Extra: Mochizuki (1.0 km)

Oh noes! Looks like we have our first official casualty of Sushipalooza! Although Sushi Plaza and Sushi Train were already closed before I started my little journey, Mochizuki at Bay and Elm was alive and kicking as recently as a few weeks ago... in fact the eviction notice on the door is dated October 29. So close!

This was a real disappointment, because I was briefly looking forward to Mochizuki... from the time I started casually looking around at reviews yesterday until the time I stumbled on this Chowhound post today alerting me to its demise. I dropped by to check it out for myself, and yup, they're closed all right. I believe this makes Toko the only remaining "conveyor belt" sushi establishment in the Sushipalooza Zone. Boo-urns!

To commemorate the passing of Mochizuki, I went home and made myself some crescent dogs, then sliced them up and served them maki-style. Somehow, it wasn't quite the same.

But never fear, Sushipalooza is prepared for this eventuality. Everything just shifts up by a week and we carry on as usual. Later this week I'll go check out the next place on my list... I hope they're still open!

Extra: Sushi Train (0.9 km)

Ah, poor Sushi Train. You didn't last long enough to make it in to Sushipalooza. In fact, this place has been closed for about a year now. When it was still around, it was a conveyor belt place, not unlike Toko. (No relation to Winnipeg's Sushi Train.)

I went to Sushi Train once. I made the mistake of grabbing everything tasty-looking that trundled past me, as if it was an all-you-can-eat place. At the end of the meal, I had a stack of plates up to my eyeballs. The bill for two of us came in at just over $100. Oops.

I'm not sure what's in here now... I thought they turned it in to a Korean Grill House, but now that I look at the picture I see KGH is next door. Well I shall have to take a look at that and report back. I know you're all on the edge of your seats.

(UPDATE: The answer is... a shoe store.)

Week 15: Toko Bistro (0.7 km)

Toko is one of the places I've kind of been looking forward to all summer... not so much for the food as for the novelty. They have a feature that makes them relatively unique amongst Toronto's myriad sushi joints: a conveyor belt that carries little plates of sushi around the restaurant. When you see something you like trundling past your table you just snap it up; the plates are colour-coded by price so the waitress can tally up your bill.

Almost as soon as we sat down, I spotted some tempura shrimp maki going by. Yoink! I also helped myself to an assortment of other maki and appetizers. It was hit and miss, but mostly OK.

Of course you can also order items off the menu; I got a fairly standard miso soup and a tempura appetizer, plus a "New York" roll with fake crab on the inside and shrimp and tobiko on the outside. Not sure what's so New York about that, but it was good.

Like a bull to a red cape (or something), my dining companion was drawn to this lovely red-topped maki on a red plate. He pronounced it to be well worth the $2.50. My other friend decided to try sea urchin roe nigiri... I can't tell you what he said it tasted like, because this is a family blog.*

The biggest beef with our visit to Toko was -- now how can I put this gently -- the service sucked out loud. I mean our waitress was nice enough and all, what little we saw of her, but there simply weren't enough of her. The kitchen was slow too; my partners in crime ordered meals off the menu and they took forever... though not quite as long as their glasses of water, which our harried waitress forgot like 4 times. Oh, and they charged my companion $7.50 for his icky sea urchin thing, even though it was on a $2.50 plate.

Oh well. Maybe it was just an off night for them or something. I ate there before (granted it was like 2 years ago) and don't recall any complaints with the service. And this guy -- perhaps the only man in Toronto to dine in more sushi joints than myself this summer -- didn't mention anything about waiting 45 minutes for a glass of water. So I'll be willing to give them another shot.

(* I should point out that this was an assessment of sea urchin roe in general, not Toko's particular offering. Well, presumably.)