Restaurant casualties of COVID-19

[taylortbb]

I went very shortly after they first opened and found the quality bad enough that I, perhaps unfairly, never went back. I also think that stretch of King is a very poor location for restaurants in general, unless the Conestoga students can keep them alive.

They really hit their stride in 2019, and until Covid I thought the food was quite delicious. Not super traditionally authentic, but I don't think that's a requirement for a restaurant to be good. Recent deliveries were quite poor, though I'd eaten in a couple months ago and thought it was still quite good (though they'd clearly cut costs).

Despite the location, they were quite busy most evenings until Covid. More recently they'd seemed adequately busy.

For sushi, I have been meaning to try Enjoy Sushi to see whether their quality is decent (they are not AYCE).

The quality is quite good. The chef used to be at Kinkaku, so expect similar but with higher quality ingredients (as it's not AYCE). Probably won't displace Ken's as the best KW sushi, but I think it's the best quality in DTK.

[dtkvictim]

They really hit their stride in 2019, and until Covid I thought the food was quite delicious. Not super traditionally authentic, but I don't think that's a requirement for a restaurant to be good. Recent deliveries were quite poor, though I'd eaten in a couple months ago and thought it was still quite good (though they'd clearly cut costs).

They really offered something different from the ubiquitous AYCE low-quality sushi, focusing on donburi and other cooked Japanese dishes. Not really authentic, but it was still nice to have (Kinkaku has some such dishes but is AYCE only).

I went for a pretty classic donburi dish (beef probably) IIRC, so I guess I just got unlucky.

For sushi, I have been meaning to try Enjoy Sushi to see whether their quality is decent (they are not AYCE).

The quality is quite good. The chef used to be at Kinkaku, so expect similar but with higher quality ingredients (as it's not AYCE). Probably won't displace Ken's as the best KW sushi, but I think it's the best quality in DTK.

Agreed, it is one of the better sushi options around. Though, it definitely doesn't displace KEN (or Watami, based on only one experience though). Even with a 20+ minute UberEats delivery I find KEN tasting consistently "fresher" than the couple minutes walk to Enjoy.

I did manage to get some good sushi and sashimi in Tokyo last week though.

Off topic: Are you able to enter as a general tourist now, or were you there for business or something else? I would love to go back...

[tomh009]

I did manage to get some good sushi and sashimi in Tokyo last week though.

Off topic: Are you able to enter as a general tourist now, or were you there for business or something else? I would love to go back...

A work trip (no real restrictions other than having to do a bunch of paperwork and then apply for a visa). I think tourism is still limited to package tours.

And it shows in the hotel prices: I paid about C$110/night at Hilton Tokyo, usually it won't even fit within my company's travel policy restrictions.

[plam]

They really offered something different from the ubiquitous AYCE low-quality sushi, focusing on donburi and other cooked Japanese dishes. Not really authentic, but it was still nice to have (Kinkaku has some such dishes but is AYCE only).

For sushi, I have been meaning to try Enjoy Sushi to see whether their quality is decent (they are not AYCE). I did manage to get some good sushi and sashimi in Tokyo last week though.

Yeah I really wish that people didn't think sushi had to be AYCE. Seems a pretty Ontario phenomenon. Sigh. I try to avoid that.

Watami is still pretty good, we got some takeout from there last month. Better than 90% of sushi in New Zealand. They don't do it right in New Zealand (probably at least in part a supply chain issue; there was an interesting NYT piece about the US and presumably North American sushi supply chain that runs through Unification Church in Japan/Korea that has been in the news lately). KEN is good too, yes.

We also had some good sushi in Vancouver two weeks ago. They used to be really cheap and really good but I think that the rest of Canada may have caught up unless overrun by AYCE-ism, so now they're still pretty cheap and pretty good, but maybe not noticeably cheaper and better than everywhere else. Also salmon farming is surely a factor. Still, I think Vancouver sushi is cheaper than Tokyo sushi?

Will have to check out A to Z's frozen patties sometime. They're much more convenient to me than Beerbaul.

[tomh009]

Rainbow was sold well before COVID. The new owner had been operating with skeleton staff (and unposted hours!) for the past few years. And, no, they didn't make their own patties. I would check either A to Z (at Water and Victoria) or Beerbaul (at Westheights and Victoria) for frozen patties, it's what Rainbow would have been selling, too, just heated up in a small oven.

Following up to my own post: I forgot to mention Ellison's, on Charles, across the street from the old transit terminal.

[plam]

Rainbow was sold well before COVID. The new owner had been operating with skeleton staff (and unposted hours!) for the past few years. And, no, they didn't make their own patties. I would check either A to Z (at Water and Victoria) or Beerbaul (at Westheights and Victoria) for frozen patties, it's what Rainbow would have been selling, too, just heated up in a small oven.

Following up to my own post: I forgot to mention Ellison's, on Charles, across the street from the old transit terminal.

I just saw some tweets this week saying that Ellison's could really use more business like right now and was in danger of closing as well.

[danbrotherston]

They really offered something different from the ubiquitous AYCE low-quality sushi, focusing on donburi and other cooked Japanese dishes. Not really authentic, but it was still nice to have (Kinkaku has some such dishes but is AYCE only).

For sushi, I have been meaning to try Enjoy Sushi to see whether their quality is decent (they are not AYCE). I did manage to get some good sushi and sashimi in Tokyo last week though.

Yeah I really wish that people didn't think sushi had to be AYCE. Seems a pretty Ontario phenomenon. Sigh. I try to avoid that.

Watami is still pretty good, we got some takeout from there last month. Better than 90% of sushi in New Zealand. They don't do it right in New Zealand (probably at least in part a supply chain issue; there was an interesting NYT piece about the US and presumably North American sushi supply chain that runs through Unification Church in Japan/Korea that has been in the news lately). KEN is good too, yes.

We also had some good sushi in Vancouver two weeks ago. They used to be really cheap and really good but I think that the rest of Canada may have caught up unless overrun by AYCE-ism, so now they're still pretty cheap and pretty good, but maybe not noticeably cheaper and better than everywhere else. Also salmon farming is surely a factor. Still, I think Vancouver sushi is cheaper than Tokyo sushi?

Will have to check out A to Z's frozen patties sometime. They're much more convenient to me than Beerbaul.

I wasn't sure how widespread AYCA sushi is...I still can't tell you much, but I can tell you that there are multiple AYCE sushi restaurants in the small (140k) city in the Netherlands that I'm in.

I'm curious though...what does a Church have to do with sushi supply chains?

[plam]

I'm curious though...what does a Church have to do with sushi supply chains?

Revenue model and also something the church leader thought they should do?

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021...hi-us.html

[ac3r]

Not a causality yet, but there's an article in The Record today about Ellison's Bistro and how the pandemic nearly shut them down. However, a please for community support has them rebounding a bit.

Foodies flock to Ellison’s Bistro to support popular restaurant: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...urant.html

[tomh009]

Rainbow was sold well before COVID. The new owner had been operating with skeleton staff (and unposted hours!) for the past few years. And, no, they didn't make their own patties. I would check either A to Z (at Water and Victoria) or Beerbaul (at Westheights and Victoria) for frozen patties, it's what Rainbow would have been selling, too, just heated up in a small oven.

Following up to my own post: I forgot to mention Ellison's, on Charles, across the street from the old transit terminal.

I confirmed today that A to Z has heated patties available for sale. A few blocks away from downtown, but quite walkable.

519 Patty Wagon (nice play on words!) had a stand at the blues festival. They offer delivery only; find them on either FB or Instagram.

[plam]

Following up to my own post: I forgot to mention Ellison's, on Charles, across the street from the old transit terminal.

I confirmed today that A to Z has heated patties available for sale. A few blocks away from downtown, but quite walkable.

519 Patty Wagon (nice play on words!) had a stand at the blues festival. They offer delivery only; find them on either FB or Instagram.

Yes, I saw 519 Patty Wagon too, but I had just eaten a patty from the place at the market 15 minutes earlier, so was kind of full on that. Will try A to Z later this week when I go get a haircut...