Update: 2021-Aug-20 - There is currently no AYCE at this location post-lockdown even though it is now permitted, and it is unknown if and when it will ever return. I am therefore removing it from the active list, and will follow up periodically and restore it should it return to AYCE status.
Orange
Fish Sushi House is located in a small plaza at 1107 Lorne Park Road
in Mississauga, not far from Lakeshore Blvd. It is surprisingly
small, the size of a small fast food place, with only five tables
plus four bar seats. To add to this, the entire establishment was run
by only one person performing the roles of kitchen and sushi chef,
waiter and cashier all by himself, making this one of the stranger
dining experiences we have had (we were the only sit-down diners at
the time… I don't think he would be able to handle a full house,
small though it may be.) Disposable chopsticks are used, thus I bring my own. Soy sauce
was excellent and fresh and not salty at all. Ordering is from a menu
onto blank sheets. Pop is AYCD, canned (which is rare) and amazingly
also included in the meal price (which is even rarer and was most
welcome on a hot day.) It was also nicely air-conditioned.
Though
the situation was atypical, there were some nice offerings: Miso soup
was very good. Salmon nigiri was excellent and with fresh salmon and
good rice. Cream cheese roll was very good, like a Philly roll sans
salmon. Butter fish, red snapper and crab surimi nigiri all were very
good and very fresh. Spicy salmon sushi burrito is like a large maki
roll (it is even wrapped in wakame rather than a flour wrap) and was
pretty good.
And
as would be expected with such a non-standard methodology, there were
quite a few sub-par and caveat items: Mishy indicated that
unfortunately the wakame salad was warm, soggy and mediocre. The
green salad was good and fresh, and the dressing was alright although
had a little peanut oil flavour, but it was much larger than normal,
so much so a warning of the portion size is required; this was noted
in many online reviews. Also, strangely, the salad dressing is
presented separately in a bowl, something else I have never seen done
elsewhere (as it is up to the chef to balance the flavours.) Another
portion size to be wary of is that Orange Fish's maki rolls are eight
pieces (and some possibly more); happily the avocado/cucumber roll
was very good, so I didn't have any problem finishing it. Stir-fried
vegetables, although very good, were also a very large portion about
twice the size of what is served at other Japanese AYCEs; I was happy
that Mishy helped me finish them. Mishy also didn't like the size of
the nigiri which she said had excessive rice, but I did not find it as
such as to me the sashimi portion was proportionally larger as well;
still I must note this as not all appetites are the same size. Gyoza
were okay, but a bit overdone. The chicken teriyaki don is (of
course) served on rice, with more rice than chicken, but plain
chicken teriyaki sans rice was not available… it was actually quite
tasty but I was already "riced out" from the rest of the
offerings and would have appreciated it without. (There are also no
beef dishes whatsoever.) Sadly, the worst items were the tempura,
which were actually not tempura at all, but instead merely breaded
vegetables… this is because the breading was absolutely solid and
not even slightly light and flaky (this has to be deliberate.) It
certainly was not as good as the usual way because the batter hid the
flavor of the filling, would not pick up the dipping sauce (which was
actually rather good) and did not allow the vegetables' moisture to
escape during the cooking process so they became somewhat slimy and
unappetizing; I managed to finish mine but Mishy could not progress
beyond the first one and I finished hers. There is no shrimp or crab/surimi "tempura", and unfortunately, there are no desserts at all, not even
banana "tempura".
Orange
Fish Sushi House was very good for its miso and sushi/maki items, and
just excellent for the included AYCD canned pop, but I would avoid most of the remainder of the offerings. To be sure there were some good items, but those that were not or were too large dragged it down. I admire the chef's work ethic at doing
all of the jobs on his own, but I think the strain is starting to
show in some of the output. As well, to both of us, it appeared that
all of the odd portion and entrée idiosyncrasies were biased towards
cost reduction (though if so, why the free pop?) The weekend lunch
price was $18.95 which although not the priciest is not cheap either
even these days, and if I take off $2-3 by disregarding the free AYCD
pop I'm still left with the same price point as some other
establishments that still manage to provide reasonable portion sizes, properly done tempura, a full complement of the costlier items, and desserts.
Rating:
6/10
