All right, here we go with our first "overtime" instalment of Sushipalooza '09! And as the fates would have it, we get to kick this new season in style (sort of), with our very first all-you-can-eat establishment! I rounded up some family (everybody knows AYCE sushi demands as large a group as possible, so as to sample the most items) and off we went!
Mariko Japanese Restaurant is a chain of sorts; I've seen locations in the Annex and on the Danforth (there may be others, but I couldn't be bothered to do any actual research). The location we visited is on Yonge south of Gerrard, conveniently near the Zanzibar (attention gentlemen: this would make a great first-date combo!)
Naturally, we gorged ourselves hardcore. Let's see how much of this I can remember...
We started off with a tofu appetizer I forget the name of. The tofu-lover loved it, while the tofu-haters turned up their noses. I was kind of in the middle; I like tofu best when it's deep-fried, which this wasn't. Looked pretty though.
We ordered enough maki (and nigiri) to fill a small flotilla of sushi boats. Favourites included the Katsu Chicken roll (breaded chicken), California roll, and Tempura Shrimp roll (are you sensing a pattern?).
Not everyone at the table shares my love of BBQ eel -- or even fake crab stick -- but it all got eaten. So too did the Teriyaki Beef roll, the Dynamite (crab and shrimp) roll, and whatever they brought us when we ordered a "Dragon" roll.
Not pictured (in some cases because it got eaten too quickly): chicken yakitori, crispy chicken katsu, chicken teriyaki that was erroneously delivered the first time we ordered chicken katsu, beef teriyaki that came with a somewhat-too-big bowl of soba noodles in broth, and more tempura shrimp than you can shake a tempura shrimp at.
Now I don't like to slag places, but it must be said that the service we experienced made Toko's service seem attentive and on-the-ball by comparison. I mean, at an all-you-can-eat place you have to kind of expect them to occasionally forget things and ignore you when you want to order more food -- that's how they keep costs down I guess -- but the staff at Mariko took the whole ignoring us thing a little too far. Plus the table was filthy, and they screwed up our bill and charged us for an extra person (which of course they happily but frazzled-ly fixed it was pointed out).
To end this review story on a positive note: a certain member of our party who shall remain nameless ate all the wasabi on a dare, which was hilarious. It's even funnier because I'm not the one who's going to have to listen to him whine about his stomach ache all night. Ha ha!
[UPDATE: Turns out they didn't fix that bill thing after all. Idiots.]
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