not your average review
Yonge & College
Daio Japanese Restaurant
(2 reviews)Daio Japanese Restaurant is located on Carlton Street between Yonge and Church Streets. It has a small patio out front for those up for some summer sushi. Please read our conversational review, below.
45 Carlton Street
416.260.2116
/ 10
/ 10
416.260.2116
// rating
/ 10 / 10Review Date: August 11, 2009
Daio Japanese Restaurant has a non-impressive patio out front so it brought back memories of Kokyo Japanese Restaurant — Basically, the sushi could be good, but the environment wouldn’t be anything special. Boy, was I wrong. Daio is probably the most traditional Japanese restaurant we’ve been to so far. We were greeted warmly at the door and shown to our own little booth. The restaurant was fairly empty and very quiet, but that’s not a bad thing!
When I arrived, I noticed that across the street cops had closed off the area in front of Maple Leaf Gardens. It looked like a swat team was there. Later found out they were filming some scene for the show “Flashpoint” which I didn’t even know was still on. Anyways, I always like it when you enter a Japanese Sushi restaurant you get welcomed in actual Japanese and a respectful bow. I could tell that this may not be your average Toronto Sushi joint. Oh and maybe the fact that on their sandwich board out front, it said, “The best sushi in Canada”.
Hehe… gotta love those claims. Daio had a lot to live up to. Lets see how they did. The menu was quite traditional and the prices a bit higher than most places we’ve been to. This was one of the few sushi places I actually got a lime with my Corona (instead of the usual sushi-place lemon) so that was nice. Our server, also poured my beer into a glass. I love small gestures like that. They go a long way for me.
I know you are all over that lime! As for the menu, we opted for some sushi to share (didn’t we order sushi a la carte?) and then a number of rolls including spicy tuna roll, spicy salmon and shrimp tempura roll. They didn’t have any crazy type of rolls or bento combos like the other places. More standard sushi offerings, similar to the Ichiriki Japanese Restaurant, hence no sushi pizza this time around.
For the sushi, didn’t we ask our server what she recommended? I don’t recall what we ended up with exactly, but it was good indeed. Definitely a step up from the typical Yonge Street sushi places. One of the rolls (spicy tuna or spicy salmon) — I think it was the spicy salmon actually — packed quite the spicy punch. More than we’re used to. I enjoyed them both, however. You, on the other hand, had a bit of a problem with the spice! The shrimp tempura rolls were good as well. Some day I’ll master how to eat those ones properly?! I enjoyed everything we ate. Very fresh and a step above.
Yes the sushi was quite good. Good size portions and very fresh. I did not like the spicy rolls. Not only were they spicier than normal but it was really the kind of spice. It was more due to the chili powder I think rather than the usual spicy type sauce. In the end just didn’t think they tasted all that great. Don’t forget the handy instructional diagram on how to use chopsticks that were printed right on their personalized disposable chopstick wrapper. You are a seasoned vet now but maybe could have used that on our first sushi restaurant review :)
Hehe… Yes, Daio helps out the newbie white folk. I can’t think of anything else right now, so I’m going to jump into the ratings. I know you’re going to burn me on this one but here goes: 9.5/10. Great fish, great service, great atmosphere. I’d definitely recommend this place. I still can’t believe it’s tucked away on Carlton, but so be it. Sure, if you’re not huge into spice, you’ll want to stay away from the spicy tuna and spicy salmon rolls. I thoroughly enjoyed.
Whoa!? Wait, were we eating at the same restaurant? I knew something was up after you kept raving on and on about getting lime for your Corona. I give you that the service and atmosphere were great and the sushi was very good for what we tried but the rolls were terrible. Not just the spice but just not very good. 7/10 for me. I think I would have given a better rating if we had more sushi which I know now to do next time around.
Hehe… I was expecting that reaction. Next time we go you can head across the street to Daily Sushi on your way home.
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Hello! Like you (it seems), I’ve been eating my way through the Yonge St. Sushi Nexus this summer, and I’d have to agree that Daio is head and shoulders above most of the crowd, in ambiance at least. I don’t really consider myself qualified to knowledgeably rate the food, except to say that I enjoyed it :).
[…] extra spicy to me. This time more of the spicy sauce variety. This spiciness I prefer over the way Daio Japanese Restaurant does […]
[…] custom paper holders with the name of the restaurant and instructions on how to use them. Same as Daio Japanese Restaurant. Good for the […]