KAKA All You Can Eat - Markham (Japanese)

KAKA All You Can Eat is located at 3235 Highway 7 in the First Markham Mall in Markham, one of several municipalities that border Toronto on the north. KAKA is indicated and promoted as a higher-end establishment providing all-you-can-eat options, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find that weekday lunch was only $18, whereas on weekends it is $30 or more; this is because the weekend lunch includes torched sushi and sashimi.

KAKA has a nice modern interior, with an impressive structure over the sushi bar. As would be expected for a higher-end establishment, iPad menus and reusable chopsticks are used; for some items such as salmon teriyaki and black pepper beef the menu asks if medium-rare or medium is wanted which is unique. Tea is left on table in a carafe. Soy sauce is all low sodium, not salty and very fresh and flavorful, without being sweet with added sugar. Pop is $1.99 per can, not AYCD. Unfortunately I ordered Coke Zero from the menu and Diet Coke arrived which I don't like (it tastes chemically artificially sweetened compared to Zero) and they did not have Coke Zero even though that was what was shown. I think that they should change the menu.

Green salad was excellent with very good house wasabi dressing. Rolls are served in three pieces, special rolls in two pieces, and everything else in  single pieces, a very good idea in conjunction with the electronic ordering system to reduce wastage that other restaurants should adopt. Pumpkin tempura was excellent; was not oily and the dipping sauce was exceedingly good although a touch sweet. Shrimp tempura was very light and flaky without excessive batter, pretty much perfect. Black pepper beef was to-die-for good with minced garlic and impossible levels of savour. However the miso soup was underwhelming and missing half its dashi. Chicken teriyaki was excellent and with very good sauce. Gyoza was excellent and also with good sauce, although again a little too sweet for my taste. Chicken cutlet/katsu was far and away the best I have had with amazing sauce. Fish taco also had fantastic sauce and was amazingly and unexpectedly good.

Buffalo wings are another unique offering to KAKA and were excellent. Seasonal soup turned out to be pumpkin and was quite good. Salmon teriyaki also was excellent and again the sauce was superb.  Oshizushi is pressed sushi which is big in Japan but I have not seen it yet at AYCEs in Canada; it was delicious and did taste of a hint of torching. Torched beef tataki roll was interesting but underwhelming as far as the flavors melding, however it was still good due to the beef. Spicy salmon roll was very good. Shrimp taco was also excellent due to that wonderful sauce, similarly pork katsu cutlet due to the sauce similar to the chicken. Salmon nigiri, and crab and spicy salmon sushi were all excellent. Spicy garlic shrimp was deliciously buttery and garlicky. Beef ramen soup had chicken broth (have noted this before) but was good regardless.

For dessert green tea, red bean and vanilla ice creams were excellent. I adored the red bean as it actually had a beautiful flavor which most places don't, it tastes like nothing elsewhere (I did have a similarly good red bean recently at another establishment.) Pineapple passion fruit yogurt was a great flavor blend. Dark chocolate custard was deliciously full of rich bittersweet chocolate notes… ladies take note! Those are the only six desserts on the lunch menu but were enough as they were all superb. Service was fast although sometimes distracted. I can't comment on the $30+ weekend lunch and dinner prices at KAKA as that wasn't the case when I was there; all I can conclude is that other than the shortcomings of the miso soup and Diet Coke stand-in (which I really hope are addressed) almost everything was top-notch for a not-excessive price.

Rating: 9-9.5/10