*Our 3.5 average we compare to for Japanese restaurants is Mikado

The first thing I noticed when I sat down was the taste of the water. Very irony kind of taste? At first I thought it  was intentional, to make the food later more flavourful?(when I asked they told me they just changed the filter… but Calgary did recently change some things they used to put in their water)

My overall score: 3.7/5
Preston’s overall score: 3.5/5

Ordered:
-Inari, Hamachi, Isaki (Grunt), Uni from BC, Hata (Grouper), Toro, Bluefin Tuna

-Futomaki

-Tori karaage ($7.50)

-Salmon cone

-Gyu tataki ($8.50)

-Kaki ponzu ($6.80)

Another place we knew we had to try in Calgary, it was rated pretty high. Maybe we didn’t order the right stuff… but I think in terms of freshness, cuts etc, I’m not as hyped about this place as some other ones. But still good~

Presentation:                    3.6/5
Around average when compared to other Japanese restaurants.

Health:                                  3.6/5
Um… if you’re a vegetarian you’ll find there’s limited options, what rates a good Japanese restaurant is usually its fish that it has. But there’s some Noodles, and a few appetizers that would be good. This place does not really focus on rolls.

Atmosphere/location: 4.2/5
We don’t live in Calgary so it’s hard to say how convenient they think it is. But It was pretty easy for us to find when we used a GPS. The main thing we had was where to park haha.

The inside is so cozy~ Dim lighting, open concept, nice bar seating to watch the sushi chefs. Lot more for 4 people table seating. It was packed like crazy!

Cost:                                  3.4/5
Taking taste and how filling it was in account, I’d say it’s a bit pricy. There were some hits on the fish cuts, but some misses on freshness and just taste of the food. Not sure if we were just unlucky haha.

Taste:                                3.6/5
–LOOK AT THE CUT, beautiful! Small touch of wasabi right under the fish.. and BAM just like how they do it in Japan! The texture of the rice was nice as well.

–Hata: Bit chewy, but not too fishy, not much flavour on it’s own we found?

–Grunt: Very soft, tastes like eating fish eyes (I love those!) Guess it better be good considering its price XD.

–Uni: Not as sweet but still bit creamy. Had a bit of a bitter aftertaste. Have had better~

–Tuna: Everyone who knows me knows I don’t really like tuna, so if I can eat it, it’s good haha. Very soft~

–Toro: Everyone who knows me knows I’M CRAZY ABOUT TORO. It wasn’t as soft and I can’t quite put a finger on the taste, and the colour wasn’t its usual pink (did that affect the taste?). 

–Salmon: Pretty standard, yummy.

–Bluefin tuna: Softttt and yummy. Not sure if I liked Japanois Bistro more.. or it’s around the same.

–Kaki ponzu: Major bummer, all the oysters was not fresh at all, it must have gone bad as it gave a very pungent fishy smell at the first bite.. ugk.

–Gyu tataki: The sauce is good, but the cut really isn’t my thing. Arguable as Preston likes it haha. To me it felt like the outer cooked part was extra chewy like chicken that’s been slightly overcooked.

–Tori karaage: I always felt that there needs to be acidic sauce to pair fried food, just me haha (but we dipped it in the ponzu saucce from the beef tataki.. yum. Weird how they put salt there.. felt it was salty enough haha. Um.. pretty standard.

–Futomaki: I like to call it the fun roll, for me what should stand out is the fresh/sweet/happy in my mouth taste haha. They had a cool sweet component which I swear can only be described as .. pink cotton candy LOL. 

Service:                              3.5/5
This was hard to rate as we had a person-in-training for our table.. Which is strange to me to put for someone who reserved a table for a special day. She kept saying she’ll ask a person whenever we had a question but she never came back..?

---

Can’t get enough of sushi…

-Love Mish.