Taisho Japanese Grill

Taisho Japanese Grill is located at 29 Baldwin St. in Toronto's downtown Chinatown district, north of Dundas between University and Spadina. Gas grills are used, not electric as is the trend these days. AYCD pop is available for $3.99, but we opted to stick with water. Dipping sauce at table is in soy sauce containers and is delicious, with a wine-like flavor that really helps the food. Taisho is quite new and only appeared in late 2023, a few months ago. It has a new interior and new music playing; thankfully it wasn't rap.

Miso soup was delicious and savory although a tiny bit dilute. Mishy absolutely loved the avocado poke bowl saying that the flavors were delicious; I agree and the ingredients were very fresh and went together quite well. She wasn't as generous with the kimchi which she said was too hot too salty and not flavorful enough. I do agree with the too hot and salty part. Gyoza were delicious, not oily and different for most other places with a lighter and fluffier shell. Curry udon is a nice variation on the usual, and was excellent and quite flavourfully delicious without being excessively hot.

Finally turning to the grill, the kalbi black pepper beef strips were fantastic and worth the entry price. Prime kalbi was also very good and well seasoned. Beware the burner as it is hotter than other places and the meat will burn quickly if not turned then taken off in time. Pork belly was delicious and had an interesting seasoning wish I enjoyed. Garlic probably beef strips were also extremely good and went very well with the sauce.

There's even a small amount of sushi on the menu. Specifically, they are hand rolls but they are loose rather than conical which is preferred; not much of a fan of handrolls usually. The torched salmon handroll was quite good although Mishy said the salmon was not as fresh as it could be, but I didn't mind or even notice.

For dessert there are “ice cream” bars (one per customer as is usual with grills) and crème brulée. I opted for the Life Savers bar which was quite tasty, as was the crème brulée. Weekend all-day is $44.99 although when I call I was told $41.99 which is the weekday price. Again I return to Guybee as my “gold standard grill” for comparison as they are in many locations, very good and reasonably priced. There were several items at Taisho not found at Gyubee, however Gyubee also offers items Taisho doesn’t have (ie bibimbap, umami bean sprouts, pickled radish) even on lunch. Gyubee’s dinner price is only $1 less however which is where the miso marinated steak and kalbi beef is to be found. So the all-day price can be definitely considered to be overpriced for the lunch hour, but less so outside it. The AYCD pop is overpriced at any hour, however. We did enjoy our lunch/dinner, but at this cost will be unlikely to return.

Rating: 7.5 – 8 / 10