Dragon Rolls (Japanese/Thai)

Dragon Rolls, aka Dragon Rolls Japanese/Thai, is located at 1105 Kingston Road in Pickering, east of Liverpool, and close to both the 401 off-ramp and the Pickering GO station. Dragon Rolls has a very dark interior, with nice decor with large orange overhead lamps. There are plenty of booths, and although it was nearly empty when I arrived, more customers arrived which is a good thing. AYCD pop is available for $2.25. Soy sauce is all green-lid at all tables, and was very fresh and was only mildly salty. iPad ordering and reusable chopsticks are used. There is a two hour dining limit (I should be listing this for everywhere with one stated but I forget sometimes.)

Miso soup was good, but a bit short on dashi savour. House salad was good in slightly muted original dressing... at least it was not Thousand Islands. Coconut scallops (probably surimi) were excellent, with nice sauce and plenty of flavor. Cheese dumplings were very good in a good sauce. Chicken skewers were very good also in a good teriyaki-based sauce which appears also had some oyster sauce and garlic. Shrimp tempura was good, light, flaky, and dipping sauce was good tasting but had a strange musty odour that I didn't like; it did dissipate after a few minutes.

Alaska roll (salmon, avocado and cucumber) was excellent, fresh and delicious, a good flavor combination. Green Dragon Roll was very good and I was happy there was no eel in it... had to try the eponymous dish. Tamago/egg sushi nigiri was good, spicy salmon very good and not too hot, surimi crab excellent as the ends are shredded which brings out the flavor. Salmon rose sushi was good but a bit overboard on the tobiko. Salmon nigiri was excellent with very fresh salmon, good rice, red snapper and white tuna was also very equivalently good. Dragon Roll has sashimi for weekend lunch! Rather than individual orders there are two sets. The 6-piece set is two each of salmon, white tuna (escolar?) and red snapper. The 10-piece set also adds two each of crab/surimi and mackerel. All were very fresh and good, though I am not big on mackerel's strong flavor. No overloading on salmon, but it was a welcome offering nonetheless.

Chicken teriyaki was excellent, with a nice sauce, not too sweet or overpowering. Steak teriyaki was good but the same sauce did not do it justice, also it was a bit chewy, though I may have let it sit too long. Gyoza was excellent and well-seasoned in a nice sauce. Pork shrimp dumpling (shiu mai) was delicious and a good flavor combination. Shrimp dumpling was also very good. Second round of steak teriyaki was much better than the last one as it was hot, thermally not spicily, and thus the flavours were able to emerge. Spicy basil chicken was very good and not too hot, spicily. Green curry vegetables were delicious, nice sauce with distinctive flavor.

For dessert, deep fried banana was excellent with just the right amount of chocolate sauce. Mango custard pudding was very good, chocolate custard pudding out-of-this-world with chocolate flavour, mango yogurt also overwhelmingly mango as has mango sauce. Strawberry vanilla Jello was awesome, unique and a perfect flavor combination. Red bean ice cream was good, mango very good, vanilla good, and green tea very good, and all were fresh. Service was excellent, fast and friendly always offering refills, picking up plates, and food was delivered very fast. Weekend lunch was $18.99. While there were a couple of imperfections, almost everything was very good or better, and the sashimi offering makes this an excellent value.

Rating: 8.5-9/10