Kasai Grill House is located at 650 College Street, about midway between Bathurst and Ossington on the College streetcar line. It has been there for approximately two years in the same premises where Magic Sushi used to be, an establishment which sadly we never got a chance to visit as it was there such a short time before it disappeared; I confirmed that it isn't the same owners so I hope they ended up OK. There was no one else there when we entered, but happily a couple of other diners showed up for weekday dinner. Atmosphere is modern. Disposable chopsticks are used unfortunately (as at most Korean grills.) The soy sauce was a bit salty and no low sodium soy sauce was available; however the barbecue sauce appears to be based on low-sodium soy sauce so we used that for everything instead. Pop is not AYCD but instead is $1.50 per can. Free Wi-Fi is available.
Kasai has a complete selection of sushi in addition to the BBQ/banchan items. Salmon nigiri excellent as was with the avocado cucumber roll. Spicy salmon roll was good, though not very spicy. Salmon maki was good, although more rice than salmon, the salmon was very fresh. Red snapper sushi was good, the rice not too sweet and the fish fresh. Miso soup was excellent and we both enjoyed it.
Banchan kimchi was very tasty, as well as the pickled radish; Mishy loved both of them. She also loved the spring rolls so much that she ate mine so I had to order seconds; they were excellent. Sweet corn was delicious when grilled in its foil packet. Mushrooms were very fresh and delicious when grilled.
The meats at Kasai are very lightly seasoned compared to other Korean grills so adding the BBQ sauce is recommended. Shaved beef for grilling was delicious of course. Pork shoulder was good, especially so with the barbecue sauce. Chicken thighs were delicious. Sausage is sweet and tasted authentically Korean. Fish fillet was probably basa and was good. However I did not care for the pork belly (aka bacon) as it seemed to be all fat, was white and would not grill properly to anything but an off-white colour.
One caveat is that there was only one dessert order allowed, although only ice cream is listed as dessert. The sweet buns from the regular menu come with a dipping sauce which is like icing and are rather sweet, so are a bonus dessert-like item; Mishy adored them as they reminded her of bread pudding with she loves. We visited Kasai on Mishy's birthday; Kasai has a 50% discount if you have ID and attend on your birthday day; there is no restriction on the number of diners (ie the diner qualifies on their birthday even if alone.) Kasai wasn't bad and the birthday discount is quite good, but dinner is $26.99 on a weekday which is only one dollar away from Gyubee, which I consider the pinnacle of grill house thus far.Rating: 7-7.5/10
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