Daimaru Sukiyaki (Japanese)

Daimaru Sukiyaki is located in the plaza at 390 Silver Star Blvd. in Scarborough, Toronto's northeast, near Midland and McNicoll Aves. Daimaru’s interior is traditional, with all seating being inside little wooden nooks, which is excellent as it gives more privacy and is more comfortable than being in the open. There were three levels: a $26.99 basic, $33.99 enhanced, and prohibitive $86.99 wagyu. It’s also required to buy an $18.99 split or $16.99 single pot of broth. We ended up getting the enhanced menu because otherwise the only thing available is beef brisket and lamb. The enhanced gives sirloin as well as other options, but not the wagyu of course. Unfortunately, disposable chopsticks are used, and we forgot to bring our own this time. AYCD pop is $3, but for this price on top of the rest we opted for water. There are very few appetizers such as no soup, salad, and only two desserts: melona bars with a limit of one and crème brûlée included, this makes the meal, although delicious, rather monotonous, especially that everything goes into the hot pot comes out tasting roughly the same... all the character of expensive beef is lost. Spam is one of the offerings and the flavor ends up being pretty close to the most expensive meat. Lamb is another offering and I was again reminded of why I don't like it as it is very gamey and has bits of fat adhering to it, belying its barbarity.

Dumplings were delicious. Beef ball sirloin prime brisket were all very good especially with the garlic-soy dipping sauce which I found excellent and unfortunately Mishy thought was too hot; regardless of the name, it had many other flavors especially cilantro and was one of the higher parts of the meal. Ponzu sauce was also excellent, a more vinegary soy-based sauce. Mishy loved the seaweed salad. Cabbage was also very good. Crispy tofu skin roll was unique and recommended and it was delicious once in the broth. Fukobukoro which is roe, shrimp in a tofu shell like a little bag was good, or at least better than I expected. Celtice is a Chinese lettuce with a thick stalk like celery and a really interesting flavor that tastes exactly like Mexican seasoning. Radish was very mild, especially after being cooked in the hot pot. Konjac is a low-carb noodle that Mishy probably wished she had known about earlier as was done when it arrived; it was quite tasty.

For dessert, the crème brûlée was well-made with a crackling surface; of course there is also a Melona bar but as that’s out of a wrapper it’s hard to go wrong. Service was very fast, and almost to the point of too attentive. While enjoyable, Daimaru is far too expensive for the offerings... $16.99 or $18.99 for a dollar or two’s worth of (required) broth is crassly overpriced, considering the amount already being paid for the meal itself which as noted includes no soups, salads and only two desserts, so just about everything goes through the hot pot and ends up as a monotone after a while. Our “lunch” ended up being $55 each with tax and tip, which is easily $15 too much and will be reflected in the rating. It was nice to try Daimaru, but we won’t be returning due to this.

Rating: 6.5 / 10