CLOSED - Spring Rolls - Yonge Street

UPDATE 2018-May-16: It appears that this location of Spring Rolls has closed. 

This Spring Rolls location (there are several) is at 690 Yonge St. a block or two south of Bloor in Toronto. As it's at the intersection of two subway lines, it's eminently transit-accessible.

It's a newer, upscale style of place with modern decor and nice tableware. Unfortunately unlike others it doesn't yet have iPad menus or even sheets, and ordering is done directly from a waiter from an 'a-la-carte-style' menu. This rather limits the number of choices, and we ordered enough of them that the waiter preferred we write the orders on bits of the disposable paper tablecloth.

For starters, dim sum dumplings were excellent. Gyoza dumplings were more dim sum style soft dumplings rather than fried crispy and are preferable like this. Cheese wontons were different, being triangular pillows with a unique raspberry sauce.

Miso soup was good (it had mushrooms as well.) Hot and soup was fantastic with firm tofu that seemed like chicken. (Was it? Certainly wasn't mentioned in the description.) Caesar salad (rather than plain green salad) was alright but the dressing wasn't very zesty.

On to the main courses, Mishy loved the chicken pad thai. I tried a bit of it too and it was good. Chicken satay was excellent with peanut and coconut sauce on the side. Salmon/avocado roll was good; made up for the lack of avocado/cucumber rolls. Dragon roll was very good. Tempura shrimp and yam was tasty but a bit oily, however the sauce was better than excellent. However neither of us cared for the beef teriyaki at all; it was far overloaded with onions, and it lacked just about all teriyaki flavour and steak-like savour being made with a cheaper, chewy cut.

For dessert, unfortunately we were only able to try two items as it was at last call: the chocolate mousse with raspberry and brownie bits. Both were exorbitantly rich and good.

This Spring Rolls was hit and miss. There were some very good items, but enough mediocre ones that it was marred. To add to this, I didn't like the ordering system, it's quite expensive for lunch ($18.99), it took over fifteen minutes for them to verify my gift card (was a present from Mishy) and tea was $1.99 each... you get one cup with a bag in it, which may be elegant but it's quite expensive. I've never been to a place yet that charged for green tea. So, unfortunately, I must conclude it wasn't a very good value. There are better offerings nearby.

Rating: 6.5-7 / 10.