BLOG -- Doors Open Toronto (May 26 - May 27, 2012)

Note: I updated my "EXPOSURES (FOOD PLACES) -- Don Don Izakaya, Sushi Garden, Sushi Rock" blog with a bit more detail of Sushi Garden and Sushi Rock. They're both standard quality sushi places, so they're safe (but not spectacular). Okay, now to this week's actual blog.


This is the weekend of Anime North (a large fan-run Anime Convention in Ontario). The last time I went was two years ago. It was a fun experience because I went with friends, though I found some of the panels lacking in substance (when I'm not shopping or checking out an event, I'm attending panels). Last year I didn't go, 'cuz I didn't have enough money (was trying to save up to pay back student loans). I also had a hand injury and didn't want to go anywhere while it was still healing. This year, I decided not to go to Anime North and to check out Doors Open Toronto instead.

Doors Open Toronto is this event where participating buildings (historical or modern) open their doors to the public, either giving tours of the building's history or letting people explore on their own. I went with my sister and her fiance on Saturday, and it was pretty neat, though a bit tiresome at times. We did a lot of walking between a few buildings. 

Two days before, my sister and I quickly went through the list of participating buildings, marking down which ones to hit. Then we devised a route to minimize back-tracking. Doors Open only runs until 5 PM for each day, and there are over 100 participating buildings all over Toronto, so... yeah. I went mainly to check out the buildings' architecture.

BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA

Location: 506 Bloor Street West (close to Bathurst & Bloor) Google Map

Bloor Hot Docs Cinema still plays stuff with film, though they also play stuff in other formats. The theatre room is pretty huge and I was surprised to see balcony seats. Balcony seats for a movie theatre? I've never seen that before. When we explored the balcony area, we saw some seats that were designed for two people. That's really cool! Then we attended the tour of the projection booth room and that was really interesting.

TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX

Location: 350 King Street West (close to King & John) Google Map

This visit was brief as we were directed to the 4th floor to check out the Film Reference Library. As soon as we got out of the elevator, we saw a huge line-up for the tour. The wait would have been about 20-ish minutes, so we left.

DESIGN EXCHANGE

Location: 234 Bay Street (close to Bay & Wellington) Google Map

So I didn't know, but the Design Exchange building used to be a stock exchange building. I only know Design Exchange as a place to showcase design-related competitions -- now I know that it shows more than just that.

There was a guided tour, but we decided to explore ourselves. I loved the bare-ness of this place (the sound of echoing footsteps is kinda relaxing for me for some reason). At one of the walls, there was a projector showing slides of how crazy busy this floor used to be, with papers littered all over the floor, tons of people in suits on the phones and just interacting with each other. Being in this room really felt like being in the past.

HOTEL VICTORIA

Location: 56 Yonge Street (close to Yonge & Wellington) Google Map

I was hoping to explore the architecture. I'm kinda of the opinion that swanky hotels would have swanky designs. I have no idea if Hotel Victoria is a swanky hotel, but I wanted to see. But when we walked in, we saw many small groups spread out with a spokesperson, each one talking a bit about the history of Hotel Victoria. One of the groups was blocking the hallway into the hotel. We figured that the lobby was all we were going to see and left.

ONE KING STREET WEST HOTEL & RESIDENCE

Location: 1 King Street West (on Yonge & King) Google Map

This is one swanky place! I took pictures of the lobby, but the actual Doors Open bit is downstairs, in the vault and safety deposit rooms. This building used to be a bank.

The vault door and bars were still intact and it was so cool to see up close. I took a close look at the vault door and saw that it was last "checked" in 2000. What were they checking for? The safety deposit box room was really small and there was a neat display consisting of tons of bankbooks, each one showing a year and a money-related fact. You could say it was the history of currency.

Then we went up to the 12th floor to the Chairman's Boardroom. It was neat and fun. I really enjoyed exploring what I could of this place. Here are some more pics:

Me staring intently at the vault door.

The vault room got turned into some meeting room. Neat!!

One of the views from the Chairman's Boardroom. This view is no good.

I thought this was a wall.

Nope. It's a door!

Looks like I found some treasure, hehe (they're cleaning supplies).

This was a really fun and neat experience. Now I'm not sure which I'll want to attend next year: Anime North or Doors Open Toronto. We didn't get to check out every building on our list, and I know there were other buildings, too. *sigh* haha.

Thanks for reading! As always, feel free to comment if you like :)

BLOG -- My Movie-watching History (in Theatres) Part 2 [2000-2003]

So... this blog is part 2 of the movies I've watched in theatres. Not as wide of a span as part 1, but I watched a lot more movies during that time (I don't remember much of the plots, though).

SPOILER ALERT WARNING!!

Since I will be mentioning a good number of movies in this blog, some of them will contain spoilers. Any movie that will contain a spoiler will be marked.

2000

MOVIE: Man on the Moon [SPOILER]

DATE: January 5, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): ***

COMMENTS: I remember not liking this movie much. I think it’s because of the scene where Jim Carrey is making out with two naked ladies (probably prostitutes). I just lost respect for the character when I saw that. But it’s a movie that stays in my head. Every now and then, many years later, I still think back to this.

I also found the movie a bit sad –- that the character tries to show parts of his real self, but people reject it and want his onstage persona instead. I’m never going to look at this movie as positively as my sister does.

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MOVIE: The Hurricane

DATE: February 11, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): ***

COMMENTS: It was a good movie. Kind of psychological. And it was neat that it was based on a true story. However… I don’t remember much about it. I only watched it because somebody else wanted to watch it.

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MOVIE: Being John Malkovich [SPOILER]

DATE: March 3, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): ***

COMMENTS: I thought this was very unique. I don’t even remember why I wanted to watch it, but I did. It wasn’t really what I was expecting… in all honesty, it was very weird. And I didn’t like that a couple (boyfriend and girlfriend) were trying to get the same woman, without breaking up with each other first. I'm just not a fan of that kind of thinking. And I think there was just too much sex. Blah blah… it was cool… but… I don’t think I would ever want to see it again.

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MOVIE: Mission to Mars

DATE: March 15, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): **

COMMENTS: It was not what I was expecting at all. The trailers advertised a movie with a lot of mystery and finding a really cool secret or revelation. The secret or revelation wasn’t so fantastic in the end. Got me all hyped up for nothing.

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MOVIE: Dinosaur

DATE: June 22, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): ***

COMMENTS: I honestly don’t remember this movie at all. I remember computer animation… and a dinosaur trying to protect something? I do remember that I had no negative thoughts about it.

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MOVIE: Chicken Run [x2]

DATE: June 26, 2000

DATE: October 27, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): ****

COMMENTS: I really enjoyed this movie. I’m a sucker for movies where the character has an impossible dream and tries very hard to achieve it. I don’t remember if there was romance in the movie. I think the computer animation work was great.

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MOVIE: X-Men [x2]

DATE: July 18, 2000

DATE: August 2, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): ****

COMMENTS: This was a very enjoyable movie, but only because Rogue was in it. Rogue is my favourite X-Man. I just enjoyed seeing all the mutant powers, and I liked the chemistry between Rogue and Wolverine. I thought their interactions were sweet. I still remember Wolverine’s line when Cyclops wasn’t sure if he was indeed Wolverine.

Wolverine: Hey, hey. It's me.

Cyclops: Prove it.
Wolverine: You're a dick.

Cyclops: Okay.

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MOVIE: Scary Movie

DATE: July 27, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): ****

COMMENTS: This was super funny and enjoyable. Of course, since it was for teens, there were perverted bits – and that’s actually what I remember most from this movie instead of the horror parodies.

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MOVIE: Loser

DATE: August 3, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): ***

COMMENTS: This really isn’t my kind of movie (I watched this with a bunch of friends and acquaintances). It’s about a guy who’s trying to be less nerdy and more outgoing (I think nerds are cool). I don’t remember much about this movie, except for one particular scene. I was sitting next to a girl I don’t know (somebody’s friend), and she was telling me (while the movie was playing) that she loved the Ashton Kutcher lookalike in the movie. I made a comment about how I don’t really think about that (had no care for celebrities back then). Then we see a shot of the guy’s butt and she said, “What do you think about that?” and I covered my face and pretended I was embarrassed to see that. If she didn’t make any kind of comment, I would have been able to see that scene with no reaction – because I just don’t care about butt shots.

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MOVIE: Pokemon: The Movie 2000

DATE: September 1, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): ****

COMMENTS: I don’t remember much about this movie, but I remember enjoying it. This is the movie with the legendary pokemon: Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno.

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MOVIE: After Life [x2]

DATE: September 15, 2000

DATE: September 22, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): ****

COMMENTS: This was the first movie I’ve ever watched in theatres with subtitles. It was a slow-paced Japanese movie – couldn’t fool myself on that at all. But the concept was really cool and I liked the issues addressed. If you could take one memory with you to the beyond, what would it be? I really enjoyed it that I had to get my sister and close friends to watch it as well.

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MOVIE: Digimon: The Movie

DATE: October 6, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): ****

COMMENTS: I don’t remember much about this movie, but I remember enjoying it a lot. And that’s saying a lot, since I didn’t watch Digimon and know next to nothing about the characters. I thought it was better than Pokemon (*shh!*)

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MOVIE: The Ladies Man

DATE: October 13, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): ***

COMMENTS: This was a very… guy movie, haha. This was a guy friend's choice for movie-watching and I was invited last minute. I was glad to get the invite, but the movie – man, soooooooo not the kind of movie I would watch. Naked ladies everywhere! Or at least, that was my impression of the movie. Ladies flocking after one guy… ugh! Give me a break!

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MOVIE: Legend of the Drunken Master (Drunken Master II) [x2] [SPOILER]

DATE: October 27, 2000

DATE: January 2, 2001

RATING (OUT OF 5): ****

COMMENTS: It was funny. I don’t remember much else about the movie, but I remember a guy friend commenting that he generally doesn’t like old Jackie Chan movies because he almost never gets the last say. And that happened in this movie. He was too bandaged up to move or speak.

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MOVIE: Meet the Parents [x2]

DATE: November 4, 2000

DATE: December 29, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): *****

COMMENTS: This was a really awesome, hilarious movie. I also thought it was really sweet, how even though so many horrible, unfortunate events happened and the main guy caused it, the girl still loved him very much. I could hear her sincerity and that was touching. Very enjoyable.

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MOVIE: Dancer in the Dark

DATE: November 23, 2000

RATING (OUT OF 5): ***

COMMENTS: I watched this movie because Bjork was in it and a good friend recommended I see it. I really valued her friendship at the time (I still do), so I wanted to experience what she experienced. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to like the movie, something about it made me very… nauseous. I blame it on the dull, dreary colour palette, but I can’t be sure if that is the real reason. I even bought the DVD as a way of supporting the movie, and I tried watching it. I couldn’t last 20 minutes. The subject matter was really dark and sad. I enjoyed one of the songs from that movie, though.

2001

MOVIE: Boys Life 3

DATE: February 1, 2001

RATING (OUT OF 5): ***

COMMENTS: This was the first movie I’ve ever watched that addressed homosexuality. It was a collection of short stories and some of them were neat, while others were slightly boring.

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MOVIE: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [SPOILER]

DATE: March 14, 2001

RATING (OUT OF 5): *****

COMMENTS: I greatly enjoyed this movie. I remember that I could have watched something else (Hannibal maybe?), since I was meeting up with friends, but I didn’t want to watch the movie they wanted to watch, so we decided to just watch different movies and meet up afterwards. I liked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon a lot. But I found it really sad as well. And thought-provoking. I still remember what one character says:

“You know what real poison is? It’s realizing that the one you’ve taught has surpassed you.”

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MOVIE: Pokemon 3: The Movie

DATE: April 6, 2001

RATING (OUT OF 5): ***

COMMENTS: Unfortunately, I remember nothing about this movie. It has something to do with Unowns (from reading Wikipedia). I do remember that I have no complaints, though. And we got some Pokemon cards from this viewing.

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MOVIE: Memento [SPOILER]

DATE: April 12, 2001

RATING (OUT OF 5): ****

COMMENTS: This was a fantastic movie. I loved the plot, I loved the whole idea. But I found it a little too sad and dark at times. Especially at the end. I still remember one scene from this: the woman using the main character's condition to alter his perceptions. It appalled me. I’ve always had the plan to buy the DVD, but when I think about watching it a second time, to see the sad, dark bits again… I don’t know if I could.

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MOVIE: Rush Hour II

DATE: August 10, 2001

RATING (OUT OF 5): ***

COMMENTS: I don’t remember much about this movie. It was funny, and I liked some of the action scenes. The bloopers at the end were hilarious. I still remember Chris Rock saying after some guy fell off a ledge: “Well, that guy’s not going to be in Rush Hour 3.”

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MOVIE: Monsters Inc.

DATE: December 5, 2001

RATING (OUT OF 5): ****

COMMENTS: I really enjoyed this movie a lot. I thought it was really cute, funny, and touching. Got nothing else to say about it, because I don’t remember much about it.

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MOVIE: Amelie

DATE: December 17, 2001

RATING (OUT OF 5): ****

COMMENTS: I had to watch this for OAC French and I really enjoyed it. I thought the main girl was so clever and lovable. I really liked that she kept trying to make people around her happy.

2002

MOVIE: Ice Age

DATE: March 24, 2002

RATING (OUT OF 5): ****

COMMENTS: I remember enjoying this very much. I don’t remember what happens, but I remember enjoying it. And crying a little.

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MOVIE: Lilo & Stitch [SPOILER]

DATE: June 25, 2002

RATING (OUT OF 5): ****

COMMENTS: I really liked this movie. The animation is very smooth, and the character interactions were very cute. The issue of a broken family really got to me – how Lilo saw Stitch as part of her family – how Stitch was trying to find a family to belong to. When Stitch spoke about the meaning of family at the end, I cried. A LOT. In the theatre. I couldn’t stop crying.

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MOVIE: Men in Black II [SPOILER]

DATE: August 6, 2002

RATING (OUT OF 5): ***

COMMENTS: I don’t remember much about this movie. It was not as good as the first one. The only thing I remember from the movie was that the main girl had the “power” to make it rain whenever she felt sad. I still remember the scene when she had to leave the planet, and she wasn’t crying. But then it started raining. That was quite touching.

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MOVIE: Pokemon 4Ever

DATE: October 12, 2002

RATING (OUT OF 5): *

COMMENTS: I almost never like movies with time travel in it. They usually involve some kind of time-traveling plot hole. This one was no exception.

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MOVIE: Adaptation

DATE: December 23, 2002

RATING (OUT OF 5): *****

COMMENTS: This is one of my favourite movies. I thought the script was amazing. The ideas, the characters – everything was awesome. I was really happy that my favourite high school English teacher mentioned this movie in class – about how it looks at “old writing” and “new writing”. I would never have known about this movie's existence otherwise. Lots of memorable, touching quotes – and such honesty. I love it.

2003

MOVIE: Pirates of the Caribbean [x2.5] [SPOILER]

DATE: August 4, 2003

DATE: August 14, 2003 *day of the huge blackout*

DATE: August 20, 2003

RATING (OUT OF 5): *****

COMMENTS: This was a spectacular movie. I was wondering why I had three movie stubs, since I don’t remember watching it that many times. Then I remembered: the huge blackout! The second time I watched this, I was watching it with a friend. We were at the scene when Elizabeth was being chased by the pirates in the big mansion place. She ran to the door. As soon as she opened it – BAM! Everything went black. It took about over an hour to walk home.

About the movie, it was wonderful. Lovely acting. Beautiful script. I greatly enjoyed it. The music was very good, too.

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MOVIE: The Magdalene Sisters

DATE: September 23, 2003

RATING (OUT OF 5): ***

COMMENTS: The movie was quite sad and dreary. I only watched it because the NOW magazine highly recommended it.  I think I could have passed this movie over and not given any thought to it. I do remember snippets from the movie, but still… I don't know if I'm happy about remembering them.

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MOVIE: Love That Boy

DATE: December 4, 2003

RATING (OUT OF 5): *****

COMMENTS: I loved this movie. It's really straightforward and light. Though I am a little biased to it. I have memories of dating a much younger guy, and at the time, I remembered it fondly. Now, I don’t think of that guy when I think of Love That Boy (which is a good thing). I just think of young love, and how I really enjoyed the lightness but seriousness of the movie. It also helps that the main guy character is really cute and the main girl character slightly reminds me of myself (in that she’s weird).

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That's it for this blog. Thanks for reading! If you have any comments about anything (even if you greatly disagree with anything I've said, or if this made you think about the movies you've watched and want to share), feel free to comment! :)

EXPOSURES (FOOD PLACES) -- Don Don Izakaya, Sushi Garden, Sushi Rock

So I've checked out a few new places during these past two weeks. Yesterday I pretty much just treated myself as I went clothes-shopping and have been indulging myself a bit to alleviate the intensity of work (good, fun work, though!). Things will probably start winding down soon.

I would have finished writing this sooner, but I was distracted by my sister's fiance trying out The Walking Dead game for the PSN. From what I saw, it's really cool and engaging.

DON DON IZAKAYA

Location: 130 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario (close to Bay & Dundas) Google Map

Contact #: 416-492-5292
Website: Click!

Type(s) of Cuisine: Japanese

Specialty (if any): Don't think so

Price Range (for a main dish): Low-Mid --$6-$13 (closer to $20 if you want to fill yourself)

Restaurant Size: Mid

Recommend? Yes!

Brief Impression

This place is all about the atmosphere. Going inside, everybody says "Welcome!" in Japanese. It's neat, clean, and the servers are very attentive -- at least when I went. Japanese pop music was playing in the background, and I was happy to have recognized a good amount of the tracks. I went inside around 3:50 PM, 10 minutes before the transition to Dinner Time. The place was pretty empty.

Since I got there before Dinner Time, I got to see the Lunch menu -- then I got see the Dinner menu (because I wasn't full enough and wanted to eat some more). The Lunch menu is just a paper printout list of the dishes available, with no descriptions or anything. The Dinner menu is this really nice, colourful, laminated booklet with photos and descriptions of each dish (exactly how it looks like on the website) -- I recommend going for Dinner (after 4PM). The Lunch menu offers some sushi, though.

The food was pretty good -- some hits, some not that on the mark (for me). I didn't get to try everything I wanted, and will definitely go back to try them.

When I was done, almost nobody said "Goodbye" (only two of them), which I found a little rude... one because it still wasn't very busy, so they could have said it, and two, because they said it to other customers who left. Was it because I was by myself? o.O

What I Ate / Drank...
Mango-Hi -- Yummy!
Crispy Fried Shrimp -- Uhh, I wasn't expecting it to be whole shrimps fried. I ordered this during Lunch, when the menu had no descriptions or photos. I wouldn't have ordered this if I knew (don't like getting my fingers dirty).
Smokey Hay Salmon Sashimi -- This is pretty good, though I may just get regular sashimi next time.
Avocado and Shrimp with Tarragon Sauce -- Absolutely loved this! I thought it was tangy and a little clashy at first, but it's great. That sauce went well with everything on that plate. It has a really fresh taste.
Tokyo Style Hot Dog (Sausage + Teriyaki Sauce) -- This would be okay if I didn't have to eat the whole dish. It was a bit too much -- a little heavy.
Chocolate Cake -- I thought it would be soft, but it's a pretty dense cake. I love the chocolate sauce, though.

Avocado and Shrimp with Tarragon Sauce -- Mmmmmm!!

SUSHI GARDEN

Location: 30 Eglinton Avenue West, Toronto, Ontario (close to Yonge & Eglinton) Google Map

Contact #:  (416) 322-2018
Website: Click!

Type(s) of Cuisine: Japanese

Specialty (if any): Sushi

Price Range (for a main dish): Low-Mid -- ($11-$14 for lunch sets; California Rolls: $4.50; Dynamite Rolls [4 pieces]: $4.99; Salmon Sashimi [5 pieces]: $6.00)

Restaurant Size: Small

Recommend? Standard Quality

Brief Impression

The place doesn't look all that spectacular, but the food was okay (tastes pretty standard, so I wouldn't recommend against this place). The service was a little slow, though. I went for the Lunch Buffet ($12 per person), and we waited for about 20 minutes for our first plate. Didn't have enough time to wait for all our orders before going back to work (I really wanted to try the pumpkin tempura). I think I'm going to have to go back and "re-evaluate". Maybe the quality wasn't as good because we had buffet?

What I Ate / Drank... Chicken Teriyaki -- Standard
California Rolls -- Standard
Dynamite Rolls -- Standard -- I was glad I could eat it all in one bite
Grilled Eggplant -- It was good. I usually hate eggplant, but I could eat this.
Spicy Salmon Roll (1 piece to try) -- Spicy! I can't take spicy stuff well.

Plate of our food. Looks pretty standard.

EDIT

So I went back to Sushi Garden and ordered salmon sashimi, california rolls, and dynamite rolls. The wait was about 20 minutes, but when my order came, everything came at once. Their salmon sashimi was good. California rolls and dynamite rolls were still standard. The dynamite rolls, being 4 pieces, were larger and wider than the buffet ones (ugh!). I'm changing my recommendation from "Small yes" to "standard quality". There are really too many sushi places -- don't really want to recommend any that just because it meets the bar and nothing else.

SUSHI ROCK

Location: 2359 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario (close to Eglinton & Broadway) Google Map

Contact #: 416-483-3888
Website: Click!

Type(s) of Cuisine: Japanese

Specialty (if any): Sushi

Price Range (for a main dish): Mid -- ($11-$16 for lunch sets; California Rolls: $4.99; Dynamic Rolls: $7.50; Salmon Sashimi Appetizer [6 pieces]: $8.49)

Restaurant Size: Small

Recommend? Standard Quality

Brief Impression

This place, like Sushi Garden, seems pretty standard. The nice thing here is that the service was much faster. The menu, though, was a mess! The rolls were split into different categories -- it took me a while to see if they even had Dynamite rolls listed (which are called Dynamic rolls for some reason). I only ordered two dishes, one delicious and one not-the-best, so I can't really say if the food is consistently good or not-the-best. I heard that the food was good, so I'll have to go back and "re-evaluate". The soy sauce, even though it's supposed to be light soy sauce, was too salty!

What I Ate / Drank...
Salmon Sashimi Appetizer -- This was delicious (salmon sashimi is always delicious)
Dynamic Roll -- This wasn't cut very nicely. The last piece just had the shrimp tail. It was a little too large, too.

Mmm... salmon sashimi.

EDIT

I went back to Sushi Rock and ordered california rolls and salmon sushi pizza. The salmon sushi pizza was nice and a bit crunchy. The california rolls were standard. I'm changing my recommendation from "Unsure" to "Standard quality".


Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or want to know more about anything, feel free! :)