, they don/t seem to enforce the wait time, and remember, the food doesn't come out real quickly, so you may be waiting on some dishes

oh and MUST TRY the STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM.. i have tasted it and it IS different from normal american strawberry icecream. personally, i really liked it, as it completely brought back childhood memories of strawberry Quick, or more recently, STRAWBERRY POCKY STICKS.. :!:


Glad to make you laugh! and thanks for the recommendations!!!

[muffin]

I went to try this place on saturday for lunch, it was pretty good especially since they included the sashimi. However, a few of the items I wanted to try were mark off like fried oysters, abalone, enoki beef rolls.... but I agree with trueno92, that the strawberry ice cream is a must try, it does taste like strawberry pocky! teehee but the red bean was very disappointing...

[trueno92]

what is sushi box?? I think that it is sushi shaped in a rectangular form (box).

is the dinner menu a different paper than the lunch menu with more choices??


the dinner menu seems to be the same as what i had posted, but without those black lines running over the better items, like fried oysters... a place that has AYCE fried oysters.. man alive....

the sushi box is basically a squarish cube of rice + selected filling + rice + tobiko on the top. sorta like a sushi sandwich but rather small, about 10 cm all around not very good and not really worth ordering... but i guess this justifies the 'fusion' part of JAPAN FUSION....

the sushi pizza here is done well, not as good as some a la cartes but certainly not as disgustingly horrific as some ayce places..

a lightly breaded, then deep fried circular pad of rice no more than 2 1/2cm thick and about circumfrence of 3/4 that of a CD. and topped with various thigns like eel or salmon. the rice is enough and not huge and the eel pizza is quite good. yah order this as well tonite.. ( i usualy never order pizzas but this is kinda creative/impressive)

[trueno92]

but I agree with trueno92, that the strawberry ice cream is a must try, it does taste like strawberry pocky! teehee but the red bean was very disappointing...

yep those items are dinner only..

to clarrify on the tempura thing:
basically, if you are eating tempura but it reminds you of battered fish and chips, you are eating bad tempura....

the number of people left scratching their heads wondering where they have previously tasted this obscure strawberry ice cream is going to be better than the caramilk secret... ;)

[bell02fantasy]

I went to try this place on saturday for lunch, it was pretty good especially since they included the sashimi. However, a few of the items I wanted to try were mark off like fried oysters, abalone, enoki beef rolls.... but I agree with trueno92, that the strawberry ice cream is a must try, it does taste like strawberry pocky! teehee but the red bean was very disappointing...


Another dum?...is the stuff that was marked off because it was a pic of the lunch menu or just not available that day...........or will I be able to order deep fried oysters 2nite as I am going for dinner

[trueno92]

Another dum?...is the stuff that was marked off because it was a pic of the lunch menu or just not available that day...........or will I be able to order deep fried oysters 2nite as I am going for dinner

the stuff crossed off is only available at dinner.. oysters, beef enoki mushroom rolls, etc should be available at dinner, any day of the week.

[IceMan77]

Noooo, not another one to try....

I'm getting poor and fat from eating at all these new AYCE places. :D

[littlefish]

We went there on Sarturday morning and it was really good experience! (4 of us) just a note on location, we turned in as soon as I saw the RBC building, but its actually bit further east on steels, and they seems to have plenty parking when we got there around 12:30, noon.

the sashimi lunch AYCE on wkn is $13.99 thats a great price! ($11.99 for Mon-Thurs i believe) so it came out about $18 per person including tax/tips, note 10% tips already in the bill.

when we got there the restaurant was quite empty, with only 2 other tables occupied, and sashimi came first. So The butterfish and salmon were excellent, Markerel and red snapper were fine too. the food came a bit slow tho. the rolls were excellently done, and not too much rice at all, actually it all tasted very well. we tried spider/rainbow rolls first.

seaweed salad tasted a bit too sweet, and shrimp and sweet potato tempura were fine. the grilled/cooked fish were all nicely cooked, but they obviously cooked with almost no seasoning, tasted good tho.

We also tried the mussel in cream sauce, great! the oxtail stew with red wine, yummy, but could use bit more salt! beef sashimi, my 1st time trying, not too bad tho, Edamame (green soy beas cooked with shell) were very soft, tasted fine.

sushi were somehow not so satisfying, the spicy salmon nigiri were not spicy at all, and spicy tuna, i couldnt believe they used butterfish instead of real tuna! and again not a bit spicy. the other sushi were ok, cant remember tho. the rice tasted good enough :)

The sushi box, while we had chinese order sheet, listed as "Box compressed" and came much firmer in texture, Believe they are actually been pressed very hard to make them, perfect block shape...taste ok. not so interesting

Rolls were good as I said all tasted well, except at the 2nd round of ordering, the rolls were made looser, and I believe the chef mixed up our order, (there were a lot more people then so they got busy :P) I remember getting Spider/California/Unagi/spicy scallops rolls, and the rolls came with a mango roll instead of spicy scallops. mango and unagi rolls were loose, and with little fillings but since the rice wasnt too much i think it was all right. Mango rolls tasted actually quite nice (just dont soak it in soy!) oh the spider roll, when we ordered 1st round came in 3~4 pieces, we thought itd be 6 as written on paper, and we oredered another one the 2nd round, and 4 pieces came once and then again when all 4 rolls came again together, so thats like a repeated order, no complain tho was delicious!

didnt try any dragon rolls since we know its huge :)
we asked a unagi sushi pizza, was great, and only about 2 inches in diameter, its perpect to share for 4!
I even asked for seafood udon, was quite nice, but it filled me up almost instantly :P

Ice creams, the strawberry one somehow tasted powderish, and that was bit wired :( the mango/green tea were good as usual.

I'd go again!
:D

[trueno92]

We went there on Sarturday morning
.......
we got there around 12:30, noon.
:D

woah were you guys the table whipping out the gameboy's?

[littlefish]

oh they just came later, around 1 o'clock, the resaurant was half full, maybe more than that...there were only 2 waitresses there? and I remember seeing only one guy making sushi when we just got there. Totally true better service when there is less people. but overall i think it was good enough. The ordering method definitely takes less of the waiter/ess time.

Its HKness owned since i heard people talking cantonese all the time :) the music was mostly Cantonese songs but they kept playing one madarin song "mice love rice" again and again :P

hmm and the 2nd order sheet we got there is Ablone sushi listed which should've been crossed out and we ordered some, of course came back as not available. should be a dinner item then.

[littlefish]

woah were you guys the table whipping out the gameboy's?

No, we actually were sitting at table 7 (same one in your review :P)

[muffin]

woah were you guys the table whipping out the gameboy's?

haha that could have been my table... my bro was with me and playin his DS as we waited for our food... oh so the oyster stuff and enoki beef is only dinner... the waitresses were nice but the orders were very slow.... near the end they missed sooo many orders for our table... hopefully service will improve in the future

[trueno92]

near the end they missed sooo many orders for our table... hopefully service will improve in the future

ah, its too bad they missed the orders... at the end of the meal, the waitress had actually come to our table and asked us, "so how do you like the food?" this has only happened to me at 2 other sushi AYCE's.. so I was a bit surprised.. (asian waitstaff usually just grunt and walk around with their eyes to the floor)..... haha.. but this one was actually very friendly and I think I scared her when I asked where they buy their strawberry icecream from.... :twisted:

[muffin]

ah, its too bad they missed the orders... at the end of the meal, the waitress had actually come to our table and asked us, "so how do you like the food?" this has only happened to me at 2 other sushi AYCE's.. so I was a bit surprised.. (asian waitstaff usually just grunt and walk around with their eyes to the floor)..... haha.. but this one was actually very friendly and I think I scared her when I asked where they buy their strawberry icecream from.... :twisted:

they asked us how we liked the food too, which was nice.. but i think when we asked about our orders, they didnt understand what we were asking for.. i dont think they always understand what we're trying to say in english.. but then again my chinese sucks... LOL... the ice cream orders were terrible... we ended up getting different amounts than we ordered... then the head waitress?? older lady was angry at how the other waitresses couldnt take a simple ice cream order...

[bell02fantasy]

they asked us how we liked the food too, which was nice.. but i think when we asked about our orders, they didnt understand what we were asking for.. i dont think they always understand what we're trying to say in english.. but then again my chinese sucks... LOL... the ice cream orders were terrible... we ended up getting different amounts than we ordered... then the head waitress?? older lady was angry at how the other waitresses couldnt take a simple ice cream order...



So I went for dinner last night.
Here are a few comments:
Service: Excellent - there were 5 waitresses on shift all night - appox 10 tables of people
Food - Excellent - I used all of Trueno's recomendations and thoroughly enjoyed my meal
Ambience - Very nice decor - welcomed with 2 pcs of sushi just as we sat down - nice touch!!

The only comments I can add that can be construed as negative are:

Missed orders - never did receive my eel pizza - or gyroahs (sp) or salmon head..........nothing big, especially since we were full and had ordered tons from the menu.

I love the idea of actually ordering how many pieces you want - no surprises!
i.e 1 order = 6 pieces ----> this is great for us rookie AYCE sushi people.

sashimi for lunch - that definitely breaks it for me - I will go back again and again - GREAT Place, GREAT Service!!!

[trueno92]

So I went for dinner last night.
Here are a few comments:

Food - Excellent - I used all of Trueno's recomendations and thoroughly enjoyed my meal

The only comments I can add that can be construed as negative are:

Missed orders - never did receive my eel pizza - or gyroahs (sp) or salmon head..........nothing big, especially since we were full and had ordered tons from the menu.




Glad to hear you and the misses had a good time.. for missed things, just ask them if its on the way, and if they say its gone, then just order up again! don't hesitate to ask them. and gyroahs are something else, these are GYOZas :razz:

[littlefish]

hmm guess a lot of you were there sat. lunch :P

too bad tho, would be fun to meet you guys in person, maybe next time :)

[IceMan77]

So I went to this new AYCE last night. I was actually looking for Ajisen Ramen but couldn't find it, so I said what the hell might as well try this new AYCE Trueno is raving about :D

Here's my review of the place.

Went there last night around 7pm. There were a couple of tables. The place was nice, spacious and simple. There were 4 waitresses and 3 sushi chefs, along with an older woman, who i think is the manager.

Service was good in the beginning, but slowed down considerably as it got more busy. The place was full by around 8:30. The food came quickly, not too much wait. There were a couple of missed orders and we had to ask for the bill twice. Didn't mind the missed orders as everytime we asked them about it, they were friendly and nice. I think that it's important. Missed orders are a fact of life, and it doesn't bother me much as long as they acknowledge it and bring it the second time.

The sashimi was awesome, I'd agree with Trueno, it was a-la-carte grade+. Ikura would probably be second
in terms of quality. I looooooooooved the Beef Tataki... yum yum. They didn't have the abalone. I tried almost everything on the menu, everything was done well. I wish the mussels and ox-tail had a bit more flavour though. The fried oyster was good too.

Out of all the AYCE places I've tried recently I haven't gone back a second time, not that they were so bad, but I just didn't find them that exceptionally good. I think this is the only I'll go back to. I kinda like the process of writing what I want. Looks like I'll be checking this place out again Friday :lol:

Total damage for the night. $37 including tax/tip/sc with the 15% discount

[IceMan77]

so you gave extra tip on top of the 10% service charge?

it was less than a dollar. I gave them $50 and I only took back the $13. :-0

[bell02fantasy]

so you gave extra tip on top of the 10% service charge?


When my wife and I went for dinner on Monday night, our bill was $36.?? after tax and discount and we gave 40.00...I said the tip is included and my wife said "with service like that, they deserve extra".....I mean it was fairly busy and they were hovering around our table most of the night. Many people comment on the food, but you can never count customer service!

A few older AYCE could learn a thing or two from this place.

p.s. I am going back on Wednesday for lunch! :)

[alifromca]

your wife is right.

most waitresses/waiters expect at least 15%.

the AYCE waitresses have to work harder than usual and AKIYAMA waitresses are pretty friendly and helpful.

Did you forget the comma in there? ;)

[lasallejai]

Went there today for lunch with my wife and a friend of ours at 12:15PM. Only two tables were occupied when we arrived. Two waitresses were there to serve us and the services were prompt. Food came out from the kitchen and sushi bar very fast. The quality of the food, cooked and raw, were excellent. I guess we have to kiss Sushi on 7 goodbye from now on since this place sits much more comfortable and the food quality is even better, not to mention it is much closer to where we live too. I have not tried Ikura yet, and we will give it a try next month, because we cannot have all you can eat all the time. Thanks for recommending this place, and we shall stick to this palce for a while until a better one surfaces amongst all the AYCE Japanese places. :cheesygri

[MtX]

im going tomorrow, i hope it's as good as you say it is :D

[Kinki]

I tried it tonight and the only table occupied was the friends of the owner (the owner sat with them) and my table of 2, so the 4 servers were basically forced to offer prompt and continuous services. We were offered refills on tea at least 3 times in less then 30mins! We filled out a order sheet and the food came within minutes.... and continued!!!! My table was getting so filled up the waitress had such a hard time figuring out how to put more on.

The owner of this sushi bar ran a tight ship. She always instructed the waitress on what to do and where to stand. At one point the owner even stood behind the server to make sure they served us right.

At the very end the owner came and asked how the food was and told us that they now offer midnight services till 3am at the lunch price..

Oh and I thought Fridays is suppose to be $18.99 + $2 = $20.99 each? We only paid $18.99 each BEFORE discount. After discount it was $16.15 each.

[Kinki]

lol not possible. 2 ppl with 10 plates in less then 6-7 minutes.

yes- when eating at "all you can eat" restaurants, get a big table for all the plates.

finish each plate fast so that there is room for the next plates.

[MtX]

went today, 2 people, paid them $36 after..

food was ok, its better than kilin for sure, but some of the sushi rolls were overfilled with rice, not good.. also, no steak or oysters during lunch? COME ON..

3/5

[Anessa]

yeah the rolls did have a bit too much rice but the tempura and sashimi was first class just like trueno said. the mussels and ox tail were fab ;)

[MtX]

yeah the rolls did have a bit too much rice but the tempura and sashimi was first class just like trueno said. the mussels and ox tail were fab ;)

i wanted my oysters but they didnt have any :(

and their sashimi is fresh, but why do they cut it so small and ugly? :S

[Anessa]

yeah trueno's looked bigger than mine lol...my tai was pretty thin and lacking in width. good thing I double ordered the sashimi

[IceMan77]

I tried it tonight and the only table occupied was the friends of the owner (the owner sat with them) and my table of 2, so the 4 servers were basically forced to offer prompt and continuous services. We were offered refills on tea at least 3 times in less then 30mins! We filled out a order sheet and the food came within minutes.... and continued!!!! My table was getting so filled up the waitress had such a hard time figuring out how to put more on.

The owner of this sushi bar ran a tight ship. She always instructed the waitress on what to do and where to stand. At one point the owner even stood behind the server to make sure they served us right.

At the very end the owner came and asked how the food was and told us that they now offer midnight services till 3am at the lunch price..

Oh and I thought Fridays is suppose to be $18.99 + $2 = $20.99 each? We only paid $18.99 each BEFORE discount. After discount it was $16.15 each.

midnight services... yum yum... is that only for the weekends? It's about time there was something else to eat late at night besides "The Train". :twisted:

[Sting]

I went to this place tonight. I arrived at around 0:00 for the cheaper price but I was told that it was still weekend so it would have to be $2 more each person. I don't mind it much cuz it wasn't a big deal.

The food was good but as everyone has said, the selection was limited. As someone has already mentioned that there was no miso soup. It was cold outside and it was cold inside. It would have been nice to have some soup.

The service was where I was disappointed. I know that we came late but the place does close at 3:00 am. There was two waitress there when we arrived. There was only one table being occupied as the other table was leaving. Me and my gf was cold from outside. The waitress brought us tea cup and stuff but NO TEA. I had to ask her twice for the tea to arrived. Hmmm. I would have thought that would be pretty basic. The first round of order came but when we ordered salmon pizza. It never arrived. We were getting pretty full and didn't bother. I also wonder why when they drop off the sashimi, that we have to order the wasabi and ginger as well. They didn't offer or include it with the sashimi. That was real strange. I thought we were the only ones but the next table also had to order the wasabi. During the middle of our meal, a family arrived. They ordered garden salad but after checking by the waitiress, they were told that there was no more. I don't know cantonese but other stuff that this family ordered was also no available. If you are going to be opened at least until 1:30 cuz that is last call. Shouldn't you have at least the basic green salad for customers. Maybe they ran out of it tonight, I don't know. Just an observation. Being AYCE, its not good to run out of stuff. Lastly they said they opened to 3 am but if last call is 1:30 why don't they just closed earlier. After the other waitiress left, the service went from a crawl to a turtle speed. I had to ask for the bill 3X before it was delivered. Oh well.

I know that there are a lot of people that are fans of this place. I enjoyed the food but the service could definitely be better. I understand if it was busy and I wish the selection was more. I really like the write it yourself rather than calling them over to order your stuff. Thats kewl

[bell02fantasy]

yes- it sounds like they ran out of food or maybe the table ordered food reserved for dinner.

The restaurant shouldn't bother opening the restaurant from midnight to 3 am. Time to go to bed!

You had a bad waitress. I went twice to the restaurant and the waitresses gave me everything (tea, wasabi, ginger, etc.) But one time, the table next to me did not receive ginger and wasabi. The waitress forgot.

I went to Akiyama this weekend. The waitress brought me a not so cold Coke. Someone must have put some cans in the fridge recently. So I asked the waitress for a colder Coke. No problem. Just ASK!

I liked the food better the first time. The second time was so-so/average.

The sushi pizza is semi-thick rice deep-fried with some salmon or eel on top of the deep-fried rice crust. If you don't want to fill your stomach with RICE- don't bother ordering the sushi pizza.

I ordered some raw fish and the raw beef (tataki) and put them in my hot soup with regular noodles. The raw food cooked perfectly in the hot soup. The noodle soup usually does not come with a lot of fish or meat so adding the raw food is a good idea.

One good thing about Akiyama is that they are not strict about leftover (uneaten) food. Other places will charge you.

if you want better tasting Japanese food, it's better to go to an expensive restaurant.

Hi all

I am going for lunch on Wednesday! I will pass on my comments to the forum. If it is anything like my dinner experience, I will not be disappointed.

[bell02fantasy]

yes- it sounds like they ran out of food or maybe the table ordered food reserved for dinner.

The restaurant shouldn't bother opening the restaurant from midnight to 3 am. Time to go to bed!

You had a bad waitress. I went twice to the restaurant and the waitresses gave me everything (tea, wasabi, ginger, etc.) But one time, the table next to me did not receive ginger and wasabi. The waitress forgot.

I went to Akiyama this weekend. The waitress brought me a not so cold Coke. Someone must have put some cans in the fridge recently. So I asked the waitress for a colder Coke. No problem. Just ASK!

I liked the food better the first time. The second time was so-so/average.

The sushi pizza is semi-thick rice deep-fried with some salmon or eel on top of the deep-fried rice crust. If you don't want to fill your stomach with RICE- don't bother ordering the sushi pizza.

I ordered some raw fish and the raw beef (tataki) and put them in my hot soup with regular noodles. The raw food cooked perfectly in the hot soup. The noodle soup usually does not come with a lot of fish or meat so adding the raw food is a good idea.

One good thing about Akiyama is that they are not strict about leftover (uneaten) food. Other places will charge you.

if you want better tasting Japanese food, it's better to go to an expensive restaurant.

Hi all

I am going for lunch on Wednesday! I will pass on my comments to the forum. If it is anything like my dinner experience, I will not be disappointed.

[JlF]

Went there last friday night at around 7pm.
They have over 6 waitresses but since it was raining there were only 2 tables occupied.

Food comes out pretty fast and all waitresses are polite with smile.
I really like the size of their hot items, small enough allowing me to order more varieties.
One complaint, the salmon skin inside the sushi rolls is not crispy and hard to chew, probably sitting for a while already after deep fried.
Besides the strawberry ice-cream, I really like their mango ones because it really tastes "mango".

Going back this friday again, wonder if they will extend the 15% off discount or have some ads in newspapaers for 10% off.

[trueno92]

ugh, as much as i like this place, the quality is great, value as well, but the service service service....... the waits are so long omg..

thank god its friday else 2+ hr lunches would be impossible.

[bell02fantasy]

ugh, as much as i like this place, the quality is great, value as well, but the service service service....... the waits are so long omg..

thank god its friday else 2+ hr lunches would be impossible.


I was just there on Wednesday for lunch - 5 other tables.....service was fast in n out in 1.5 hours..., we ordered about 10 things on the menu at a time. Perhaps they are short-staffed sometimes or something, weird!

[trueno92]

Perhaps they are short-staffed sometimes or something, weird!

they are short staffed but just not swift at all, again, please let me run front of house for a day..pref weekends.

among the super slow service, a table spilled their tea, all 3 waitresses took notice, one continued serving food, one continued to pour tea for a table that just got seated and only 3 out of their 5ppl party were there, one was just collecting plates.. firstly i would have the last 2 drop what they were doing and tended to the spillage.

example #2 is tables take a long time to be cleared after cutomers leave. in one case, a table was wiped down by a waitress, and then as one waitress watched her do it, the 2nd decided to wipe it over again.. both as if it were slowmotion..

just 2 examples of poor swiftness.. stuff like this is so easy to avoid from a management point of view.

[ferkel]

is the 15% discount still going on?

[Iron Chef Ajax]

Tried to go tonight .... not sure if they are open til 3am. They are not open late.

[ferkel]

just had a bad experience.. the air is full of this fuel they used to cook foods on the table.. not enough ventilation...
The sushi/sashimi was very fishy tasting.
Deep fried foods were very oily, and cold.
Food orders took forever if they came at all, I'd say half were missed.
I would recommend skipping this place.

[Anessa]

my sashimi and sushi were just right...not soggy and not overly frozen. my shrimp and mushroom tempura were tongue burning hot. i guess today was an off night for the joint. i gotta go back for dinner though sometime.

[Iron Chef Ajax]

just had a bad experience.. the air is full of this fuel they used to cook foods on the table.. not enough ventilation...
The sushi/sashimi was very fishy tasting.
Deep fried foods were very oily, and cold.
Food orders took forever if they came at all, I'd say half were missed.
I would recommend skipping this place.
Did you get the 15% discount?

[N1_EVO]

I tried this place out last night although, coming in around 10pm with three other friends, I though they were gonna close @ 3am and have the AYCE till then. Found out later last call was @ 10:45pm..So we had to rush and the bill came to us quick..I was surprise oh well, few things that we ordered were not available cuz they were sold out..The waiteress were nice and cute. Food was pretty much up-to-par and came somewhat quick since the timeframe and little ppl left in the dining room. I was excepting a little more for my first time but I guess it was my own hype that my thoughts were believing new place, etc...Anyways, I think im gonna stick to my other sushi AYCE fav. places and my Sushi a la carte. Tried once, dont think ill go again...unless its a b-day dinner... :confused:

[Kinki]

I think they have last call at 11pm and then they take a 1 hour break before starting up the midnight service at 12am to 3am.

Mind you no one knew about the midnight service till I talked about it a couple of post back. The owner actually came up to me and introduced it. Maybe it wasn't that successful, so they decided to stop it?


I tried this place out last night although, coming in around 10pm with three other friends, I though they were gonna close @ 3am and have the AYCE till then. Found out later last call was @ 10:45pm..So we had to rush and the bill came to us quick..I was surprise oh well, few things that we ordered were not available cuz they were sold out..The waiteress were nice and cute. Food was pretty much up-to-par and came somewhat quick since the timeframe and little ppl left in the dining room. I was excepting a little more for my first time but I guess it was my own hype that my thoughts were believing new place, etc...Anyways, I think im gonna stick to my other sushi AYCE fav. places and my Sushi a la carte. Tried once, dont think ill go again...unless its a b-day dinner... :confused:

[gstylez]

went there last night with the wife and kids
food was good...
service was OK.. missed a few orders no big deal
highlight for me was the rainbow maki and shrimp tempura and mackerel sashimi..
dissapointed when the bill came as they wanted to charge my 5yr old daughter for full price.. talked to them about it and they charged her half price.
ill be going back next time not bringing the kids that way i can enjoy my self more.

thanks to the people that did the review with pix trueno
thats what made me go :cheesygri

[Anessa]

^^ kids should be free or less than half price because they usually just drink a pop and eat nothing or next to nothing

[Iron Chef Ajax]

^^ kids should be free or less than half price because they usually just drink a pop and eat nothing or next to nothing
Yes I agree. Should be nominal amount as the kids always eat little and finish fast. My kid had his orange pop, one piece of an Avocado Maki roll, 2 dumplings THEN clapped his hands and said "I'm done, lets go!"

[trueno92]

went there last night with the wife and kids
food was good...
service was OK..

thanks to the people that did the review with pix trueno
thats what made me go :cheesygri

Thanks, i'm glad my reviews are helping out where they can!

Service here on most occasions i have been have been no more than decent.. but at times have also fallen faaaarrrr worse.

[g-squared]

I'm planning to have a dinner with around 10 ppl there this saturday night... cos the birthday boy really likes jap food....hope it won't be so horribly busy that the service will be really bad..........

And thx trueno92! your reviews are awesome. Everytime I read your reviews and go try your recommendations, I haven't yet been disappointed:cheesygri

[trueno92]

And thx trueno92! your reviews are awesome. Everytime I read your reviews and go try your recommendations, I haven't yet been disappointed:cheesygri
hot diggity, thanks!! good to hear its appreciated!

I'm planning to have a dinner with around 10 ppl there this saturday night... cos the birthday boy really likes jap food....hope it won't be so horribly busy that the service will be really bad..........


well apparently no place is perfect and EVEN with the number of the table on each sheet that is submitted with orders, the waitresses will still mis-deliever or even intercept the order and drop it off at a random/wrong table.. not really sure how that happens but i have seen it a few times and its plain baffelling..

either way, for dinner I hope to hear your experiences.
Itadakimasu!

[JlF]

I heard from the Chinese Radio by calling to make a reservation the price will be changed to $16.99 only and the discount of 15% is also going on.

It was raining hard and I didn't listen very carefully, can anyone confirm that?

[civic6url]

.

Hama Japanese Restaurant
905-415-8976
4372 Steeles Avenue East (near Kennedy)
Markham, ON
-OUTSIDE Market Village/near the back entrances of Market Village/
look for Satay Ria sign, Hama is nearby-



This is the best Jap Rest I ever went to!!! Everything is fresh and clean!!! Not an AYCE place!!! Good Service!! Runs by Non-Chinese ppl!! hehe!!

[gstylez]

after going to akiyama id like to check out son7 and other ayce to compare
there quality and service. this w/e ill try the one at midland and finch :)

[trueno92]

after going to akiyama id like to check out son7 and other ayce to compare
there quality and service. this w/e ill try the one at midland and finch :)

Son7 does not dissapoint. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

[Juidd]

went to Akiyama last Friday... everything was alright except for the rolls... they were kinda falling apart...
the service wasn't the greatest either... the waitresses kept dropping dishes on the floor around us (i know i shouldn't be complaining about it but it is quite disturbing)... also when we ordered our third round of food, the waitress was so bitchy to us and told us that we will have to pay for what we don't eat... what made her think we couldn't finish it, our table was cleared at that time! and many of these things that I ordered in the 3rd round were things that I had ordered in the second round but they didn't bring them. i think that was extremely rude of her to say that to their customers

all in all, food was okay... service was crappy. i would go there again... only for lunch tho! DINNER IS NOT WORTH it! imo

[Kinki]

Seem like they went downhill all of a sudden. Maybe I just lucky that the owner was there when I went, so the waitresses were forced to offer top notch service (2 weeks ago).

[Anessa]

every place goes downhill after a month or two of being open...the good thing is that we have RFD to keep us informed on Akiyama's progress

[ferkel]

Seem like they went downhill all of a sudden. Maybe I just lucky that the owner was there when I went, so the waitresses were forced to offer top notch service (2 weeks ago).

They are downhill.. they've crossed out many items from their menu already. The food they serve now is shameful..

[Anessa]

^^ what'd they cross out?

[ferkel]

A few I remember are Abalone, Mango Roll, Yellow Dragon Roll, and Iced Tea

[mslam]

ferkel, is that from the lunch menu only, or from lunch/dinner menu altogether?

[trueno92]

A few I remember are Abalone, Mango Roll, Yellow Dragon Roll, and Iced Tea


wern't these always crossed off @ lunch? along with fried oysters?

[ferkel]

wern't these always crossed off @ lunch? along with fried oysters?

Don't know about lunch, but they're now removed from the dinner menu.

[trueno92]

Don't know about lunch, but they're now removed from the dinner menu.

ouch, their menu is pretty consolidated as it is, crossing these items off doesn't do them any favours....

[Iron Chef Ajax]

Was there yesterday for lunch, sorry no pictures. Food was excellent, service was great.

[Homer88]

Was there yesterday for lunch, sorry no pictures. Food was excellent, service was great.
I was also there for lunch yesterday at 1-2:30. The table across from us (had 5 adults) had thenominal service. Their table was FILLED within about 5 minutes. While ours (4 17 year olds) had a lot of skipped orders, and service wasn't great. There was only 1 guy making sushi, so that took forever. The sashimi was great.... but I think we should have went to Ikura instead.

[JlF]

Made a call yesterday to reserve a table for tonite.
The price is $16.99 (if call them for reservation) and have 15% discount on top of it.
The first time I went to was 2 weeks ago, will post comments tomorrow...

[Kinki]

WHAT!!! Fried Oysters are removed from the dinner menu? I actually liked the fried oysters and was my only reason to return again, since I'm not aware of any other AYCE places that offer it.

Don't know about lunch, but they're now removed from the dinner menu.

[JlF]

Had the dinner tonite with 6 more ppl.
Food is still very good (almost same quality as 2 weeks ago).
Items with mango are removed, but deep fried oysters are definitely in the list.

I am quite surprised that the lady there does not get mad or charge us anything for food left over (quite a lot of left over, but not entirely our fault, coz I wrote 14 pieces of salmon sashimi and they gave 24???)

Price is $16.99, with 15% discount on top.
I will definitely go back and recommend everyone to give them a try as I feel they need more sales badly...

[Geologic]

I went to lunch there today but they were closed :(

They told us to come back in the evening... *sniff.. it would've been the first time I tried the place after hearing how great it was. Oh well.. next time.

edit> Just read the last page and a half.. seems like they went bad pretty quick.. lol.. hmm.. should I still give em a try?..

[Kinki]

The mango items are acutally quite good. It's a change for the regular rolls. I even remember saying to my friend how they could afford to make stuff like this.


Had the dinner tonite with 6 more ppl.
Food is still very good (almost same quality as 2 weeks ago).
Items with mango are removed, but deep fried oysters are definitely in the list.

[bell02fantasy]

I went to lunch there today but they were closed :(

They told us to come back in the evening... *sniff.. it would've been the first time I tried the place after hearing how great it was. Oh well.. next time.

edit> Just read the last page and a half.. seems like they went bad pretty quick.. lol.. hmm.. should I still give em a try?..


Don't beleive everything you read..try it out! I have been 3x now and every time they have been fairly busy but the service was top notch. Suffice to say the best service for any AYCE around! Deep fried oysters are on the menu - confirmed yesterday so why would someone write that!

check it out for yourself!

[crabby1997]

went there last week but alot of items were cross off...like I wanted to eat abalone sushi but it's gone.. >:(

I do like their beef tataki (sashimi) alot though and I like how they come in small little portions so you can always try more food ^_^

[muffin]

I went there again tonight, and the service was impressive! the first 2 times I have to admit the service was quite poor due to missed orders and service for tea. But today was a total change!!! Everything came out very very fast, no missed orders at all! and once we finished a dish they took it away almost immediately (but not like they were rushing us or something) all the waitresses were very very nice. Even when my bro that was trying to open an accessory for his ipod, one of the waitresses brought scissors for him to open it! Food was good again and nice with the 15% discount. Some things were crossed off the menu though (like the mango items and abalone sushi). Otherwise it was a great experience in comparison to the first 2 times. And of course the strawberry ice cream that i love soo much there... yum! :cheesygri

[g-squared]

I went to Akiyama last night with 10 other people for my bf's birthday. The ambience was quite nice and I found the service pretty good. The food was not bad for ayce. Nothing spectacular but it was impressive enough. We ordered lots of spider rolls and they tasted great. The tempura tasted as good as it looked. Genuine tempura as Trueno92 said. Not too much batter, It was hot and fresh. The other rolls and sushi were all right. Salmon was cold and fresh. I wasn't too hungry last night and got full quickly, but generally, judging from food, ambienec and service, I will go back a second time. HOwever, I did not find the strawberry ice cream to be extremely good as I've read about in this thread. It wasn't bad..it just tasted like typical strawberry to me..but my friend thought it was great. They ran out of dessert spoons though, so the waitress gave us forks and walked away with a huge smile while we all looked confused. She then started laughing and asked us if we wanted those chinese soup spoons instead.

All in all, I would recommend this place. The 15% discount is still on so I guess it's good to take advantage of that now =)

[littleangelvl]

I went on Friday afternoon (around noon)...and there was a grand total of 5 tables when we walked in.

I've never have complained about missed orders at any of these AYCE sushi places..but this was by far my worst experience.

After walking in to the place..I liked the decor and all. Definitely one of the better looking places imo. After being seated, we were given two order forms with certain items scratched off..(Hokigai, Abalone Sushi, Fried Oyster, Ice Tea) So we went ahead and ordered a variety of stuff. I noticed only one person doing the sushi..so we figured we get our orders in quick..b4 the lunch rush started..(btw, no lunch rush..grand total of 10 tables).

The seaweed salad was so small..it was more like 3 orders equalled 1 normal order :lol: the sashimi arrived and was ok..the red snapper was a little on the fishy side..I think..the beef tataki was a nice new little experience..we got what I think was the pork cutlet and egg rice..which we didn't order..it looked good..so we ate it anyways..then this was where it went downhill..

we waited and waited forever for spicy salmon roll..which ended up going 2 the table beside us..what was funny was they looked at it and said that they didn't order it..the waitress explained to them what it was..and then they said..we didn't order it but we'll take it..what was even more funny was that the waitress had the order sheet with table # 10 on it (our table) and kept showing the table beside us what it was on the the menu and that it was marked as ordered..:mad: the gyoza never came..even after we asked about the spicy salmon roll and gyoza..at least the spicy salmon roll came..then..one waitress brought over a plate full of beef tataki which turned out it was suppose to be for the table beside us..she brought over Ox Tail with Red Wine which was again suppose to be for the table beside us..we told her to take it back because we didn't order it..it was like talking to a wall..b/c her english and chinese was useless..turned out she spoke mandarin..

what I don't understand is that each table is numbered..is it that hard to get the orders to the right tables?? :confused:

aye..my bf was getting so peeved off..that I can tell u now..I'd probably have to drag him back here..if I wanted to come back.. :lol:

all in all..the food was ok..but with this kinda service..I'm sure my bf would never wanna come back..maybe it's isolated incident..I'd say we should try it out one more time and see..(can't find anywhere else that would offer sashimi for lunch) until then..hope everyone gets better service.. :razz:

P.S. one woman..who works the cash register..probably owner? gave one of the table near us discount cards..did anyone else get it?

[bell02fantasy]

I went on Friday afternoon (around noon)...and there was a grand total of 5 tables when we walked in.

I've never have complained about missed orders at any of these AYCE sushi places..but this was by far my worst experience.

After walking in to the place..I liked the decor and all. Definitely one of the better looking places imo. After being seated, we were given two order forms with certain items scratched off..(Hokigai, Abalone Sushi, Fried Oyster, Ice Tea) So we went ahead and ordered a variety of stuff. I noticed only one person doing the sushi..so we figured we get our orders in quick..b4 the lunch rush started..(btw, no lunch rush..grand total of 10 tables).

The seaweed salad was so small..it was more like 3 orders equalled 1 normal order :lol: the sashimi arrived and was ok..the red snapper was a little on the fishy side..I think..the beef tataki was a nice new little experience..we got what I think was the pork cutlet and egg rice..which we didn't order..it looked good..so we ate it anyways..then this was where it went downhill..

we waited and waited forever for spicy salmon roll..which ended up going 2 the table beside us..what was funny was they looked at it and said that they didn't order it..the waitress explained to them what it was..and then they said..we didn't order it but we'll take it..what was even more funny was that the waitress had the order sheet with table # 10 on it (our table) and kept showing the table beside us what it was on the the menu and that it was marked as ordered..:mad: the gyoza never came..even after we asked about the spicy salmon roll and gyoza..at least the spicy salmon roll came..then..one waitress brought over a plate full of beef tataki which turned out it was suppose to be for the table beside us..she brought over Ox Tail with Red Wine which was again suppose to be for the table beside us..we told her to take it back because we didn't order it..it was like talking to a wall..b/c her english and chinese was useless..turned out she spoke mandarin..

what I don't understand is that each table is numbered..is it that hard to get the orders to the right tables?? :confused:

aye..my bf was getting so peeved off..that I can tell u now..I'd probably have to drag him back here..if I wanted to come back.. :lol:

all in all..the food was ok..but with this kinda service..I'm sure my bf would never wanna come back..maybe it's isolated incident..I'd say we should try it out one more time and see..(can't find anywhere else that would offer sashimi for lunch) until then..hope everyone gets better service.. :razz:

P.S. one woman..who works the cash register..probably owner? gave one of the table near us discount cards..did anyone else get it?

I would say this was an isolated incident! based on all the postings here
Go back, I am sure it will be different!! I am going for lunch their on Friday so I will report back! hehe!!

[trueno92]

I went to Akiyama last night with 10 other people for my bf's birthday.


happy belated.


It wasn't bad..it just tasted like typical strawberry to me..but my friend thought it was great. They ran out of dessert spoons though, so the waitress gave us forks and walked away with a huge smile while we all looked confused.


hahah damn.. i can totally see this happening as the waitresses here are so timid, shy and passive, i think the only thing that would make their smile larger was if they handed you guys chopsticks to eat your icecream.


She then started laughing and asked us if we wanted those chinese soup spoons instead.

awww. i thought she would have came back offering straws :D
?

All in all, I would recommend this place. The 15% discount is still on so I guess it's good to take advantage of that now =)

[trueno92]

I went on Friday afternoon (around noon)...and there was a grand total of 5 tables when we walked in.

I've never have complained about missed orders at any of these AYCE sushi places..but this was by far my worst experience.

we got what I think was the pork cutlet and egg rice..which we didn't order..it looked good..so we ate it anyways..then this was where it went downhill..

we waited and waited forever for spicy salmon roll..which ended up going 2 the table beside us..what was funny was they looked at it and said that they didn't order it..the waitress explained to them what it was..and then they said..we didn't order it but we'll take it..what was even more funny was that the waitress had the order sheet with table # 10 on it (our table) and kept showing the table beside us what it was on the the menu and that it was marked as ordered..:mad: the gyoza never came..even after we asked about the spicy salmon roll and gyoza..at least the spicy salmon roll came..then..one waitress brought over a plate full of beef tataki which turned out it was suppose to be for the table beside us..she brought over Ox Tail with Red Wine which was again suppose to be for the table beside us..we told her to take it back because we didn't order it..it was like talking to a wall..b/c her english and chinese was useless..turned out she spoke mandarin..

what I don't understand is that each table is numbered..is it that hard to get the orders to the right tables?? :confused:

aye..my bf was getting so peeved off..that I can tell u now..I'd probably have to drag him back here..if I wanted to come back.. :lol:

all in all..the food was ok..but with this kinda service..I'm sure my bf would never wanna come back..maybe it's isolated incident..I'd say we should try it out one more time and see..(can't find anywhere else that would offer sashimi for lunch) until then..hope everyone gets better service.. :razz:

P.S. one woman..who works the cash register..probably owner? gave one of the table near us discount cards..did anyone else get it?


this is not an isolated incident, i too got screwed at table 10..



i had alright service in the past, lunch tho, is so laggy that i am really shocked they manage to serve anyone anything.. its like the waitresses are in some kind of zombie mode.

A few associates and I sat at table 10 and our food, was all diverted to another table, which would could see, as they got icecream and then an order of 6 rolls that belonged to us. The one sushi chef on lunch duty just doesn't cut it and rolls/sashimi take FOREVER. the quality of the food is decent but its only if you don't die of starvation first...


they are short staffed but just not swift at all, again, please let me run front of house for a day..pref weekends.

among the super slow service, a table spilled their tea, all 3 waitresses took notice, one continued serving food, one continued to pour tea for a table that just got seated and only 3 out of their 5ppl party were there, one was just collecting plates.. firstly i would have the last 2 drop what they were doing and tended to the spillage.

example #2 is tables take a long time to be cleared after cutomers leave. in one case, a table was wiped down by a waitress, and then as one waitress watched her do it, the 2nd decided to wipe it over again.. both as if it were slowmotion..

just 2 examples of poor swiftness.. stuff like this is so easy to avoid from a management point of view.

from a service point of view, places like these are alllllllll too common and just make the decent service received at Son7 and Ikura look mildly impressive.

[ferkel]

think the only thing that would make their smile larger was if they handed you guys chopsticks to eat your icecream.

Thats not so far off... when I asked for a spoon, she came back with a fork for my ice cream.

[gillianchung]

i too had a horrible experience. i'm not sure if it's hype or what...but it really isn't that good......some of the food were downright disapointting. =(

either we got to stop hyping up these places, or else these places won't keep their quality......honestly, this is one of the worst AYCE places i've ever been to, and that's pretty sad.

I go to Maison, Son7, Yangs, Wasabi, and they are all ok....i don't complain and it's worth it..but this one was just..URGH......food, service, timing was horrific.

this is not an isolated incident, i too got screwed at table 10..



i had alright service in the past, lunch tho, is so laggy that i am really shocked they manage to serve anyone anything.. its like the waitresses are in some kind of zombie mode.

A few associates and I sat at table 10 and our food, was all diverted to another table, which would could see, as they got icecream and then an order of 6 rolls that belonged to us. The one sushi chef on lunch duty just doesn't cut it and rolls/sashimi take FOREVER. the quality of the food is decent but its only if you don't die of starvation first...



from a service point of view, places like these are alllllllll too common and just make the decent service received at Son7 and Ikura look mildly impressive.

[felix]

Crap. Is it getting worse now? Darn .. i was going to refer this place to family.

OP, please update title to "review & pics"

While googling this place for the exact address, look what i found!
http://www.spotlighttoronto.com/content/rest/2005/091605_akiyama.php
(posted this with permission of course :) )

[Iron Chef Ajax]

Crap. Is it getting worse now? Darn .. i was going to refer this place to family.

OP, please update title to "review & pics"

While googling this place for the exact address, look what i found!
http://www.spotlighttoronto.com/content/rest/2005/091605_akiyama.php
(posted this with permission of course :) )
So Trueno92 is Andrew?

[trueno92]

So Trueno92 is Andrew?


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/urabob/fatkid.jpg

and what if it is? :lol:

[bell02fantasy]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/urabob/fatkid.jpg

and what if it is? :lol:


You must get your money's worth at AYCE!!!

[sterdeus]

Did anyone else notice this, there is no miso soup on the english menu, but it was on the chinese menu. I wonder if they purposely did that.. no soup for you!

[Juidd]

Oh yea!....One more thing I forgot to mention that I DID NOT LIKE ABOUT AKIYAMA is that their English and Chinese menus are different!!!!

They have more items on the Chinese menu and less on the English menu... which is unfair! Good thing I went with my bf, and another couple who are HK ppl... otherwise I (being CBC, I dunno how to read Chinese) would have missed out...

[Iron Chef Ajax]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/urabob/fatkid.jpg

and what if it is? :lol:
Was just wondering - no issues. Just on one forum your name was so evident however on RFD - no mention of Andrew anywhere.

[Anessa]

that guys looks like Howard Chui from HowardForums LMAO

[littleangelvl]

Oh yea!....One more thing I forgot to mention that I DID NOT LIKE ABOUT AKIYAMA is that their English and Chinese menus are different!!!!

They have more items on the Chinese menu and less on the English menu... which is unfair! Good thing I went with my bf, and another couple who are HK ppl... otherwise I (being CBC, I dunno how to read Chinese) would have missed out...

can u list some of the extra items on the chinese menu...

[felix]

Was just wondering - no issues. Just on one forum your name was so evident however on RFD - no mention of Andrew anywhere.
Actually there are a lot of Andrew Lee's in GTA. That's why I PM'd him and asked after I noticed because I knew an Andrew Lee from my high school and thought it was him. Turns out we're from the same high school coincidently but not the same Andrew Lee. :cheesygri

[trueno92]

Actually there are a lot of Andrew Lee's in GTA. ...
Turns out we're from the same high school coincidently but not the same Andrew Lee. :cheesygri
http://animeblog.sub-kultur.de/content/denshaotoko-08.jpg

betta recognize...




http://a-menbers.hp.infoseek.co.jp/OTLbanner.gif

[trueno92]

I always pictured trueno92 as a white guy.

Andrew Lee could be a white, Chinese or Korean name. So still a mystery.

http://cartoonvillains.8m.com/pictures/uselesspics/fatkid/fatkidsultan.jpg

i could be ANYONE..

[silvermist99]

can u list some of the extra items on the chinese menu...

I went a month ago, when I looked thru the menus ( I can read like half the chinese there & I was w/ my parents) everything seems to be in the english menu, but a lot of the stuff are in different spots, like the raw beef were under appertizer in the english menu but on the chinese one it was under a totally different caterlorgy

[trueno92]

I went a month ago, when I looked thru the menus ( I can read like half the chinese there & I was w/ my parents) everything seems to be in the english menu, but a lot of the stuff are in different spots, like the raw beef were under appertizer in the english menu but on the chinese one it was under a totally different caterlorgy

.
i tried to read some stuff, but instead i just did a rough count of items and they all seem to be on both menus.

[Anessa]

hey andrew...did u ever get a chance to go to I-Cook? that dim sum buffet place? I'm curious and may be going there tomorrow...just wanted a head's up from the RFD review master hehe

[Iron Chef Ajax]

Miso soup was not on the English menu.

[Anessa]

there's subtle differences in the menus like miso's missing on the english one...stupid mistake BTW...i mean how much does miso cost anyway. lol practically nothing. I dont know if it's a bias or what.

[silvermist99]

.
i tried to read some stuff, but instead i just did a rough count of items and they all seem to be on both menus.
... so andrew isnt white :cheesygri

[Fobulous]

i've met him before.. he's a chameleon

[Iron Chef Ajax]

Has everyone rated this thread?

[bell02fantasy]

Has everyone rated this thread?

Just goes to show how popular this restaurant is!!
I went for lunch again today, excellent service as usual and the place was 1/2 filled when I got there!!!

[ElvaSoShexai]

went there for the first time tonight for dinner since i wanted to try the beef sashimi. i was really surprised how few people were there though. i think it was not even half full. i'd expect it to be packed on a friday night. and they had like 5 waitresses for the entire place

well... the service was really good. the waitresses were friendly too. food came extremely fast, faster than any other place i've been to. i think they close at 11pm and we kinda stayed til the very end which was why they missed our ice cream. but we got it the 2nd time. and the food tasted very good. i'm assuming they have different waitresses/cookes for different shifts which is why sometimes it's worse than other times

one thing i noticed was that we ordered spider rolls 3 times... but twice it only came with 4 pieces. when it came in 4 pieces it didn't have the 2 extra pieces with the... legs of the crab

ever since i've heard of So7 i've been going there since. but this places seems to be quite good!

i noticed the chinese menu had something extra which the english menu didn't have though... it was like a special beef or seafood hot pot thing for 4+ people. i couldn't find it on the english menu.

and omg! the best part of the night was one of the waitresses was sooo hot!!!! (yum!)

[bell02fantasy]

went there for the first time tonight for dinner since i wanted to try the beef sashimi. i was really surprised how few people were there though. i think it was not even half full. i'd expect it to be packed on a friday night. and they had like 5 waitresses for the entire place

well... the service was really good. the waitresses were friendly too. food came extremely fast, faster than any other place i've been to. i think they close at 11pm and we kinda stayed til the very end which was why they missed our ice cream. but we got it the 2nd time. and the food tasted very good. i'm assuming they have different waitresses/cookes for different shifts which is why sometimes it's worse than other times

one thing i noticed was that we ordered spider rolls 3 times... but twice it only came with 4 pieces. when it came in 4 pieces it didn't have the 2 extra pieces with the... legs of the crab

ever since i've heard of So7 i've been going there since. but this places seems to be quite good!

i noticed the chinese menu had something extra which the english menu didn't have though... it was like a special beef or seafood hot pot thing for 4+ people. i couldn't find it on the english menu.

and omg! the best part of the night was one of the waitresses was sooo hot!!!! (yum!)


Glad you liked it. Overall I prefer this place and Ikura for food, service, price and creativeness. I think MDJ and SON7 are 3 and 4 down the ladder! hehe
Iam going to Ikura sunday for dinner and can't wait....

[Anessa]

went there for the first time tonight for dinner since i wanted to try the beef sashimi. i was really surprised how few people were there though. i think it was not even half full. i'd expect it to be packed on a friday night. and they had like 5 waitresses for the entire place

well... the service was really good. the waitresses were friendly too. food came extremely fast, faster than any other place i've been to. i think they close at 11pm and we kinda stayed til the very end which was why they missed our ice cream. but we got it the 2nd time. and the food tasted very good. i'm assuming they have different waitresses/cookes for different shifts which is why sometimes it's worse than other times

one thing i noticed was that we ordered spider rolls 3 times... but twice it only came with 4 pieces. when it came in 4 pieces it didn't have the 2 extra pieces with the... legs of the crab

ever since i've heard of So7 i've been going there since. but this places seems to be quite good!

i noticed the chinese menu had something extra which the english menu didn't have though... it was like a special beef or seafood hot pot thing for 4+ people. i couldn't find it on the english menu.

and omg! the best part of the night was one of the waitresses was sooo hot!!!! (yum!)

you should have tried to hit that ;).

[mslam]

Ok guys, so I finally had my first experience last night at an AYCE sushi and I must say I was impressed with Akiyama, and so were my friends. We went for hubby's bday and everyone raved about how great the food, service and price was!!
I've been stressing because of course I wanted everything to go well for his bday, and I was a little worried about Akiyama because I tended to focus on the bad reviews.. :lol: ... but I was gladly surprised that everything turned out as well as it did.
The sashimi was great (esp. for an AYCE!); we weren't impressed with the beef tataki..but no biggie; the fried oysters WERE on the menu and were deelish; the ice cream too was really good (esp. for an AYCE!), and I loved the deep fried banana. The selection of food was impressive.
The only thing somewhat negative I could say was that the ordering system was a little confusing...one waitress told us that everything is 'by piece' except the maki. So when we ordered the mussels (under appetizers), we ordered 3, but we got 3 bowls!! :lol: It's all good though, since we had a lot of big eaters at our table.

All in all, I would definitely go back again. :cheesygri

[trueno92]

good to hear that all went well, welcome to the world of AYCE.. prepare to loosen your belts a few notches haha.

and happy belated.
==========

on a side note, i personally found their service frustrating more than 50% of the time..... but then again, i hadn't tried dinner...

Son7 still owns over all....... and i'll back those words up tomorrow.

[noodlesalad]

is the 10% mandatory service charge considered the tip? or do u add tip on top on that? :confused:

[felix]

Help! How to get the 15% discount? We're going now!

[curtis]

I went to this place yesterday. Wow, this one waitress had a beautiful mandarin voice.... uhh.. ok that sounded weird.

Anyways, the food ... great food. I'll be headin back!

you should have tried to hit that ;).

[Anessa]

maybe you and that other dude were talking about the same gal?

[felix]

Ok just came back from this place. Food was pretty good .. selection was very small though. There were two types of soup not on the menu .. miso soup and seafood soup. I like the seafood soup better of course. :)

The place was only half full. And this was at 7:30pm on a holiday evening. The service was great, although we got a dish that we didn't order (we kept it anyway, but told them that someone's probably missing their order .. hopefully they understood me).

We didn't get 15% off, eventhough i called in advance for reservation and asked over the phone with the guy who didn't seem to understand english very well (I guess you have to mention while seated at the table).

OP, please update first post with details on the 15% so we don't have to search the thread for it. And update title with "review & pics". Thanks.

[curtis]

Possibly. I was too busy eating to notice anything. Her voice was like a sudden gust of wind throwing a refridgerator at my head. It was very desirable - if it's possible for a voice to be. I guess it is. They advertise for sexy voices in the newpaper all the time. But her voice wasn't sexy.

Once again... that just sounds weird. whatever.

maybe you and that other dude were talking about the same gal?

[Anessa]

Pleasant sounding voice yet not sexy like sultry sexy? lol yeahh this is getting weird...end of discussion. Waitress if you browse RFD...we're not weird...you just sound nice that's all.

[curtis]

I highly doubt that she browses this forum. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it's impossible for her to be on this forum.

I feel the need to correct something. she doesn't sound 'nice'. She sounds 'desirable'. And probably only while speaking Mandarin. Ok, that was that.

Is Anessa not a female name?

Pleasant sounding voice yet not sexy like sultry sexy? lol yeahh this is getting weird...end of discussion. Waitress if you browse RFD...we're not weird...you just sound nice that's all.

[Iron Chef Ajax]

yes- 10% service charge is considered the tip.

it is up to you if you want to give extra tip.

I went twice to Akiyama and I gave extra tip.

It is probably better for the waitress to give the tip in cash rather than charging it on your credit card.
Wouldn't they do better without the mandatory 10%? I would think that we all tip well for good service and okay food.

[Anessa]

I guess it's their way of preventing cheapos from not tipping. I know ppl who wouldn't tip period. I'm not one of them though. Good service deserves a reward.

[Iron Chef Ajax]

I guess it's their way of preventing cheapos from not tipping. I know ppl who wouldn't tip period. I'm not one of them though. Good service deserves a reward.
I am sure that good tippers more than compensate the cheapo's.

[Juidd]

to be honest, i can't remember cuz it's been a few weeks... i think one of them might have been miso soup or seafood soup... (cuz my bf ordered that)... anyways... it was the waitress who told my bf that some items on the chinese menu are not on the english menu... haha i guess she had to point that out cuz we asked for both versions.

can u list some of the extra items on the chinese menu...

[lasallejai]

Went there again just this past Thursday, and was not disappointed. Some how only about 7 tables were occupied at around 6:30PM with 6 waitresses serving us. Orders came promptly and correctly. One of my friends was from Hong Kong and he was quite impressed with the quality of the food even though it was all you can eat. Well, after visiting numerous all you can eat Japanese restaurants for years I think I will still stick to Akiyama for now for a long time.

[ElvaSoShexai]

it seems like this place is never full despite being very good... i think the reason this place is so empty is the location.. not many people know about it... i sure hope they can afford to stay in business as this and So7 are now my fav ayce places

[Anessa]

I like empty but good...Son7 is crazy busy and declining in service and quality. Hope this place keeps the good quality up :arrowu: :cheesygri

[EL820]

Went there for lunch today...I give it two thumps up!! Good food & good service.

[darth wolf]

Just wondering if it's still a sashimi menu during lunch at this place?

[EL820]

Just wondering if it's still a sashimi menu during lunch at this place?

We were there yesterday and we had sashimi. To my understanding, the lunch & dinner menus are similar except they crossed out a few items for the lunch menu.

[Gundam]

Went there for lunch today...I give it two thumps up!! Good food & good service.

got to try this one day

[felix]

http://animeblog.sub-kultur.de/content/denshaotoko-08.jpg

betta recognize...

That pic you posted ... can you post again the link is dead. Looks familiar though ... is his name Bosco by any chance? We nicknamed him "the shock" because his face is always "in shock". By the way, i can't believe he married Maria!! (girl in his grade) I remember she used to always flirt with him. Then again she flirted with every asian guy in her class ... Wallace, Marvin, Michael, Wilson, etc.

[Raggie]

I just went there for the first time, for lunch today. It was very good.

We got there around noonish and it wasn't busy. I thought it was very clean and nicely decorated. Its much better than Ikura. At Ikura, they gave us very small rations. At Akiyama, it didn't matter how much we ordered.

The food was fantastic. I think my favourite dish I tried today was the Oxtail in the red sauce. The mussels with the cream sauce was pretty popular, I saw alot of people ordering it. The tempura was really well made. The batter was light and flaky. The deep fried banana was good size and tasted great. The sushi selection was small but thats okay because the rest of the menu selection made up for it.

Mmmm....just thinking about it now, my mouth is watering. Three of us the bill came to about $45. We left a $5 tip on top of that because the service and quality was so good.

[trueno92]

That pic you posted ... can you post again the link is dead. Looks familiar though ... is his name Bosco by any chance? .

http://www.azillionthings.com/images/densha.jpghttp://www.azillionthings.com/images/densha.jpg
http://www.azillionthings.com/images/densha.jpghttp://www.azillionthings.com/images/densha.jpg

BETTA RECOGNIZE

[Geologic]

edit>> nvm :lol:

[trueno92]

crap my bad........... biiiiiiig mistake on my part haha.

[Geologic]

crap my bad........... biiiiiiig mistake on my part haha.

lol.. no worries, I deleted my post.

Nice pics though.. making me hungry.

[felix]

ok you got me wondering .. who is that???? :cheesygri

[rdx]

I went there last Sat around 1 pm, but the restaurant was only 1/5 full !!! I don't understand why, their sashimi is fresh, hot food is good, price is low ($12 for lunch - Salmom and White tuna sashimi included), service is quick. :confused:

When I was there a month ago, I thought it was because of the grand opening. Not many people know about them, but now they have opened for months, with lot of radio promotion. Still seem quiet, not sure why??

But the way, they changed the menu a bit. Some items are only available on dinner menu ($5 more, 16.99), but nothing major !
Don't know why handroll only available on dinner menu, it should be easier to make than maki :lol:

[Gundam]

When I was there a month ago, I thought it was because of the grand opening. Not many people know about them, but now they have opened for months, with lot of radio promotion. Still seem quiet, not sure why??

there are too many AYCE japanese restaurants around that block.

[mrspuff]

I went there this week & I was impressed with the range of items and how fresh & tasty they all were. The waitresses were very attentive & kept re-filling my tea basically whenever I took a few sips from it. What surprised me was how empty the restaurant was during lunch. We went there at 12:30pm & there were only 4 other people in the entire restaurant. I would highly recommend giving this restaurant a try if you haven't been there before. :razz:

[Raggie]

I was there Sunday night and the place was pretty busy.

[Kai Viti]

Is this place licensed? Enjoy my sashimi a lot more with a bit of Sapporo or Tsingtao.

[ElvaSoShexai]

Is this place licensed? Enjoy my sashimi a lot more with a bit of Sapporo or Tsingtao.

nope. we wanted to order sake but they didn't weren't licensed

[Kai Viti]

nope. we wanted to order sake but they didn't weren't licensed

Aah, that may explain why though the place is good & not super busy!
Wonder if they intend to get licensed or not.

[slouie]

Has anyone been recently? Are quality, service and price still the same? Thinking about having a b-day dinner there on Thursday.

Thanks

[lala]

I've just had a chance to go there last friday. Like others on this thread I was impressed with the stuff they offered for their lunch. Their food were nice. The staffs were really attentive but may be a little too attentive to my liking. They took out the empty plates as soon as we have finished it, so me and my friend tried to leave some food on each plates so that we don't have to have them coming to the table too often. Their salmon sashimi was nice (nice cut and the same thickness and size everytime we order unlike other place that just give smaller and smaller). Their soup is quite nice as well. I didn't really like what they called bento box sushi though (not quite sure of the name anymore) but it just looked like the sushi that was made out from the box!! (perfect rectangle) haha.I thought it was funny.. Anyway, their rolls were nice though. Afterall, I recommend this place especially if you are nearby.

Oh btw, what do you guys do when they already charge tip, do you still leave some change. I found it kinda weird to leave the place without leaving any money on the table, but then on the second thought, I've already tip them through the bill. I didn't want to carry change so I was going to leave the remaining (it was about a dollar something) but then I felt they might get insulted for leaving so little (but they've already got their 10%). Should I have left it or took it?

[slouie]

Went last night for a birthday dinner. Total 11 people including 2 seniors and 2 children = $187. They had the 15% discount (I wonder if they only do this on weeknights now? Last time I went on weekend and no discount.)

The menu has changed slightly (perhaps this was only on the english version). There was no beef sashimi, they have handrolls now, the beef and seafood hotpots no longer require 4 people before ordering and couldn't find the beef/enoki rolls. Still the quality is the same. The place wasn't full (maybe about 10 tables occupied) but I prefer this over being crammed in like sardines. Service a bit unorganized (one end of our table ate well and the other didn't cause all the food kept coming to one end).

Enjoyable overall!

[Raggie]

Went last night for a birthday dinner. Total 11 people including 2 seniors and 2 children = $187. They had the 15% discount (I wonder if they only do this on weeknights now? Last time I went on weekend and no discount.)

The menu has changed slightly (perhaps this was only on the english version). There was no beef sashimi, they have handrolls now, the beef and seafood hotpots no longer require 4 people before ordering and couldn't find the beef/enoki rolls. Still the quality is the same. The place wasn't full (maybe about 10 tables occupied) but I prefer this over being crammed in like sardines. Service a bit unorganized (one end of our table ate well and the other didn't cause all the food kept coming to one end).

Enjoyable overall!

We always leave an extra tip because of the good food and service.

[lasallejai]

Went there last night for the third time in three months. Their food just did not disappoint us. Service was excellent, and food came to our table promptly. It seemed their business picked up a bit now with half of the tables occupied when we left around 7:15PM. The 15% discount was a bonus and we were all happy. I still do not understand why this place is not packed based on the food quality and price they offer. Even though it is located in an odd stripped mall, but then the Chinese restaurant right next to it was packed with a long line up outside the store last night, so we know it is not the location of the store.

[sterdeus]

I was also there last night, arrived at 7:10, maybe I walked right by you! The food was good as usual. I'm also not sure why its not busy. Maybe they never had a big marketing campaign to get the word out and it seems word of mouth isnt helping too much either. Perhaps the jap restaurant market is completely saturated now.

[Anessa]

yeah there's so many AYCE joints around now. Hard to really stand out and maintain quality without stooping to a price war. I'll stick with Akiyama just because it's good enough and close to my house :)

[IceMan77]

I was there on Sat. night. The food was good like usual, a couple of missed orders, but the waitresses were very friendly and brought it after asking. The service was fast and the restaraunt was about half full. The beef tataki is missing from the menu, but the secret is, if you ask them for it they'll give it to you. hahaha...

[elty]

Went there in Sunday afternoon. Cooked food is pretty nice. Sashimi is ok. Sushi and rolls look horrible, with rice falling apart easily.

But for $12 and 15% off, you can get some sashimi so I guess thats nto too bad.

[trueno92]

yeah there's so many AYCE joints around now. Hard to really stand out and maintain quality without stooping to a price war. I'll stick with Akiyama just because it's good enough and close to my house :)

Ikura is a bit further (just down midland), and offers a lot more menu selection for the same $12.99 and 15% off..

not to take anything away from akiyama, but their service is shameful at times where Ikura runs like a well oiled machine (on the times i had been)

menus are changed up at ikura as well, to counter the changes at akiyama/sake etc.

[rdtx2002]

tried it the other day.. nice restaurant.. i'll try the hotpot they have on the menu next time..

too bad no beef sashimi to be found

[Raggie]

tried it the other day.. nice restaurant.. i'll try the hotpot they have on the menu next time..

too bad no beef sashimi to be found


They do have beef sashimi.

[IceMan77]

Went there again last night. Beef sashimi is still available on request. I was really impressed with the service last night. Went there in a group and we were like hungry wolves, ordered a tonne of stuff on the menu and food started coming within minutes. Our table was full stocked within 10 mins of ordering. Staff was friendly. Definitely a place i like coming back to :)

[shaolinmonk]

Ikura is a bit further (just down midland), and offers a lot more menu selection for the same $12.99 and 15% off..

not to take anything away from akiyama, but their service is shameful at times where Ikura runs like a well oiled machine (on the times i had been)

menus are changed up at ikura as well, to counter the changes at akiyama/sake etc.

i've been to all the sushi places (except sake)and i haev to say i had the worst experience at ikura.

service was slow, food was average, they forgot our order completely.. place was half full .. we were there 15 mins before the rush.. everyone was eating except us... was not impressed at all.. portions kept getting smaller too..

first plate of sashimi.. nice and big... then smaller and smaller...

to date i'd rank them in this order

Akiyama
7
Maison
ikura

[i-o_o-i]

went tonight at around 8:30 and there weren't even 10 tables of ppl sitting, really really quiet but the stuff they have here is pretty good, for the people that can't find the beef sashimi, I think they changed the name to just "grilled raw beef" or something like that, it was in the same section as the ox tail and mussels, had to ask the lady there if that was infact the beef sahimi to make sure so ordered a few rounds of that, service was very quick, ordered too much stuff the first time (because usually at other AYCE you just order but alot of the stuff don't come or comes very slowly) around and there was no more room left on the table, they also had beef hot pot, we thought it was gonna be like a sukiyaki or something but its actually a hot pot with a tiny stove thing and everything but at one point the fire was like flaring out, and when we asked for more of that they can just give us more beef or more vegitables so we didn't have to have everything like the tofu, I also put some of the sahimi in the pot and that was pretty good considering that when you go for hot pot they ususally only give you like 1 or 2 slices of salmon and no refil of that, the rest of the food was pretty good too but the crabmeat tasted bad like the cheaper kind you buy at the supermarket...All the waitresses there spoke mandarin NOT CANTONESE so we had to speak to them in english because they didn't really undertand our cantonese...
but I think the problem with this place is there isn't too much promotion like they offer 15% but its not advertised anywhere and if you are passing by on steeles, most if not all ppl would not notice this place, i think they didn't even have there sign on the sign for the plaza

[a1tenshi]

The food was decent, nothing spectacular but the food came quick and the waitresses were attentive and efficient even later in the night when the place was full.

we arrived early, about 5-6pm for dinner, there was 1 occupied table when we arrived. the staff were standing around and the sushi chef gave us a complementary special sushi dish while we took a long while selecting stuff on the menu. i think it was flaky salmon mixed with some sort of dressing? it was really delicious.

i wanted to try the "yellow dragon" but that wasn't on the menu, and they didn't have any red bean ice cream :(

but we had 15% off which was good, about $20.50 w/ tax + service charge.

[poonpower]

where can I find the 15% off?
thanks

[tkshum]

I went there with 3 other people on a Friday night a few week ago. I enjoyed the food at this resturant. Also, the fact that this place is not too busy but quality is still very good. One thing I was not too happy about was when we put in our first order, we selected many items, but not in hugh quantity, many were 1 to 2 pieces for each person. The waitress was telling us that "it is an all you can eat buffet, so you don't have to order all at once". She gave us the impression that we couldn't finish the food and going to waste them.

But other than that, everything is good, only missed one or two items, and the service is very fast.

[Kai Viti]

Anyone know if the 15% discount for dinner is still available?

Thinking of trying it out next week.

[coreanbbq]

I'm trying out of all of the AYCE sushi places reviewed here and went to Akiyama yesterday. It was fantastic ;) The service was so quick and our waitress was very nice/attentive.

Had a better experience at Akiyama than at Ikura... even though Ikura is closer to where I live I think I'll be going to Akiyama now :)

To answer the question above, I went for Friday's lunch and there was the 15% off but I'm not sure if that applies to dinner prices (My guess-- most likely?)

[Kai Viti]

Tried out Akiyama last night. It was about 1/2 full when we got there around 8pm.

The discount is still offered and service is very good as everyone else has said.

I didn't find the quality of food exceptional but it's as good as other places I've tried. Free pop is a nice touch. Their pizza is way too thick & deep fried. I prefer mine thin & toasted.

One dish I found outstanding on their Specials section was the Oxtail in Red Wine Sauce. This is stewed oxtail in a red, spicy sauce. Delicious.

[Irb]

I went to Akiyama for the first time on Friday. Had such a great experience that I went back there for dinner on Monday with my girlfriend. I didn't know about the 15% discount :mad:

I feel strange asking the servers for the 15% off. Is there any sign that I can perhaps refer to or something?

[Kai Viti]

Discount was automatic & shown on bill, without asking or pointing.

Irb, did you not check your bill, or you really didn't get the discount?

[mrspuff]

I am not sure how the discount works either. The first time that I went with 1 friend, there wasn't any discount on the bill at all. But the 2nd time that I went with 2 friends there was a 15% discount on the bill. Maybe there is a discount for a table with 3 or more people?? :confused:

[Irb]

Discount was automatic & shown on bill, without asking or pointing.

Irb, did you not check your bill, or you really didn't get the discount?Well I wasn't not looking for the 15% discount so I'm not sure if it was on the bill or not. What I did look for was the 10% gratuity which I did find. I lastnight Monday Dec, 26th the total came out to be about $48. I don't think there was a discount.

[Kai Viti]

I am not sure how the discount works either. The first time that I went with 1 friend, there wasn't any discount on the bill at all. But the 2nd time that I went with 2 friends there was a 15% discount on the bill. Maybe there is a discount for a table with 3 or more people?? :confused:
Your theory may be correct. There were 3 of us when it was auto 15% discount.

[Irb]

You know how they give you those complimentary tuna rolls? 1 piece per customer? Is there anyway we could order more of those? Those aren't on the menu :cry:

They're so delicious.

[tkddad]

We finally tried Akiyama on the 24th for lunch.

Food was decent and service was great. We
had food on the table within 5 minutes of
ordering. Our tea cups were never empty
for more than a minute. There were a couple
of missed order but no big deal. A much better
experience than Ikura where we went to
on Thanksgiving weekend when they only
had two waitresses working with a full house.

We didn't get the 15% discount. There were
4 of us. I did ask the owner/waitress about it.

She told us that the discount is available for
both lunch and dinner but NOT available for
the Christmas weekend. I get a feeling the
discount is applied arbitrarily.

Even without the discount, $12 for lunch with
Sushimi is a great deal. We will definitely go
back.

[mrspuff]

I went back for lunch today but I have to say that the quality sure has gone down since I was there just last week. Granted they had totally different waitresses than last time. I had to constantly ask for tea refills everytime my cup was empty & the waitresses never came to check. I had to ask a few times for refills b/c they would wonder off for a while & forget to come back. Also about half of the rolls were falling apart. What is going on??? Why the drastic changes since last week. I hope that this restaurant isn't going downhill. I took 3 other friends this time, and there was no discount offered, so when I asked the waitress about the discount she said that it was only offered before xmas.

[rdtx2002]

I went to Akiyama for the first time on Friday. Had such a great experience that I went back there for dinner on Monday with my girlfriend. I didn't know about the 15% discount :mad:

I feel strange asking the servers for the 15% off. Is there any sign that I can perhaps refer to or something?


i fyou had a good time.. who cares if you get a discount or not..

the time i went.. i wasn't looking for a discount.. but i got one.. fine by me.. but i was already willing to pay full price since the experience was good.

[bell02fantasy]

I went back for lunch today but I have to say that the quality sure has gone down since I was there just last week. Granted they had totally different waitresses than last time. I had to constantly ask for tea refills everytime my cup was empty & the waitresses never came to check. I had to ask a few times for refills b/c they would wonder off for a while & forget to come back. Also about half of the rolls were falling apart. What is going on??? Why the drastic changes since last week. I hope that this restaurant isn't going downhill. I took 3 other friends this time, and there was no discount offered, so when I asked the waitress about the discount she said that it was only offered before xmas.

Are we talking about the same place ? - service is top notch here....

[mrspuff]

Are we talking about the same place ? - service is top notch here....

Yeah this forum is about AKIYAMA. I've been there 3 times, and the service was excellent the first 2 times, but I don't know what happened yesterday but if service & food quality continues to be like that, then I doubt that I would go back. It took a pretty long time to get the rolls & when we got them they half were falling apart. I wouldn't mind if the restaurant was full and it's understandable, but there were only 6 other tables being served during this time.

[jrm904]

gonna try this tomorrow for lunch! i hope the food comes out as pretty as it did in the pictures.. especially the tempura.. yum yum!

[curtis]

I'm not sure if they've gone out of business, but I went last Monday, and they weren't open. Ended up going to the new Japanese Buffet at Pacific.

[jrm904]

I'm not sure if they've gone out of business, but I went last Monday, and they weren't open. Ended up going to the new Japanese Buffet at Pacific.

ahhh.. can anyone confirm? if not ill eat at wasabi or sake.. heheheh.. but id like to know...

[bobaroo]

I'm not sure if they've gone out of business, but I went last Monday, and they weren't open. Ended up going to the new Japanese Buffet at Pacific.
last monday was boxing day... i went for lunch this past sat (new year's eve) and it was business as usual.

[zero_]

I went there the week before christmas for dinner with a few friends. Service was good, food was ok but they came very slowly, almost 20min after we ordered. The place was 1/2 empty though @ 8pm. Its hard to find parking spot there and I end up parked at the tim horton plaza - not sure if this is ok. Will go back in the future because its cheap (20bucks each after tax and tips). Without the 15% discount i would rather try someplace else.

[Ogata]

its been turned into a Chinese Restaurant from my understanding as the billboard says "Chinese Cuisine" as opposed to Sichuan Cuisine XD quite innovative to say Chinese and Sichuan at the same place but who knows what will happen. Sake and SO7 probably took away their business because I remember being limited on my Sashimi one time I was there.

[evilserge]

i think theyre renovating, im not to sure

[shaolinmonk]

man are you serious? they closed down... i liked that place better the SO7 and i only got to go 2x. BOOO!!!!!

i think theyre renovating, im not to sure
the place is pretty much new... what is there to renovate? ripping down all the bamboos and putting in more tables... hmmmm

[rdtx2002]

its been turned into a Chinese Restaurant from my understanding as the billboard says "Chinese Cuisine" as opposed to Sichuan Cuisine XD quite innovative to say Chinese and Sichuan at the same place but who knows what will happen. Sake and SO7 probably took away their business because I remember being limited on my Sashimi one time I was there.

that Sichuan restaurnt always had the banner Chinese Cuisine..

[lasallejai]

It is rather sad to see it turn into a Chinese restaurant. I went in there today to make sure and it is confirmed. They are tearing down the whole place right now. I think the new Chinese restaurant is owned by the same owner, because they are keeping the Japanese name Akiyama. :(

[bell02fantasy]

It is rather sad to see it turn into a Chinese restaurant. I went in there today to make sure and it is confirmed. They are tearing down the whole place right now. I think the new Chinese restaurant is owned by the same owner, because they are keeping the Japanese name Akiyama. :(


if true, it is a shame. Their service and food were top-notch. Wonder if they are going japanese-chinese to cater to both?

Looks like Ikura for me now!

[ElvaSoShexai]

is this place really closing? this place is so much better than ikura and basically equal to so7...

[lasallejai]

Yeah, this place was the best among all all you can eat Japanese sushi, to me and my wife. It was on the top of our list because not just the food was good, but the seating of the place and the top notch service by the waitresses. We had to turn to Ikura this afternoon, and even though the food quality was all right, but the variety just was not there. We went to Sushi On 7 two weeks ago aiming to have some of their advertised Uni special, but they ran out without informing us and we were stuck there for the usual selection for a higher price. Seating wise it was really uncomfortable at SO7 when it is filled. I doubt Akiyama is going Chinese and Japanese, because from the look of their new renovation design it is going to be just another traditional Chinese woking place. :confused:

[aznsupafro]

seriously.this place was the best, i first went there 2 weeks ago..and have been there 3 times in the past 2 weeks..everybody i've gone with has agreed its the best ayce sushi place around. sashimi at lunch time ! and good quality too!.Topnotch, compared to those other places trueno reviewed (been to them all + others) , equal if not better + the beef sashimi. It had the most comfortable atmosphere of any ayce sushi place hands down (not tight tight environment like s07) All 4 times i went i could honestly say the service was great, no missed orders, and speed. Everytime i went though, the place was half full, both for dinner and lunch. Not enough word of mouth or bad marketing. They should have put in more advertisements for newspapers becuase many people missed out on a good ayce experience.

[twinstars]

I am so sad that it is confirmed closed. I have only been once on Dec 29th for lunch and it was SOOOOOO good, both my husband and I LOVED it! We were talking about going back and etc......which other AYCE has sashimi for lunch?

[FuNPoLiCe001]

just a bad location IMO

they had a HUGE plaza right next to it, with a no frills and about a billion restaurants which probably drew away most the customers

plus there was no advertising on steeles (not even a sign or anything), so I doubt anyone driving by would've noticed the restaurant

I went there for lunch once, and I thought it was really good. Much better selection, quality and service than a bunch of other places I've been to.

[lasallejai]

A place like Akiyama should not have needed too much advertisement in the local newspapers and Chinese radio and TV, except when opening, because their food quality and service should have been able to gain lots of word of mouth. I personally had referred a bunch of my friends to go, not to mention my review here at RFD. I have no idea why they had to fold, but it is true that every time I went it was only 1/3 filled, no matter for lunch or for dinner. Well, it is indeed sad that we have lost such an all you can eat Japanese joint like that, and we really do not know who to turn to now for AYCE Japanese.

[aznsupafro]

theyre white tuna sashimi was soo damn good.

Are there any other places that make it like that?..where it was lightttly grilled on the outside to give it that flavour

[Raggie]

What?? Akiyama is closed? I can't believe it, I was there Christmas Eve!

[Geologic]

if true, it is a shame. Their service and food were top-notch. Wonder if they are going japanese-chinese to cater to both?

Looks like Ikura for me now!

I went there (Ikura) a few weeks ago to try it out and it was pretty nasty. I don't mind if the presentation sucks but when the food isn't even that good.. well, never going back there again.

I've only been to Akiyama twice, too bad.. it was the best ayce sushi place I've been to.. guess it's 2nd best now, S on 7

[ElvaSoShexai]

yea i think location is the problem... i've told a lot of of friends about this place... nobody even knew there was a new small plaza beside tim hortons... even those that lived in the area... they all thought i was talking about the silver star one.

just a bad location IMO

they had a HUGE plaza right next to it, with a no frills and about a billion restaurants which probably drew away most the customers

plus there was no advertising on steeles (not even a sign or anything), so I doubt anyone driving by would've noticed the restaurant

I went there for lunch once, and I thought it was really good. Much better selection, quality and service than a bunch of other places I've been to.

[lasallejai]

"Sushi on 7
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/...ad.php?t=109789

Home Made Japanese Restaurant
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/...ad.php?t=216121

go to Wasabi (next to Starwalk Buffet) and tell us if they have improved:
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/...ad.php?t=162405

there is a new AYCE at Kennedy & Denison that nobody has reviewed yet
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/...ad.php?t=193351

treat yourself to better tasting non-AYCE Japanese food!!
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/...ad.php?t=238724"



SO7 offers good food quality, and I have been there many times already, but their seating plan really sucks. On busy days we were asked for last call only one hour after we had sat down, and by one hour 20 minutes they handed us the bill. Moreover, after the Uni incident we had just two weeks ago we have decided not to go there any more, because we do not feel they were handling the Uni promotion properly.

We will definitely look into Home Made Japanese when opportunity presents itself again. Thanks! : )

We have never thought of Wasabi much, because according to the postings here it is not a very competitive AYCE Japanese place at all. Well, but you never know, if good reviews surface for them here we will go give it a try some time.

We have tried the one at Dension and Kennedy, and we all feel their food quality is just so and so, really average. One thing good about this place is the seating plan they have--very comfortable with plasma TV's hung down on 3 sides for you to enjoy movies they show. Service was okay, and we know one of the waiters there since he used to work at Sky One, and we used to go there frequently until more and more AYCE Japanese appeared in the scene.

For non- AYCE Japanese restaurants I know quite a few myself, but in order to fill me up it will cost an arm and a leg for me so for now I will stay with AYCE places, even though I know the selection may not as vast, but cost effective indeed. :cheesygri

[mslam]

lasallejai: Thank you. I had mentioned in the SO7 thread that the waitresses told us it was last call about 1.5 hours after we sat down. Apparently no one believed me and said that it was 'weird' that they would do such a thing (ie. like i was lying :evil: ). For that, and for the less than par service we got there, I'm not going to SO7 again.

Too bad about Akiyama. That was my favourite AYCE Sushi place, hands down. >:(

[rdtx2002]

with Akiyama gone.. i guess i'll stay with Umi Sushi

[lasallejai]

"lasallejai: Thank you. I had mentioned in the SO7 thread that the waitresses told us it was last call about 1.5 hours after we sat down. Apparently no one believed me and said that it was 'weird' that they would do such a thing (ie. like i was lying ). For that, and for the less than par service we got there, I'm not going to SO7 again."

They did that to us twice actually, and it was a big turn off for us. Although in their menu it does state that there is a one and a half hour seating time limit, but then I do think it is rude to force the customers to leave when they are still trying to eat. 419 Music Bar and Steak Restaurant did the same to us twice, and we have decided not to go back any more as well. Many all you can eat places do state that they allow a 1.5 to 2 hour seating time limit, but hardly any one would be rude enough to kick us out when we reach the time limit, because we were actually still trying to eat--not that we just sat around to wait for the food to digest in order to order some more. If the food comes out fast enough, then actually 1.5 hours is more than enough, but then last time we went to SO7 only 3 waiter and waitresses were there serving 66 of us, and the food did not come out too promptly. It is just not fair that we had to spend 30 minutes waiting for food or even to order the food when we were allowed only 1.5 hours of seating time. If they cannot handle the number of customers during peak hours, then why should we be penalized for their shortcoming? I would not have whined about it if you did not bring this up, because we simply would not go back any more no matter how good their food quality is when Akiyama is there no more. :mad:

[Kinki]

Sad day. I remember on my 1st visit I stuffed down so many fried oysters.. mmMm! The owner even took the initiative to ask how my dinner was and gave me a business card telling me to come back again. Which I kept my promise and had lunch during this past Christmas. I was just planning a 3rd visit to this place to satisfy my japanese craving!

Any other cheap lunch AYCE Japanese places that is worth it like AKIYAMA? I really don't like AYCE dinners, as you have to stuff down quite a lot to make your moneys worth.

[IceMan77]

R.I.P Akiyama

We'll miss you :(

[zero_]

This is bad news. I've been to this place before and for the price (with discount) i was planning to go back.

[Anessa]

RIP. It was very good while it lasted.