Sushi & Maki Japanese Restaurant

Sushi & Maki Japanese Restaurant is located at 105 Bayly St. W. in Ajax, the municipality two east of Toronto. It's near Harwood Ave. S., conveniently close to the Ajax GO station. We went for weekend lunch. Sushi & Maki has an elegant modern interior, with bench seating. Disposable chopsticks are used so we brought our own as always. Low sodium soy sauce is available on request; it was flavourful and not too salty. Pop was $1 canned non-AYCD. Tea is not included. Free WiFi is available. Bonus: Sashimi is included on the lunch menu!

 

Miso soup was nigh-perfect, not dilute at all but bold, savoury and delicious. Green salad had a green house original dressing which was good though not superlative, but Mishy said was authentic (although I have no idea how she would know.) Hot and sour soup was excellent and different, with a sukiyaki-like beefy savoury broth that worked very well.

Salmon sashimi was excellent fresh and very appreciated. Salmon nigiri was also very good and fresh with good rice and texture. Red snapper sashimi was super fresh. Crab sashimi almost certainly surimi but still good and fresh. Shrimp tempura was very good, light and flaky and not oily. Crab aka surimi nigiri was excellent more flavorful than usual. Red snapper nigiri was a tiny bit less fresh than the salmon but not enough to matter. Spicy salmon roll was actually crunchy roll as it wasn't spicy and contained tempura crumble.

Black pepper and teriyaki beef were both shredded beef, the former was excellent and not too peppery, the latter sauce was a bit too sweet. Garlic beef cubes were so tiny that I ended up eating them with a fork, but they were delicious. Beware the age tofu as it doesn't indicate pieces and each order is four cubes. It was quite good, though the sauce was a bit thin, so wasn't a problem finishing all of it. Chicken katsu was excellent, not over-fried or oily and the sauce was bold and flavorful. Beef udon soup had plenty of beef and was delicious.

For dessert there are seven flavors of ice cream and also possibly sweet buns, which I saved for dessert and were quite good. Red bean ice cream was good and not freezer burned although did not have that elusive flavor I love. Chocolate ice cream was excellent with dark rich notes. Green tea muted but still good. Ginger ice cream excellent and delicious. Vanilla ice cream was good. Mango ice cream also muted but good. Service was fast although a bit blasé. Weekend lunch was $22.99 and  it was certainly excellent and enjoyable, and the included sashimi and reasonably priced pop makes up for the slight price increase over other places' lunches. It was certainly enjoyable and we would return.

Rating: 9-9.5 / 10