Tokyo John

Tokyo John, another Korean-run Japanese restaurant. It was kind of odd, because it was located a couple stores north and then we thought it was closed. But we eventually found it.

The decor was nice, I liked the details on the walls.

B couldn't turn down a Tonkatsu, so that's what he ordered. He said the meat was very tender and the breading was nice and crispy. The sauce was very well balanced as well. All in all a good dish.

I saw a picture of the flaming unagi roll (not sure if this was the correct name) and thought it looked cool, so I ordered it. I don't think you can see the flames in this picture, but it was burning for a good 3-5 minutes. It burned a little too long, in my opinion. I was just sitting there staring at the flames for the longest time and just wanted to eat.

The taste was fine. The parts at the end were a little "burnt" tasting, but otherwise, it had great texture (from the tempura) and the flavours were well balanced.

B had to order a Saba nigiri, of course, but he accidentally ordered the ebi nigiri instead of the ika. He said they were well prepared but the Saba wasn't rich enough.

Overall, it was a solid restaurant. It's a little difficult to get to for us and parking may be an issue, but we'd recommend it to people in the area.

Manna Sushi

We went to Manna Sushi because it was close by and my parents said good things about it. The decor was subtle and nice, but not quite the rustic style of a Japanese-run restaurant. That was the first hint it's not Japanese-run.

We started with the Angry Jalepeno which wasn't angry at all. There was barely any spicy taste to it. It was uninspiring and sad looking.

Next, B ordered the Assorted Aburi Nigiri combo because it's always nice to have the chef choose their best stuff to present to you. Not here, apparently. All the nigiri look the same and there were a lot of common fish on the dish. It was hard to discern what each piece was because they were drenched in sauce.

Of course, B has to order Tako Sashimi. As you can see, the knife cuts were not great. It's not the worst we've had, and at least it's not slimy.

Lately we've been on an Ika Karage (sic) binge (ever since Yuji's), so we decided to try it here. Ika Karage is a misnomer. They should really call it calamari, because that's what it is, substitute the mayo instead of the tzatziki. The texture of the squid itself was tough and the breading was so oily it was nauseating.

I ordered a bunch of different nigiri's. The chopped scallop was bigger than expected, but the ikura was sadly lacking (look at how flat it is) and very fishy, like it's been sitting in its juices for a long while. The ika was very tough and the amaebi were sadly too tiny. I don't remember much about the hotate but I do recall the Saba was over pickled. It was like I was transported to a Swedish restaurant. The Toro was fishy and not that creamy and the negitoro was fine.

Overall, the experience was not worth recommending or returning. We would prefer walking those few extra blocks to Hime than to come back here.