Mikado Japanese Restaurant

My lovely bro took me for some amazing sushi experience on the weekend. I have to say the location was kind of sketchy and not obvious at all. But surprisingly, the environment inside was really cozy and a very traditional japanese setting.

This is their fish menu. 

And yes, it doesn't list out the price of the fishes. But you should probably expect on average $5-6 for an order (with 2 pieces).

For starters they gave up this salad. 

The left is a really traditional type of Japanese veggie, it's one of my favorite (quite expensive too). I still remember i brought some back from Japan. The right is just slices of octopus. 

jumbo shrimp sashimi. 

Sweet and chewy texture, yums!

And now comes the amazing sushi. From top left to right: First one was sea eel (taste more sea fishy than normal bbq eels). next is the fluke, there is a piece of leaf under the fish which brings a minty kind of taste. I personally didn't really like it that much though, probably cuz i'm not a mint fan. The last one is Yellow tail. 

From bottom left to right: The first first is red snapper. Can you believe it? Have you seen a red snapper looking like that? I must say it's the best red snapper i've had so far. Next is giant clam. Chewy yet crunchy?, loved the taste. Next is the scallop, tasted really smooth and fresh. Lastly, is my favorite from the whole entire night! Fatty tuna. This is the fattiest tuna I've ever had, but i must say the fattiness is what made it so amazing. I definitely recommend trying this. I wanted another piece but my brother said it's like $15 for an order (2 pieces). Really expensive.

I wanted spicy salmon handroll.

It didn't taste that great, well nothing special I suppose since it wasn't even spicy. My brother said I was stupid cuz its not something u order at a traditional japanese restaurant since they dont specialize in it.

One last order, my brother wanted the red snapper again (left). On the right is mackerel, tasted pretty good.

As usual, my mom doesn't eat raw fish so we ordered a udon for her. Chicken udon I believe. ($13.75)

If you ask me, its nothing special since you can probably make the same thing at home if you have the good packs of japanese udon and soup base.

Food: Amazing

Service: The servers were really friendly

Price: Expensive

Atmosphere/Decoration: A really cute setting. It looks small when you first walk in, but they have more seating at the back. When I went I requested to sit in the tatami rooms.

Overall: If you want to try some traditional and amazing sushi, I definitely recommend trying this place. Although their prices are really expensive, the fish they serve is just so fresh and well prepared. They do serve set meals but if you are willing to make a trip here, might as well just go all out, order a-la-carte and try a variety of their fish. Most importantly, don't go for the cooked food. I personally think it's not quite worth it. Remember to make reservations before you go!

Mikado Japanese Restaurant

114 Laird Dr, Toronto

Rosewater

I know this review probably is a bit overdue, but I thought I would still mention my experience at Rosewater. My last visit here was for Winterlicious lunch. Surprisingly, their food was pretty good. I came here for Winterlicious dinner in 2011 and the food wasn't too great. Either they improved, or a different selection of the food just did the magic.

For appetizer I chose the Truffled Cream of Cauliflower.

I thought the taste was a bit too light, kind of tasteless I would say?

For the main I ordered the Parsley Crusted Salmon Filet.

Normally I find most western restaurants lacking skill in making their fish dishes good, but surprisingly this dish was really good. The salmon was cooked just right, not overly done. However, I did think the claims had a strong sea water taste to it, was really salty.

I forgot to take a picture, but some of my friends ordered the strip loin burger. It looked thick and juicy, and from my friends' comment it tasted good as well. However, if you ask me I think it seemed kind of a waste to order a burger in such a restaurant for winterlicious.

I think the dessert was the best dish of the night. Here is the Red Wine Poached Apple and Berry Cobbler.

If you ask me, I kinda didn't really favor the apple and berry part, but the crust was just amazing. The sides were crispy and it just had the perfect texture. It was also served it with vanilla creme anglaise on the side which was just the perfect match for the crust. 

Food: Good

Service: Good

Price: $20 winterlicious lunch menu is cheap I would say.

Atmosphere/Decoration: I thought the environment was really nice. I remember when I came in 2011 we had a bigger group so we got our own special VIP room upstairs. This time we sat downstairs, but still the setting was really nice. However, it did get a bit noisy during lunch time.

Overall: My most recent experience definitely added points to this restaurant compared to the first time I came here. I can still remember their trio sorbet did not taste good at all, the flavours were just odd. I only came here for winterlicious so I can't comment much on their main menu, but I would say this is not a bad choice if you were to come here for winterlicious/summerlicious. The food and the environment are both good.

Rosewater

19 Toronto Street, Downtown

Garlic Onion

After taking passport pictures at Costco, we had to wait 30 minutes so we decided to go to the plaza across the street and try Garlic Onion. If we were to think again, I think we would have preferred just staying and eating at Costco instead. lol

We ordered their lunch special. Their lunch specials come with a glass of Soya milk and 2 spring rolls. (my mom ate one before I took this picture.)

My mom and I shared a 焗豬排飯 (baked porkchop rice).

I did not like this. They only gave one piece of porkchop. Other chinese restaurants usually give at least 2, one piece is just too small. Just from observing the sauce you probably can tell it's not the typical chinese ketchup porkchop rice. This sauce pretty much just tasted like tomato paste. I believe this was $7.99 if i remember correctly.

My brother ordered 咖喱牛腩湯河 (Curry beef brisket rice noodle soup). 

It was bad. The beef brisket was really chewy and rough. Also, just from looking at the noodle, normally it shouldn't be that thick. Should be thin. I might be bias since I personally don't like curry, but I swear this bowl looks like a curry flood. My brother probably only ate a quarter of the noodles and left a lot of the beef. Can't believe this dish was $8.99! My brother said he could have had 4 hotdogs at Costco, and probably would have tasted better too.

Food: Bad.

Service: Good

Price: Expensive and not worth it.

Atmosphere/Decoration: Nice, furniture is quite new. They had portraits of nice cars hanging on every wall.

Overall: I only tried their lunch special and I don't think think I would ever come back. I would say their food is the type of chinese food specifically made to serve western people, definitely does not fit my taste bud. I'm actually surprised they can still last, and there were quite a few people when I went (at 2:30pm? Such an odd hour since it's technically already past lunch time). I kinda felt bad that we all didnt finish our dishes, especially when the service was really good and nice. But the food just really wasn't that great. Interesting how when I looked up this place and saw some reviews online, 75% liked this place. I suppose either I just ordered the wrong thing or I just don't like western style chinese food in general.

Garlic Onion

10755 Leslie Street #203

Niwatei

My friend wanted ramen so I took him to this place to give it a try. I've never been before but my bro said their ramen is alright.

They only have 6 kinds to choose from, not much of a variety. But I suppose this way it will be more specialized. All 6 kinds basically have the same toppings (except for the chicken ramen), the only difference was the soup base. Too bad they didn't have a ramen that came with gyoza. They do have a ramen set to choose sides, but it was only available on weekend and for dinner. But I went for lunch on a weekday. =/

I ordered the Soy Sauce Ramen. ($7.80)

The soup base was strong and good, the texture of the ramen was chewy and tastey as well. 

For some reason I wouldn't say it's amazing though. I've had better. I do think their ramen noodles are comparable to Kenzo though. I did like the chasiu (pork) meat, it wasn't too tight or rough like other ramen places.

My friend ordered the Pork Tonkotsu Ramen. ($8.80)

I found it funny how the soup looked kinda 'milky', but it actually did have a strong pork bone soup taste. Those who like spicy should probably try adding spicy miso to it, +$1.25 though.

Food: Good

Service: Good

Price: Average, each ramen is less than $10

Atmosphere/Decoration: The place is pretty small, but quite busy when I went for lunch. Funny thing is everyone eating at the restaurant were chinese, not japanese. The deco/environment is cute and cozy, but tables are pretty close to each other. Not really a place to go for a date or have a secret convo.

Overall: Their ramen is good, I wouldn't mind coming here again for a quick lunch with a friend. It's a good option if you are looking somewhere for some decent ramen.

Niwatei

3160 Steeles Ave E, (Inside J-Town Plaza, at the far back past Ju)

Dragon Pearl Buffet

It was my uncle's birthday on the weekend and he wanted a buffet, so we came and tried Dragon Pearl. I've been hearing a lot of people mentioning about it recently too, so I was a bit curious in trying it. But of course, considering its a buffet, you never expect to have amazing food when its mass produced.

I thought this was cute. The huge "dragon pearl" (I would say dragon ball :P)

Too bad you cant take the whole ball but only pieces of it. I never tried it though.

I must say there was quite a variety of food to choose from. I briefly took some snapshots of what I ate that night.

Their sushi was alright. Nothing amazing of course, but not horrible to cause a stomach ache.

The white colored sashimi on the right is 'abalone tuna' sashimi. They only served salmon and tuna sashimi though. Others were either sushi or rolls. Their spicy salmon roll wasn't even spicy.

The middle is a slice of prime rib. It was alright, not great enough for me to finish it though. The squid ring was actually pretty good, not the crappy ones that you would still be chewing 10 mins later. The small green onion pancake on the side was good, but nothing special. Incase you were wondering, yes, the yellow thing stuck in a stick is a bbq-ed pineapple. Random, yes I know. The pineapple was actually really sweet. 

Of course there was a lot more variety food-wise, but I just didn't take a picture of it. There was peking duck! But of course the skin wasn't crispy, but still acceptable.

If you go on weekends, they give each customer one free HALF lobster. (there is 2 here lol)

Tasted like..lobster? Don't know how else I could describe it. You add garlic or butter yourself.

Near the entrance there is a station where they make "hand pulled noodles" at the spot. My dad claimed it being really good and chewy. A must-try.

I must comment that their desserts are quite good. They have a wide selection of cakes, and what I like about it is the desserts were either cut into a small piece or already divided into a small portion. 

Yes, they have strawberry dipped chocolates! But I have a feeling they probably didn't wash the strawberries before dipping it into the chocolate. I swear the chocolate cookie is from pilsburry and not made from the house. Beside the cookie is bread pudding, super sweet. In he middle of the plate is a nanaimo bar! I was surprised to see that there, quite sweet though. Below it (the white blob) is rice pudding, tasted bad in my opinion. On the right next to the nanaimo bar is cheesecake! This was really good, I recommend trying it. I also recommend trying the creme brule (at the right of the picture). It tasted really good, especially the burnt brown sugar coating at the top, delicious! They also have waffles, and I made my own green tea ice-cream waffle.

Thought I should share a funny scene that happened when I was picking my dessert. I saw brownies at the table and since I love brownies, I wanted to try one. But I saw lumps in the brownie so I wondered if it had nuts inside it. I asked one of the ladies that was working there in the kitchen, seemed to me like she didn`t understand English. I asked if there were nuts in it and she was mumbling. I swear I heard her mention hazel nut. When I tried to reassure, she said 'cuhcu-nut". Then I realized she meant coconut. I asked if its only coconut and how sure she was, she just smiled and mumbled. At that moment, I gave up and just said I won't try it. Not only that lady, but I found that a lot of people working there didn't seem to really know much English. Quite sad if you ask me.

One more interesting story that made my day. They give everyone a fortune cookie when you pay for your bill. This is what mine said.

I must say, never got a 'dirty' fortune cookie. Creative I guess?

Food: Alright

Service: Poor. At first my mom and I asked for hot tea. My uncle later asks for a pot of hot water only and they tell us they ran out of pots........The waitress actually said "as you can see we have a lot of customers today and really busy so we don't have any pots". Funny, cuz when I passed by peoples tables I never noticed people drinking tea but mainly just cold water. With such a big restaurant, it would be smart to buy more pots. Aside from that, we asked one waitress for more cold water, and she replied "I'm not a server". Some service huh?

Price: Expensive. For dinner, weekdays is $23 and on weekend is $26. The extra 3 bucks is for the free lobster.

Atmosphere/Decoration: I have to admit I do like the decoration and it is quite nice. One thing I found really awkward was, they sell jewellery. Who would actually buy jewellery at a buffet restaurant...

Overall: I personally don't like buffets though since I can't eat that much to begin with. Or maybe it was because I didn't have much expectations to begin with, I actually thought the food was alright. I would say this place is quite decent quality-wise in food if you are looking for a good buffet place. Compared to Wasabi, or Mandarin, I do think they have more variety instead of only chinese food.

Dragon Pearl Buffet

865 York Mills Rd.