Sushi Bon (Japanese)

Revisit: 2022-June-19: Sushi Bon is still located at 695 College just w. of Bathurst. We hadn't revisited in over seven years so decided it was time. Elegant long reusable chopsticks are included, thankfully. Soy sauce was very flavourful and not too salty. Pop is $2.50 a can and tea is $2.99 which is slightly excessive.

Miso soup clumped perfectly and was wonderfully delicious and not watery. Mishy said the wakame spicing was perfect. Bacon asparagus was a bit oily but delicious. Beef sashimi had a tangy sauce and was delicious. Beef teriyaki was light in appearance and a bit short of flavor, but still alright. Chicken teriyaki was better. Chicken skewer was quite good and we enjoyed the sauce.

Wegyu beef sushi was understandably excellent; unfortunately only one piece per person allowed. Salmon nigiri was excellent, great rice with good consistency. Red snapper and white tuna also good and red snapper appears authentic, rather than the usual tilapia substitute. Salmon sashimi was fantastic; super-fresh, great color and flavor. Tuna and white tuna also excellent and appeared authentic, tuna a deep perfect pink and melt-in-your-mouth consistency. Crab was definitely surimi but very good and fresh. Smoked salmon cream cheese roll aka Philadelphia roll was very good.

We both enjoyed the spring rolls. Mishy said the cheese wontons lacked cheese, but I liked them. Shrimp tempura were good and not too oily but the sauce was a little sweet. Japanese pork cutlet aka tonkatsu was very good and I liked the sauce though it was hot.

For dessert, deep fried toast ice cream was an interesting take on on fried milk and was quite good. Green tea ice cream was very freezer-burned to the point of fissuring. Mango, vanilla and red bean ice creams were happily very fresh and good. Lunch is $19.99 but still only the barest basics as noted below, mostly rice rolls, so we had the now-$26.99 dinner which has sashimi etc. Price is significantly higher but it has increased similarly everywhere and this is reasonable for the offerings. They were quite enjoyable so the existing rating should get a slight improvement.

Rating: 8 / 10

Original review below:

Update 2019-May-19: We returned to Sushi Bon for a revisit, and found that the lunch price is now $18.95 and dinner $22.95. There was almost nothing on the lunch menu except rice-heavy items (ie rolls)... even staples such as chicken teriyaki were dinner-only red. We ended up not eating there and the rating is being adjusted accordingly with the higher price; in contrast we had lunch at nearby Sakura for $15.95 which had chicken and steak teriyaki among others... basically everything except sashimi.

Sushi Bon is at 695 College St. in Toronto, between Bathurst and Ossington, in Toronto's "Little Italy" district. It's a small place and we weren't expecting much. Personally, this is why I'm not an optimist: I like being pleasantly surprised!

One caveat is the ambiance: there isn't much in the way of private dining other than a Japanese-style low-table-and-mats setup in the front window; there are no booths. The interior is rather loud when there are patrons talking; we were unfortunate in that there was a table with four boisterous young men nearby at first, but happily they quieted down when dinner started arriving. If you can disregard this, so much the better to enjoy the food.

Sushi Bon offers quite a few entrees that aren't found anywhere else. We tried the: Spiced broccoli roll, spicy salmon chips sushi, smoked salmon sashimi, chicken pineapple roll, tofu skin stuffed with avocado/cheese/tempura bits, and rice and fried toast ice cream. There are plenty more originals to be had as well.

Soy sauce was OK and the low sodium variety was delivered without asking... nice touch. Unfortunately it was still a bit salty, but not enough to detract from the food. The miso soup was very good. Salad was good with mild wasabi dressing. Seafood soup was excellent with miso base, no fish flavour/odor and very savoury. Sashimi was deep pink, almost red in colour and very fresh... perfect.

Broccoli roll was good and chicken pineapple roll excellent; Tofu skin stuffed with avocado, cheese/tempura/bits sounds impressive but wasn't my thing (these are three of entrees unique to this location in our experience as noted above.) Chicken teriyaki was excellent and well cooked with smoky flavour, among the best we've had anywhere. Smoked salmon sashimi is delicious but portions are tiny so order more of them; no complaints on that as, of course, it's AYCE so keep ordering until sated! Shrimp tempura batter was light and flaky and the sauce was very good.

Stir fried butter mushrooms (another unique item to Sushi Bon) were actually sliced shiitaake mushrooms and utterly perfect with a very tasty sauce heavily on savoury garlic. We couldn't believe how good they were! For dessert, the mango ice cream was much better than average, very fresh and flavourful, and the fried bananas excellent.

The service was a bit distracted at first, but got much better as the meal progressed. We found out what was distracting them: two phones were going almost constantly with take-out and delivery orders! Sushi Bon offers a no-time-limits AYCE menu with $13.99 black (lunch) and $17.99 red (dinner) items at all times. If you only want lunch items, be careful not to order a red item or the dinner price will take effect; there is not much contrast between them for partially colour-blind people like me.

However since just about all of the interesting items are on the $17.99 area, we went with that and were very glad we did. This is the best weekend dinner price for Japanese AYCE that we've seen in Toronto and the quality was far, far better than expected for this price. Mishy loved every dish and indicated that she hadn't been so enthusiastic about food in months!.With this good value I can't say that Sushi Bon isn't among the best, and I look forward to my next dinner there!
Rating: 7.5-8/10 (rating readjusted with new costing/offerings on lunch menu as noted above)