NO LONGER AYCE - Urawa Sushi (Japanese)

Update: 2021-Aug-20 - There is currently no AYCE at this location post-lockdown even though it is now permitted, and it is unknown if and when it will ever return. I am therefore removing it from the active list, and will follow up periodically and restore it should it return to AYCE status.

Urawa is located in Toronto's core at 254 Adelaide St. W. It's a few minutes' walk from St. Andrew subway station. Adelaide being a one-way street, it's in an area where most traffic zips by it as fast as possible. We were the only customers there the entire visit.

Urawa is a semi-upstairs place in a split level; tables have wall seats which are comfortable. There's a large window at one end so the ambiance isn't bad, but the staff was playing horrid rap music as "atmosphere" which was totally inappropriate.

Chopsticks are the black non-disposables. There are two dinner menus... the advertised $16.99 one has no sashimi, the one with sashimi is $20.99.

For starters the salad dressing was too sweet but Mishy liked it this way. Neither of us liked the miso soup; I found it had a strange flavour I couldn't identify. Tea was only lukewarm and soon cold.

Thankfully the main courses were better... salmon sushi was quite good (contrary to reviews) fresh and the soy sauce was also good and not salty. Cheese wontons were also good. Chicken teriyaki was very good, close to excellent, as was the beef tenderloin. I also enjoyed the salmon rose. However the coconut shrimp dipping sauce was too sweet, as were the other dipping sauces we tried, which cheapened them.

On the subject of overly sweet sauces, the fried banana dessert was (accidentally?) served with the same dipping sauce as the rest of the dinner, rather than chocolate sauce or something more dessert-like. Mishy indicated that her green tea ice cream was freezer burned, although mine was fine.

All in all, although there were some good items, there were too many shortcomings and I wasn't impressed at all. $16.99 is quite inexpensive, but as an example for only a dollar more I could have gone to Natural Sushi and had sashimi and an enjoyable dinner with everything excellent. I'm not surprised there were no other customers at Urawa and I don't foresee it lasting too long.

Rating: 6-6.5/10