Update: 2019-May-19: We went to revisit Noka today, and found that it has closed and been replaced with a non-AYCE place called "Udon Kitanoya"... amazingly that just happened yesterday so hasn't even made it to Google Maps yet.Nōka Sushi is located at 513 Bloor St. W., just east of Bathurst Street. It's a cozy little place with booths and a window table we liked.
We happened to pass it while on our way to a different AYCE we
already reviewed, so jumped at the chance for another review.
One
of the deciding factors to eat at Nōka was the very
reasonable price: only $12.99 for lunch and $20.99 for dinner. Sashimi
is allowed for lunch on first order; I ordered 12 pieces of salmon with
no problem. AYCD pop is only $1. Some of our favorites add an a la
carte price if ordered, such as shrimp tempura, but there were enough
good items that don't add this cost, so this wasn't an issue.
Salad dressing was a bit odd with a cucumber flavor but it
was still good. Lettuce was very fresh. Mishy didn't like the miso at
all because of the sliced mushrooms floating around, but I thought it was acceptable. Bacon asparagus was made with
crispy bacon whereas most places use soft, but was still delicious and I
ended up ordering seconds.
The salmon sushi was good, but the
wonderfully bonus sashimi was excellent (different salmon perhaps?) Beef, chicken and tofu teriyaki were all well cooked,
however the sauce was a litttle sweet and could have been more
flavorful. Pumpkin tempura is available; Mishy loved it and it was
probably her favorite entree; also chicken and yam tempuras were good.
Onion tempura "rings" were very large, so be wary of over ordering!
Mishy loved the banana tempura; it's made with a complete
cross-section of banana rather than a slice. There are also four
different flavours of ice cream. All in all, I quite liked Nōka and
would definitely return. To be sure there were a few minor shortcomings
but they were more than compensated for, and it was a good value.Rating: 8-8.5/10
