Tokushima Sushi — Restaurant in Oshawa

This used to be my go to sushi place, but not anymore, after my most recent experience.

Our party of 4 + one child arrived at 8 pm for AYCE on Friday, August 30th. Under the impression that 2 hours was more than enough time, we were shocked to be greeted with annoyance and haste. Our server was miserable. We asked to be seated at one of the 5 booths available, instead of the table she squished us into, directly behind a full table (we couldn’t even pull out our chairs, and my son could reach the table in his high chair). This seemed to make her even more angry, and we paid for it for the remainder of our evening. She was annoyed that we took 5 minutes to look over the menu before ordering. First round of food was pretty good. Not the quality I’m used to, but not the worst. My spicy crab sushi had no spicy mayo on it, and it wasn’t spicy. The tepanyaki shrimp had almost no sauce, and was pretty overcooked. Tempura shrimp was slightly underdone. Nonetheless, we ordered a second round of food. This seemed to really aggravate our server. When she brought our food, we were told they were doing last call (at 8:45 pm) when they close at 10? So we were forced to order our ice cream right after our second round, so we had to eat it first, so it wouldn’t melt. The second round of food was much worse than the first. The teriyaki beef ribs were all fat and sauce, they were inedible. The shrimp fried rice was dry, cold, and flavourless. All of the rolls were dry and falling apart. The California rolls tasted like they’d been made in the morning, with how mushy they were. The shrimp chow mein had maybe 3 shrimps in it. Pretty much everything was bad/tasted old and rushed. On top of that, our server tried grabbing a dish we were still eating twice. The first time, I told her we weren’t done. The second time (not even 5 minutes later) my friend was mid dip when she snatched the plate, so she ate the last bite without the sauce. They rushed us to order the ice cream, only to stand there, brooding and watching us, while we held the ticket in clear view for them to come get. The green tea ice cream was so grainy, it tasted like it was full of sand. They started closing the blinds and tapping their feet (this is at 9:15 ish) so we left. For $40 a person, I expect better service, and better quality. We left with over half an hour to close, feeling like we were being chased out. We will be going to...

My default go to for AYCE sushi. I see a lot of reviews commenting on the wait staff, and to be fair, it is not the best. However, with that being said, I have yet to experience a sushi buffet or even a buffet with happy, pleasant wait staff. It's a thankless, impersonal job, and while sure, you are a paying customer, there is no one on one treatment, whoever is available is your waiter.

With that out of the way, the sushi has always been the shining point of this restaurant. From Missisauga to Oshawa, Tokushima has hands down been the freshest, and tastiest sushi. I tend to avoid the mono chains as a majority of their food is frozen for consistency, Tokushima on the other hand puts effort into the food. The sushi rice is flavourful, the right temperature, not cold. The fish is fresh and tasty, you do not get the large selection at the cost of fresher more in demand items.

The rolls are taught and delightful, however, they do tend to be on the larger side than what typical sushi should be. There is also a tendency to rely heavily on the spicy mayo in a large portion of their rolls, either you love it or hate it. I for one, hate it, it muddies and over-complicates the flavours.

The apps and other Asian dishes ranging from Thai, Viet, Korean and Chinese are par for the course. Breaded and deep fried items are always crispy, even when heavily sauced in a General Tso's sauce or Thai chilli. The Korean Kalbi (short ribs) are incredible, the right amount of meat to bone, and you can always order more! Dumplings and vegetable dishes are cooked to properly, however the dumplings could use an amp up as they tend to be run of the mill.

Tokushima is by no means a fine dining, or an experience to go to. It's an affordable AYCE sushi restaurant that hits the nail on food, but definitely lacks in customer service. If you had one wait staff per table or area, you'd get better service, but at the cost of expediency. (Think Red Lobster AYCE shrimp, its a solid 20-25 minutes...

Amazing Japanese food IF YOU PICK IT UP YOURSELF. Uber eats picked up my $58 dinner order (that’s just for my daughter and myself) almost an HOUR before they delivered it. It was FREEZING COLD and despite being what was once great Japanese food; after microwaving it was soggy, stringy and cardboard like. My daughter was dying to try Japanese cuisine so I called the restaurant and all they offer dine in is “all you can eat” for $35.99 each regardless of age etc. Pick up only make sense if you live close enough for the food not to cool (and it is winter ppl!).

Therefore I say DO NOT waste hard earned money on this restaurant. I called them for assistance in getting my almost $60 order to me and my daughter before it cooled and they told me if I didn’t have an order number they couldn’t help me (after charging my credit card and filling the order). As soon as I mentioned my concerns regarding the food arriving cold the lady suddenly didn’t understand anything I said in English. Uber Eats is their delivery service therefore so not order from them without expecting disappointment and regret.

Update: I have contacted both Uber the restaurant and the Uber driver… one would accept responsibility for my daughters and mine extremely upsetting dinner (which we can only afford once every four or five months).

Thanks for taking advantage of a single mom and her child reminding me that companies like Uber eats and their affiliates don’t care about quality or satisfaction at all.

Lastly the people that answer the phone at this restaurant are the absolute definition...