Spring Sushi (Japanese)

Spring Sushi is located in the heart of Toronto's core: at the northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas on the 4th floor of the new premises there.

Spring's decor is bright but elegant, and although it is loud, is so in a good and lively way. It's a very positive environment, and is staffed almost exclusively by young people, who seem to work very well
together as the service was excellent. We went on New Years' Eve which had to be one of their busiest nights of the year, as without a reservation my wife and I *Mishy* had to wait 45 minutes. However, it was worth the wait.

When we were eventually seated it was at a "booth for two" which was a first for any of the ACYEs we have visited (and more should have them to be sure) and our "menu" consisted of an iPad in a protective case... another first, so I was already impressed even before the food arrived. Not only does the iPad menu have photographs of all the menu items, but computerizing the menu also ensures that every item that we ordered arrived (this, of course, can be a mixed blessing if you tend
to overdo it as we do!)

We started with soup and salad. Unfortunately, we were off to a "meh" start. The salad dressing was a little too much like Thousand Islands rather than being more Japanese (ie wasabi/soy/ginger) in character.

The miso soup was merely average. I decided to try seafood miso to compare and it was excellent; happily there was no more "meh" for the rest of the meal.

Butter mushrooms were perfect with a wonderful savour; ended up reordering them. Chicken teriyaki was perfect with a delicious sauce, and not "rubbery" which Mishy counts as an immediate fail. Teppanyaki garlic steak had a similarly perfect savour and was also worth a reorder, as was the sirloin steak (we're not usually red meat eaters, but make an exception for our reviews...)

As would be expect from the name of the premises, the spring rolls were among the best I have had with tart sauce that was a perfect complement to them. Shrimp tempura was excellent with a flaky batter.

Mishy thought they had a bit of a fishy taste but I didn't think so.  The deep fried shrimp has nice mustard mayo sauce. Spring Sushi also has Thai dishes; I tried the satay and the curry chicken and enjoyed both of them.

Finally for dessert we enjoyed fried bananas, with strawberry dipping sauce and ice cream. I found there were not enough flavours of ice cream but what was there was fresh and good. One bonus of Spring Sushi is that soft drinks' refills are free (and Coke Zero that we both prefer is on tap.)

I enjoyed Spring Sushi very much. I can't give it a perfect rating because of the minor shortcomings and the price is also high ($23.99) and of course this has to be a factor. but we both enjoyed it very
much, especially the fresh and elegant ambiance and the high-tech menus; we'll definitely be returning for special dinners out!

Rating: 9-9.5/10.

Pics courtesy of Mishy