2015-05-25

NO LONGER AYCE - Tenon Vegetarian Sushi


Update 2019-Nov-29 - Unfortunately I called Tenon as we were planning on returning, and they don't have an AYCE menu any more.

Mishy has gone back to being a vegetarian, and I don't mind joining her as long as tasty fare is available. One bonus to this is that she tends to do more of the cooking when she's "vegging out" and she's actually quite good at it. But still we get our AYCE cravings...

Thus, this find couldn't have been more perfect: Tenon Vegetarian Cuisine is that rarest of offerings, vegetarian AYCE Japanese sushi. It has one unfortunate drawback for us in that it is located just south of Highway 7 on Kennedy Road in Markham, thus a little out of range.
I loved the atmosphere of Tenon; it's darker with well-lit private enclosures which we were lucky enough to obtain. A large traditional teapot was left at the table which Mishy loves. As befits an establishment that is good to the Earth, chopsticks are the "real" non-disposables.
For starters, the miso soup was quite good even without the dashi tuna... they've somehow compensated for the lack of savour and I liked it. Mishy wasn't too big on the wonton soup but I loved it... it's flavoured with cilantro which appears in a few dishes we enjoyed at Tenon. We both loved the green salad as of course a vegetarian outfit is going to excel in it, and did... the dressing was very good and the salad very cool and fresh. The "chicken" salad was mostly bean sprouts with shredded vegetables and small pieces of tofu "chicken"; the tangy sauce completely made it so we both enjoyed it very much as well.
"Yummy crispy" is indeed yummy, and dish seemingly unique to Tenon consisting of crispy deep-fried wonton topped with diced avocado and cucumber; we both enjoyed it; reminded me of bruschetta. Veggie "fish" consisted of a basket of deep-fried sangkan or equivalent. Mishy didn't care for it. It didn't resemble fish much, but I didn't let that bother me and finished it handily although it was a little odd. Deep fried wontons were delicious and served with an excellent dipping sauce... did they have real cheese at the bottom? Taro tempura is much like yam without the sweet and was good with its dipping sauce as well.
Finally, the actual sushi. Futo maki was delicious with large rolls. Sweet yam roll was excellent, and the only actual "fish" sushi we had was the spicy "salmon" roll. This was awesome considering there was no actual salmon in it, as good as the real thing. I saw pictures of Tenon nigri elsewhere but couldn't see any on the lunch menu; no matter.
Dessert consisted of ice cream; there are the usual flavours of green tea, mango, red bean and vanilla, plus fried banana. I didn't get a chance to try the fried banana as well as a few other menu items I wanted to as we were in a hurry, which was unfortunate as Tenon is difficult to get to for us so I don't know when I will be back... but I would very much like to return, possibly more so than any other AYCE. Not only is veg. fare good for the health of the Earth as well as us, but even though we had eaten a lot of it we felt refreshed and energetic afterwards, rather than sleepy; I didn't miss meat at all. I commend Tenon for doing something different, and doing it well. The lunch AYCE is a good price considering the specialization of the offering at $13.99.
Rating: 9/10

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