Imi Japanese Cuisine is located at 2011 Plains Road in Burlington, a municipality to Toronto's west, west of Mississauga. It's close to both the Burlington GO train station and Queen Elizabeth Way's Brant St. exit. We went for weekend lunch, iPad menu and reusable chopsticks are both used. Soy sauce at table is all green lid, was not salty, rich and fresh. Pop is $1.98 per can, not AYCD.
Miso soup had a good flavor balance but it was somewhat diluted. Green salad had very good wine vinegar dressing, not creamy. Mishy said that the wakame salad was good, but did not like the butter mushrooms saying that they almost tasted canned; I disagree because they were not overloaded with seasoning but instead seasoned mildly so that the flavor of the mushrooms came through. Pork shiu mai was good but again but Mishy didn't like it as much as I did. Beef shiu mai, which I have not seen anywhere else, was delicious more so than the pork variety. Tempura dipping sauce was a touch too sweet, but still good. Pumpkin tempura was light and flaky and very good; Mishy said it was delicious. The beef teriyaki did not work for me; it seemed rubbery and the sauce I didn't really care for, but Mishy said she loved it. I also thought that the chicken teriyaki was okay, but Mishy said it was fabulous. (We have never disagreed so much before… about food at least!)
The General Tao chicken was good, but seemed more like sweet and sour chicken. Butterfly cheese was actually cheese wontons; unfortunately they were almost room temperature when delivered, and the sauce was a bit too sweet. We made sure to eat the second round of beef and chicken teriyaki immediately, and they were much improved because of this. Yam tempura was good light and flaky as well. Shrimp tempura was among the lightest and flakiest I've ever had.
Red tuna, salmon, white tuna (almost definitely escolar,) red snapper (probably tilapia), crab (surimi), tomago and surf clam nigiri all were good and fresh. Mishy loved the Green Dragon Roll saying it was among the best she had ever had. Wonton soup had wakame in it which did not work very well and threw the flavor off... the broth would have been good without it. Hot and sour soup, while not either especially hot nor sour, was still tasty had a good broth and I enjoyed it. Spring roll was very good in its orangey sauce, because it was served hot. Gyoza were excellent and the dipping sauce was very good.
For dessert, cherry cheesecake was excellent, chocolate mousse was phenomenal, coconut macaroon was good, chocolate and strawberry mousse cake on the same brand used at many other places, chocolate brownie was good though a bit dry, white cake was good. Mishy loved the chocolate ice cream and especially with the banana tempura right after. Our order was accidentally closed when we paid before we were finished ordering, so the waiter continue to serve us via manual orders, which was very good service. Lunch was $19.88 and although we each found shortcomings, most were not mutual so were of minimal consequence. We did agree that we did enjoy lunch at Imi and was not too expensive.
Rating: 7-7.5/10
