Wakame Sushi - Bathurst (Japanese)

Wakame Sushi is located at 638 Sheppard Ave. W., at Bathurst in an outdoor mall. It has a darker interior, with many patrons in attendance when we went there for a weekday lunch. Reusable chopsticks are used, Ordering is done via iPad menus. Ginger is not dyed pink. Soy sauce was all low-sodium green-lid and was fresh and of medium salinity. AYCD pop is $1.95.

Miso soup was a bit dilute and had a slight "Javexy" flavor that Mishy likes, but was still medium-savoury and good. Kimchi was good and not too hot and had no odor. Green salad was very good with tasty house wasabi dressing. Shrimp tempura was excellent with good batter, very slightly oily but no complaints as the dipping sauce was excellent and savory, better than most places with definitely something else and original. Chicken teriyaki was excellent and both of us loved it: not rubbery, crispy on the outside, tender and moist on the inside, so appeared flame-broiled. Chicken katsu was excellent, as was the sauce, savoury and originally tomatoey. Mishy loved the chicken pad thai, which she indicated was comparable to higher-end à la carte she orders; I agreed it was very good. Tofu tempura was excellent, the sauce really helped.

General Tao chicken portion was a bit oversized, and although delicious and Mishy loved it we both found it too sweet (it's also crispy which some may not prefer.) Vegetable teppanyaki was good but again there was a touch too much sweet in the sauce. Vegetable soup was excellent with large pieces of vegetables in an excellent broth. Seafood soup was very good with savoury tasty broth. Beef udon soup was good, the same base as the vegetable soup, but of course beefier. Spicy salmon roll was very good and was not too hot. Avocado cucumber roll was excellent and the avocado at perfect ripeness. Spicy salmon maki was very good with large chunks of fresh salmon. Crab surimi sushi was good though slightly fragrant. Salmon nigiri was excellent, immaculately fresh salmon and good rice. Red snapper nigiri was very good and fresh, butterfish nigiri had a very slight odour. Shrimp nigiri was super fresh with no hint of odour. Japanese fried rice had a little smokiness flavor but it was understated, so it was a bit bland as-is; however a drizzle of soy sauce woke it up nicely and it became very good.

For dessert green tea, mango, vanilla ice creams and fried banana were the only options. The ice creams were amazingly good, fresh, the mango among the best I ever had. Fried banana was absolutely excellent. Service was super-fast and attentive. Weekday lunch was $16.95 and almost everything was very good to excellent for this price so it was quite a good value and we had a very enjoyable lunch there.

Rating: 8.5-9/10