KAKA All You Can Eat is located at 655 Bay St., near Gerrard St. in Toronto's downtown core. It has a moderately bright, modern interior and is definitely marketed (and priced) as a more upscale version of the standard AYCE sushi place. Although very similar in menu and pricing to Kaka All You Can Eat in Markham which has also been reviewed, they are now independent of each other. Pop was only $1 as a promo, not AYCD, as we went just after opening but this may have changed. KAKA had many dishes found nowhere else. Ordering is done from menu numbers onto small sheets. Soy at table was red lid but was very fresh, sweetish and not salty with plenty of flavor. Happily, chopsticks are reusables.
Seaweed salad Mishy said was nicely spiced and not too sweet. Miso soup was excellent, savory and rich. Bonus house special roll (goose liver dragon roll) was excellent, as was scallop with roe... excellent subtle flavour combination. Torched salmon nigiri is served with a tiny slice of pepper on top and excellent sauce we both loved it; it became Mishy's favourite sushi immediately. Honey mustard salmon roll we both loved, very good flavorful expressive sauce. Spicy salmon tartar aguri oshi nigiri aka torched pressed sushi was delicious and definitely spicy. Salmon sashimi as would be expected was very good and fresh, smaller portions about half the size of most other places so just order more of them (note that this changed on our second patio visit.) Sashimi nacho bites were excellent though rather piquant. Note that ginger and wasabi are not served by default but can be asked for.
Beef takaki very good with baby spinach in an excellent house sauce. Chicken katsu was very good and moist; sauce was flavorful without being acrid. Chicken teriyaki was good chicken but underwhelming sauce with little flavor we both noted. Mishy said that the soy-marinated beef short ribs were gristly, but she had taken the only one like that of the eight we had. The rest were excellent, with a delicious sauce with a hint of mint.
Beef taco (the tacos here are the tiny two bite variety) was very tasty and somewhat hot. Yam tempura was good but a bit oily. Sweet lemon grass organic pork loin steak was very good with nice sauce. House salad had very good dressing, but there was not enough of it leaving much as boring lettuce. Beef cubes were fantastic in a perfect sauce, Mishy said was the best she ever had. Onsen egg (tamago) is a very traditional Japanese dish I never saw at other AYCEs; the egg is slow cooked at a lower temperature so is very smooth. In Japan they are cooked in natural hot springs. Green onion beef roll was quite good although had an odd aftertaste.
Just as we ordered dessert, the waitress indicated last call. KAKA advertises 90 min. last call and a 120 min. time limit. House-made chocolate truffle was fantastic, full of dark rich notes. Dark chocolate custard was similarly excellent and extremely chocolatey. Layered panna cotta with sorbet was delicious and unique. Green tea creme brulee was amazingly good and I wonder why I don't see it more elsewhere. Creme brulee was excellent. Dark chocolate brownies with vanilla ice cream had only one brownie piece, but it was also amazingly good with dark chocolate sauce, French vanilla ice cream and the flavours work together perfectly. Popcorn ice cream is the same but with caramel popcorn replacing brownie... it worked well. KAKA ice cream with hokkaido black syrup, soybean powder amd other toppings was odd but still very tasty. Red bean ice cream had that delicious flavour that few have.
KAKA is $34.99 all day, any day, with no lunch, dinner, weekend or holiday distinctions. This is a bit steep for a regular outing for most of us. but worth it for an occasional treat. For the most part, it does achieve its objective of being higher-end than most, most of the offerings were excellent and we certainly enjoyed it, so it was a good return for this cost.
Rating: 8.5-9/10
