Sushi House + Seats = Nao Sushi
Sushi House on Kingsway has been my ‘go to’ place for reliable take out sushi for a few years now. Recently, this once cramped restaurant reopened under the name Nao Sushi after major renovations to allow for a comfortable dine in experience.
Their menu have also been adjusted slightly to match the sit down format (for better or worse), but I was relieved to find my old favorites were still offered.
I ordered the ichi roll, pictured in the front row, lovingly named after Ichiro, with real crab and chopped scallop, futomaki roll, and cruncy roll. The angle of the picture doesn’t do a good job in conveying the monsterous size of their house roll in the back right.
Sushi lunch box. A good sampling of the fundamentals.
Nabeyaki Udon. More of a filler. No noodles manage to impress next to ramen.
One thing of note is that the tea served here is different than that of most other Japanese restaurants, being greener, stronger, and more fragrant. I’m not knowledgeable enough in teas to know what kind it is, but the only other restaurant I remember having it is Sushi Hachi. If anyone knows more about the differences, please do let me know.
Likelihood of returning: You betcha.
What? This place is good? I went to one place on that block – maybe it was this one – but it was awful, the service was nearing hopeless…and it was dirty! The waitress stepped on a pair of chopsticks then put them back on the table. Your photos look nice so I really hope this was a different place.
@Maktaaq. Very possibly you went to the one just 2 doors down. The name of the other place escapes me though. I only went in once a few months ago cause Sushi House was closed for renovations. The difference inside is night and day.
Its a very dense block for sushi come to think of it.
The other restaurant at the corner of that block is Dai Sushi. My friends love it, I’ve only been there twice and it seems mediocre to me. Service passable, food passable (apparently the beef/asparagus dish is really good) for those two times I was there. I think the bento boxes are quite cheap. I’ll have to try Nao Sushi some time.
Thanks so much for the update on their new facelift. I was so disappointed when I thought this restaurant went out of business. Their sushi was always fresh and offered good value.
Now I can enjoy a sit down meal if I feel lke it, as the place was a bit too small for my taste so I always ordered to go.
Also, I like the interesting choice of dishware that they use. Nice photos.
Nao Sushi is horrible – food and service. Their quality of Sushi isn’t as good when compared to their early days as Sushi House. Even recently, before they had to close Sushi House for renovations, their quality of their sushi has gone down the drain. The problem is their ingredients. Cheap, generic, and nothing special – way too much cheap fillers like salad dressing to hide their fake crab meat.
Service 2/10
Food 3/10
Thanks for writing such great reviews. I love it, so I have linked your site to mine. Hope you don’t mind. =)
Finally got a chance to try Nao Sushi, used to regularly take-out from Sushi House. I was shocked to note that there is so much filler rice in the rolls offered by Nao Sushi. Is it because they are past the grand opening stage? Or did I just go there at a bad time. The rolls I ordered had too little fiiling and far too much rice. I wasn’t impressed and will never return here. RIP sushi house, they had good sushi.
Also, I was chatting to the servers at Nao Sushi and noticed their signature lunch dish Kamameshi which is Japanese steamed rice with toppings on top. She told me that it took 25 minutes for it to cook… I was curious how they expected people eating there for lunch to just wait 25 minutes for their meal to be cooked.
This is just a sample of the thought that went behind the new Nao Sushi. Or should I say thoughtless.
Also, you can sort of tell that they really pay their employees poorly as most do not give a crap. The service is so bad even by Asian restaurant standards.