Echo Sushi (Japanese)

Echo Sushi was one of our earlier reviews: 8 years ago! How time has flown (and prices increased...) so we figured post-pandemic it’s time to revisit some of these originals. Ordering is still onto small templates. Pop is $2.50 canned not AYCD. Green tea is included and was quite good. Soy at table was slightly salty though green-lid “low-sodium”, but still was good and fresh. Ginger is not dyed pink, and more ginger was brought when we ran out without having to ask, which is something I wish everywhere would do.

Miso soup was extraordinary, rich and savoury and wonderful, especially on a cold winter day. Salad was very fresh though the dressing was very mild to the point of nothing. Spring rolls were excellent: not oily, crisp and delicious with very good sauce.

Salmon nigiri was very good: very fresh, nice thickness, good rice. Green Dragon roll was very good and fresh with flavours well-balanced. Echo has salmon rose on lunch, which is most welcome.  It was very good, what with the very fresh salmon and a good sauce. Spicy salmon maki was delicious, although a touch hot for my liking, but I imagine that is the way it's supposed to be. For the brown rice crunchy salmon roll, Mishy accidentally ordered 4 rolls (24 pieces) instead of 4 pieces but they were excellent as the brown rice adds a significant amount of flavor to them which would otherwise be missing, so they were delicious and significantly preferable to white rice, and we were able to finish them all!

Steak teriyaki was definitely grilled and well-done, though not the best cut but still very good and enjoyable. Beef and chicken skewers were both excellent with an interesting tangy sauce which seemed quite original. Chicken teriyaki appeared to use the same teriyaki sauce and was also quite good as had slight char indicating it was grilled, which added to the flavor. Unfortunately Mishy dug out her “rubbery” adjective for it, which I again failed to understand.

For dessert, mango sago was very good and definitely made with fresh mango. Banana tempura was also quite enjoyable with plenty of chocolate sauce. Vanilla ice cream was French vanilla and was delicious and fresh. Mango ice cream was fantastic with strong mango flavor. Chocolate ice cream was wonderful with dark bitter chocolate notes and very fresh. Green tea ice cream also very fresh and more enjoyable than most. Weekend lunch is somewhat pricey at $29.99, somewhat offset by the presence of salmon rose. I didn’t get to sample as much as I wanted to due to the excess brown rice crunchy salmon roll, but everything I did was good to excellent, so it was only slightly excessive.

Rating: 8.5 - 9 / 10

Original review:

Echo Sushi is located at 2036 Yonge St., between Davisville and Eglinton, a little closer to the former. It's about a block or two north of Ajimi Sushi which we recently reviewed. Echo has a very favourable rating on Yelp and at other places, subject to standard deviations of occasional disappointed reviewers of course, but in our case we found it deserved the accolades.

The decor and ambiance is good; it has plenty of cozy booths, and although the music was Chinese it still fit the ambiance (just about every Japanese AYCE we've seen is owned/run by Chinese people anyways, in case it wasn't obvious!) Service was excellent throughout the meal, very fast and friendly. Low sodium soy sauce was already on table and didn't have to be requested, which was a nice touch.

Miso soup was excellent and savoury, although a touch salty. Both types of dumplings we tried were excellent. The chicken teriyaki was excellent and savoury, not rubbery, but juicy and full of flavour. Beef teriyaki could be a little more savoury but still very good.  Salmon rose rolls were excellent; the mayo or similar sauce was very good.

Tempura sauce was tasty, most places make it rather blander. Spicy chicken teppanyaki was wonderful, the breading and sauce were perfectly spiced. Teppanyaki cube steak was succulent with savoury garlic.

Tip: The "Salmon ginger" which is available on the lunch menu is almost sashimi, being a slice of sashimi salmon wrapped around two thin sticks of ginger.

The dessert was just as good as the meal... mango pudding is served in a small glass and was really good. Fried banana was excellent, not breaded as most places do, so a nice change.

The only "meh" item in the whole meal was the green salad; the dressing was merely OK in contrast to the rest of the fare at Echo; when I pointed this out, the waitresses were even aware that the dressing was bland because ginger had been left out of it due to customer sensitivity. This shows that there is a conscious effort to maintain a consistent level of quality throughout Echo's menu.

Lunch was pricey at $14.99, but the food was certainly excellent... close to perfect, and the rating should reflect this.

Rating: 9.5/10
Location of Echo Sushi