I found out about Sushi Legend from my brother, who is also an AYCE fan and vehemently insisted I try it. I was not disappointed...Sushi Legend is located in a plaza at 175 Commander Blvd. in Scarborough, at Brimley and Huntingwood, which is a few blocks north of Sheppard. It's very well-decorated (also was not too warm inside as some places are) and all of the accoutrements are perfect: iPad menus, soft drinks are included with the meal, non-disposable chopsticks, plenty of high-backed booth seating, all soy sauce is fresh and low-sodium, elegant teapot which is left at the diner's table (Mishy also loved the barrel-like metal tea mugs.)
For starters, Mishy loved the seaweed salad, saying it was the perfect blend of spices without vinegar as almost all other restaurants add. Green salad had an amazing and different orange sauce and was exceptional. Salmon rose's salmon was super fresh and the sauce wasn't overdone either; it was excellent. Salmon sushi was similarly super fresh and excellent. Spicy salmon sushi was very good. Mishy loved the BBQ sauce of the fried cheese wontons and they also weren't too hot inside for immediate eating... another nice touch from Sushi Legend that is usually overlooked elsewhere. This was not the case with the gyoza dumplings however... hot! But very tasty. Unfortunately Mishy hated the chicken teriyaki saying it was too fatty and gristly, and dug up her oft-used and still little-understood "rubbery" adjective; I ended up finishing it and didn't mind it at all.
Any negative thoughts of it were quickly dispelled by the beef teriyaki: words fail me at how good this is. I can never think of a thick steak as anything but a waste after this, as it traps all of the flavour that serving as beef teriyaki releases. (I could have come here for nothing else and left satisfied!) We both loved the miso soup; it was quite savoury. Avocado/cucumber roll was not bad but a little mushy. I also tried bitter melon for the first time; this traditional Chinese dish was served in an egg(?) sauce that definitely absorbed the bitterness and it was not bad at all.
Shrimp tempura had a wonderfully different dark sauce. Spring rolls were good and served with the same BBQ sauce as the cheese wontons. Chicken cutlet was perfect, not too dry or breaded. Spicy vegetable ramen was another Mishy favourite; the spicing was very good. I didn't like the house special fried rice noodle with vegetables as it was vermicelli, which I am not partial to.
Sushi Legend has a large dessert selection, so I tried to sample as much of it as possible. Mishy and I both loved the coffee pudding (she said it was "amazing" and ended up having three of them.) She also loved the tiramisu. Fried banana was excellent and not too sweet. Mango pudding and yogurt were both excellent. Lychee yogurt (never seen this before anywhere else) was excellent and I loved the different flavour; goes very well with yogurt. Fruit jello was excellent. Golden rain pudding has gelatin spheres in it like bubble tea which I didn't mind though I don't like bubble tea for that reason! Vanilla, mango and green tea ice creams were all very fresh and excellent. The only odd item in the desserts is "herbal essence jelly", which must be a traditional dish. It has no sweetness and tastes a bit dusty, and not at all dessert-like... I'll skip that next time.
Sushi Legend has a two hour seating limit, but the service was extremely fast (and friendly) with some orders arriving in about one minute after sending them, so you should have time to sample as much of the large selection as you would like to. My brother was correct: Sushi Legend does have enough that is different in a good way to put it above most other AYCE's. This, of course, comes at a price: Sushi Legend's lunch at $19.99 is just about the most expensive I have had (the dinner price is $30.99!) but I would say it was worth it even at that cost as almost everything is top-notch. I would definitely return.
Rating: 8.5-9 / 10.
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