ND sushi and grill is a hidden gemstone in the middle of a street full of great food.(Baldwin Street) This is a bit on the pricier side, but it has amazing food. I have been here on several occasions, and at every visit, it amazed me with the quality and freshness of the food.

In this visit, I got a lunch sashimi bento box for around around $13-$15 (I don't remember exact since it has been a while). Overall, this will probably be a 10/10 in terms of japanese food. I have yet to find a place better than this in terms of food quality within downtown Toronto without breaking my wallet.

The starting japanese salad was amazing, it had just the right amount of flavour and acidity to make my stomach rumble in anticipation of the next dish.

The next dish was the main course, it was a simple bento box with a Miso Soup and abowl of white rice. The portions are small for those who want to gorge themselves, but otherwise this was one of the best bento boxes I have eaten to date.

The chicken teriyaki and the deep fried fish was very good and seasoned well, but the star was definitely the fish. The Salmon and Hamachi Sashimi was really fresh, the flavour of the fish was strong, and it just melts in your mouth. The taste was in my mouth for the remainder of the meal, and was a constant reminder of what very good salmon can taste like.

Sashimi Bento Box: Chicken Teriyaki (left), Salmon + Hamachi Sashimi (center), Deep Fried Fish (Right)

I have had many friends of mine ask me about Japanese food in and around Toronto and Markham. Right in a little corner in First Markham Place is a restaurant called Hana-bi, there are "classier" and more innovative places downtown, however, this little homey Japanese restaurant had me going back more often than not.

I went back because of great food, reasonable price and most important of all, welcoming service. In my opinion, the most off-putting thing is when you have great food, and horrible staff that just makes the food have a horrible aftertaste. The first thing you notice is the smiles and acknowledgement from the staff and sushi chef. On the off chance were you enter and the waiters happened to in the kitchen or busy, the sushi chef would not hesitate and welcome you in. Service is top notch and rivals many of the restaurants I have been to downtown. On one of our normal family visits, we tend to order their combo which has a variety of stuff. For the three person set, you are looking at around $60. However, this actually feeds 4 people with the relatively large portions.

The following is the first appetizer we received, its is a teriyaki skewer with fried tofu and dumplings. The appetizer was lackluster, it was properly seasoned. It felt clunky as the appetizer since it was relatively heavy, but it was decent nonetheless.

Vegetable-Chicken Teriyaki skewers with Fried Tofu and dumplings

The next dish was a tempura medley. The tempura you get from other restaurants are typically very dense and feels no wear near as fluffy as the ones I have had here.

Tempura Medley, The shrimp tempura is extremely fluffy and nice.

The next part of the meal was the amazing sushi/sashimi. One thing that the restaurant likes to do is provide something on the house every so often, this time we had the most amazing Botan Shrimp Sashimi on the house. The fish was fresh and the rice had the right amount of seasoning. The most impressive was the uni, it is very easy for improper preparation of uni to showcase a very fishy taste instead of a clean and fresh taste, but it seems like they put just the right amount of seasoning to bring the best of the uni.

The final dish was a combination of Salmon/Chicken/Beef Teriyaki with a bowl of rice. Similar to the teriyaki skewer, it was decent, but lackluster in terms of innovation.

Overall, the combination of a reasonable price and decent food quality makes this a very welcoming restaurant to go back to. 8/10

ND Sushi Review: Lunch Sashimi Bento

Hanabi Japanese Restaurant Review