WOW! CHIRASHI!

Despite its name, Wow! Sushi is an unassuming sushi restaurant on Charles Street.  At first glance, it appears to be one of the many run-of-the-mill sushi joints downtown.  Instead, it is a hidden gem!

I was very impressed with their version of chirashi, which traditionally is a dish consisting of assorted pieces of raw fish served over a bed of sushi rice.  You pay a little more for a chirashi here than your average sushi place but it's well worth it.  At an average sushi joint, the ever ubiquitous salmon makes up the majority of the dish with other routine pieces such as tuna, surf clam and shrimp.  How boring!  But, at Wow, you can delight your palate with a better selection of fish that involves sea bream, mackerel, and B.C. tuna.  Not only do you get variety, but you also get freshness and flavour.  Such is the case with their butterfish, where you can taste all the subtle nuances of the fish.  At your dime a dozen sushi place, you tend to get served inferior butterfish pieces that have poor texture and taste.  Often this happens because the fish has excess water from being partially thawed from being frozen, but Wow gets it right.

Chirashi ($18.00)
Interestingly, Wow serves the sushi rice in a separate bowl, perhaps to enhance the presentation of the fish.

Wow! is a great option to satisfy your sushi craving for instances when you want better quality fish but do not want to break the bank with the likes of JaBistro, Japango, Kaji, or Yasu.

Spicy Salmon Hand Rolls

You couldn't pay me enough to stay at Sushi Inn

Sushi Inn @ Yorkville

120 Cumberland Street

Toronto, ON 

416-923-9992

Date Visited: August 23, 2013

Pictured above is a takeout B2 Party Tray ($53.00 - 16 Nigiri sushi, 52 Maki sushi). 

Not sure why this place is busy as it is or why it is rated so well. 

When it came to freshness, all the sushi pieces were sub-par. The fish was fishy and dull in colour - not very appetizing. One would think that a higher volume place wouldn't have this problem. What grade of fish are they getting in?  The fish here is even worse than some all-you-can-eat sushi establishments. 

Further, this party tray didn't have any value. Too many maki pieces were tiny and uninspired.  Come on, 12 cucumber maki???  It's not a maki that you crave when you want sushi, at least for me.  The salmon and tuna maki only offered salmon and tuna respectively and so they weren't very exciting on the palate. These pieces of maki were basically maki that you would get as part of a bento box meal and not a party tray. 

One word: gross.