Compare to Taro Fish on Sheppard and Leslie, the fish monger inside of J-Town had been offering inferior products that, to us chowhounders,,were just not up to par!
A few days ago, whilst getting some pastries from Nakamura, I noticed the old fish place is no more. In its place, under new management, will be another Japanese run fish monger scheduled to open on 9th July.
Out of curiosity, I payed them a visit lunch time today. Man!! Was I disappointed big time!!
First off, selection was sparse! This, I can accept, since they are newly opened and still testing the water. Products I noticed, include grilled miso black cod, Teriyaki Salmon bento boxes, small boxes of sushi containing 4 pieces @ $3.80 per box, super cheap Chirashi at less than $6 ( but containing more imitation crab meat and cooked prawns than raw fish), some grilled fish, udon, rice and fried products like calamari rings.
Though most products were visually un-appealing I bought a couple of items to try out in the hope that the taste might turn up better. I bought a piece of black cod for $3.80 and a box of sushi containing a piece each of Maguro, Sake, Tako and Amaebi. Considering the establishment is Japanese run and operated, the items were 'un-beleivably' BAD!!!!
The piece of fish was tasteless and dry!! A dry piece of 'oil-rich' black cod??!! Now, that's a first!!
The sushi was equally SAD!! The Shari rice, not only was it dry and hard, was not seasoned at all!! First time I've eaten sushi rice that's void of rice vinegar and Mirin!! As for the Neta, both pieces of Tuna and octopus were cut so thin, it was translucent, border line transparent!! ( The Salmon and Sweet shrimp were acceptable ). As if that was not bad enough, they did not even provide Wasabi for the sushi!!! Another first!!
Out of sheer curiosity, I might pay them another visit next weekend just to see how things turn out. But based on initial observation, this is another mega-failure in the making!!
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