Aji Sai on Queen

Aji Sai is located at 467 Queen St. W., in Toronto, south of the Chinatown district, just west of Spadina Ave. It's accessible either by the Queen streetcar from Yonge or Osgoode subway stations or the Spadina streetcar from its eponymous station. Aji Sai was quite busy when we arrived for a weekend lunch, but we were able to get a small booth for two. The ambiance is dark but cozy. We soon found out why it was busy... almost everything was above-average...

... Starting with the tea. Haven't yet had an extraordinarily good tea enough to merit a mention in the writeups, at least until now. It was excellent. There is low sodium soy sauce available and it really was, being very fresh and without a salty flavour.

We started with salad, and the wasabi dressing was among the best we've ever had. Spicy salmon roll was excellent, and very fresh, as was all the other sushi we tried. Cheese wontons were also among the best and Mishy loved them, ordering seconds. Teppanyaki vegetables were superb with the addition of shredded shiitake mushrooms.

Service was very fast and friendly; at one point we had to wait to get a new order sheet but I can overlook this as it was very busy.

Portions are generous (especially with the included ice cream.) The only downside to the lunch was the miso soup was OK rather than being above-average as the rest of the food was. Cost was $12.99 for weekend lunch, which is quite good. All in all, it was an excellent lunch and I'd love to return!

Rating: 9.5/10.