conbabes
Oct 31st, 2008, 11:26 AM
Has anyone tried Ta-Ke sushi here located on Front St & Bay? Any feedback is welcome since I wonder if my experience is unique?
Anyways, here is my personal experience with this restaurant.
After reading this review, http://www.dine.to/establishment_review_page.php?RecordID=179 and a few postings and comments in the Food & Drink forum, I decided to try out this restaurant since it recently opened. The impression I get from the review and postings is this is a higher end Japanese restaurant in terms of food and service, like Kaji but perhaps a lower grade.
Food: (6/10) I found most of the sashimi to be fresh but nothing spectacular, it actually tasted like a higher end AYCE restaurant in terms of quality. The Negi Toro was very good and tasted alot fresher than the other sashimi.
The spicy scallops handrolls were made very poorly since the rice seemed to be falling off the piece and were not tightly rolled. The scallops were good and fresh though.
The wasabi was not made fresh but from powder. In addition, it wasn't even spicy. Not sure if I'm being unreasonable here, but I've eaten uptown at some other restaurants like Cafe Michi and was given real wasabi.
Also, if this matters to anyone, you only get soup before you get your main dish. The soup was good, but nothing special since it tasted like regular miso soup from any Japanese restaurant.
Presentation: (5/10) The sashimi was arranged very pretty but I found that the fish was cut too thick, not sure if that is something reasonable to complain about, but it looked like they just cut thick chunks of fish and splatted it on the plate. In total there were about 8 types of sashimi.
Again the scallop rolls were falling apart but they did taste ok.
Alcohol menu: (8/10) Had about 10 choices for Sake etc, it seemed affordable and we ended up getting some warm sake :) There were other brands from Japan and the US.
Ambience: (3/10)It was nice but did not have a bamboo feel as shown on the website, the booths were all open and were not secluded from the rest of the eating area and were not real booths, you can see the people behind you since it was only small wooden bars separating the booths and can practically hear their conversations. For one couple sitting behind me(I was located in a "booth"), I felt like I can actually see the skin pores on his face and the detailing on his jacket, that's how close I felt I was sitting to them. The other tables in the main area seemed to be seated very close together since I noticed people were sitting literally 2 feet away from the next table.
Unlike the review, no hostess' were dressed in Kimonos, all were wearing a white shirt and black pants, so the review is misleading, they pretty much look like servers from other restaurants.
Service: (2/10)
You were given a hot towel at the very beginning to clean your hands and that felt like they were giving high end service. The towels were clean and smelled really good and it was a good way to start your dinner.
There were alot of servers but it was difficult in trying to flag them down all night since they were all standing near the kitchen. We had to ask 3 times from 3 different servers for more Green Tea. The Sake did come quickly though but the food took a very long time considering we were there earlier than 90% of the people in the restaurant. We waited for about 40 minutes++ before we got our main dishes. The 2 male greeters didn't greet us either and didn't make eye contact with us when we were going into the restaurant or leaving the restaurant.
The servers asked us if we wanted dessert but we were full since we had our main dishes and a few a la cartes, we declined and the server right away asked if we wanted to the bill. It felt like they were trying to kick us out despite the restaurant only being less than 1/2 full at 8pm.
Overall, if your expectations are thinking of this restaurant as a a Kaji, Hiro, or Zen, you will feel disappointed, since I find that this restaurant is not in the same class even though they claim to be and have Omakase . If you're thinking of this restaurant as a regular non AYCE japanese restaurant like Ninki restaurant(located at Scotiaplaza), then you won't be disappointed.
But if you're looking for higher end or more "authentic", Zen, Cafe Michi, Fune(downtown), Mochizuki(downtown)would be much better choices.
Anyways, here is my personal experience with this restaurant.
After reading this review, http://www.dine.to/establishment_review_page.php?RecordID=179 and a few postings and comments in the Food & Drink forum, I decided to try out this restaurant since it recently opened. The impression I get from the review and postings is this is a higher end Japanese restaurant in terms of food and service, like Kaji but perhaps a lower grade.
Food: (6/10) I found most of the sashimi to be fresh but nothing spectacular, it actually tasted like a higher end AYCE restaurant in terms of quality. The Negi Toro was very good and tasted alot fresher than the other sashimi.
The spicy scallops handrolls were made very poorly since the rice seemed to be falling off the piece and were not tightly rolled. The scallops were good and fresh though.
The wasabi was not made fresh but from powder. In addition, it wasn't even spicy. Not sure if I'm being unreasonable here, but I've eaten uptown at some other restaurants like Cafe Michi and was given real wasabi.
Also, if this matters to anyone, you only get soup before you get your main dish. The soup was good, but nothing special since it tasted like regular miso soup from any Japanese restaurant.
Presentation: (5/10) The sashimi was arranged very pretty but I found that the fish was cut too thick, not sure if that is something reasonable to complain about, but it looked like they just cut thick chunks of fish and splatted it on the plate. In total there were about 8 types of sashimi.
Again the scallop rolls were falling apart but they did taste ok.
Alcohol menu: (8/10) Had about 10 choices for Sake etc, it seemed affordable and we ended up getting some warm sake :) There were other brands from Japan and the US.
Ambience: (3/10)It was nice but did not have a bamboo feel as shown on the website, the booths were all open and were not secluded from the rest of the eating area and were not real booths, you can see the people behind you since it was only small wooden bars separating the booths and can practically hear their conversations. For one couple sitting behind me(I was located in a "booth"), I felt like I can actually see the skin pores on his face and the detailing on his jacket, that's how close I felt I was sitting to them. The other tables in the main area seemed to be seated very close together since I noticed people were sitting literally 2 feet away from the next table.
Unlike the review, no hostess' were dressed in Kimonos, all were wearing a white shirt and black pants, so the review is misleading, they pretty much look like servers from other restaurants.
Service: (2/10)
You were given a hot towel at the very beginning to clean your hands and that felt like they were giving high end service. The towels were clean and smelled really good and it was a good way to start your dinner.
There were alot of servers but it was difficult in trying to flag them down all night since they were all standing near the kitchen. We had to ask 3 times from 3 different servers for more Green Tea. The Sake did come quickly though but the food took a very long time considering we were there earlier than 90% of the people in the restaurant. We waited for about 40 minutes++ before we got our main dishes. The 2 male greeters didn't greet us either and didn't make eye contact with us when we were going into the restaurant or leaving the restaurant.
The servers asked us if we wanted dessert but we were full since we had our main dishes and a few a la cartes, we declined and the server right away asked if we wanted to the bill. It felt like they were trying to kick us out despite the restaurant only being less than 1/2 full at 8pm.
Overall, if your expectations are thinking of this restaurant as a a Kaji, Hiro, or Zen, you will feel disappointed, since I find that this restaurant is not in the same class even though they claim to be and have Omakase . If you're thinking of this restaurant as a regular non AYCE japanese restaurant like Ninki restaurant(located at Scotiaplaza), then you won't be disappointed.
But if you're looking for higher end or more "authentic", Zen, Cafe Michi, Fune(downtown), Mochizuki(downtown)would be much better choices.