ATO Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond Hill

Came here today to try out their $38 lunch omakase (special until end of July)! The price was super attractive and saw so many posts about it so decided to try it out. It was quite full today so I recommend you make a reservation, especially if you want to sit at the bar table. We were seated at the regular table. When you sit at the regular table, all the sushi is served together vs. One by one at the bar table. All the seatings are 1 hr so it is quite quick.

One of us opted for the sashimi option, the rest of us got the regular omakase. For the sashimi option, it is additional $20 for 5 pieces of sashimi. I would've expected better/different sashimi for $20 - there was 1 scallop, 1 salmon, 1 toro, 1 fish skin, and 1 not sure. Salmon - very basic, fish skin piece - super chewy. The server didn't tell us what the sashimi was for this.

The sushi came after, the server went over very quickly what the fish was. She suggested we eat the hand roll first as the seaweed would be soggy after... but it was soggy when we ate it first and you can see the seaweed was already soggy in the photo. I think it's because everyone is served together in the seating so by the time we got ours, it was soggy. The sushi was good quality for the price, again there was salmon. I saw some people post they had uni, ikura, extra piece, no salmon etc. but not today, understandable since it was omakase, but it feels the value is not the same. We only have 1 scallop and rest was all fish, not much variety in type. Variety and value should be similar. We also requested extra wasabi, the server walked around a few times and apparently had forgotten until we asked again.

I'd say the omakase sushi is just the right about if you want to be just full, but I'd have room for the sashimi as well. $38 is a fair price, but would be even better if it included the sashimi. With tax and tips it is around $50/person.

Overall, probably a one time...

The lunchtime nigiri pieces were quite standard, and include: Shima aji (striped jack) Hotate (scallop) Kinmedai (golden eye snapper) Sake (salmon) Akami (lean bluefin tuna) Chutoro (medium fatty bluefin tuna) Otoro (fatty bluefin tuna) Anago (sea eel)

I thought the quality of the fish was fine for this price, but the rice ruined it a bit for me. It was so flavourless with barely any texture or firmness or vinegar taste, and it also just came out of a rice cooker. That made the whole nigiri taste kind of bland, and because of this, I felt like it either needed more wasabi or soy sauce to make up for the lack of taste. Idk if things have changed, but I thought the rice was decent enough when I was ordering chirashi from them 4 years ago.

My favourite piece in the meal was surprisingly the salmon nigiri, and that was because the truffle on top added flavour to the piece. I would also say it’s quite interesting and contemporary. I heard Shunoko does similar concepts with their nigiri; maybe I’ll try that. Dessert was taro ice cream, and it’s actually better than how it looks.

Service was alright but it felt a bit like something typical of traditional Chinese restaurant culture sometimes with the waitress being a bit loud with the clashing of tableware. I don’t really care, but just saying lol. Seating time is quite quick too. I didn’t have a reservation and just randomly popped in around 2PM and got in within 5 minutes of waiting. The restaurant itself had many dining rooms, and there was only one other family in my room. I also found it funny that they put a flatscreen TV in the room with random scenic Japanese tourist spots; it reminded me of being at the dentist...

Horrible system. Went to Bluefin show buffet for $440 for 2 people at 12/20 with RESERVATION!! it was so crowded , AND NO SEAT? for people who made reservation ? , people running to the appetizers like a piglets 😂 WAY TOO MUCH OVER BOOKED and people bumping each other , my soy sauce was splashing because of people who just tried to walk through the narrow hallway, GOT FOOD POISONING , threw up 3 times having diarrhea also. Want to sue the restaurant

if you wanna eat food while standing ? no I mean you have to eat while standing that’s the restaurant rule LMAO 🤣

$220 for each person? seriously ? for not even able to sit and have to watch people giving bad eyes to each other just because they wanted to walk in a narrow hallway?

buffet? , but in a super small restaurant with 60 people inside there ? please say this is a JOKE

really destroyed our christmas mood .

UNLIMITED drinks alcohol? makes me laugh .. yeah if you wanna line up for 30min and wait until people finished their sips and keep on ordering other drinks with no manners like one by one buffet ? then go ahead OH BUT REMEMBER 😱 You get small amount less than half in your plastic cup ( is it a picnic? )

DRINKS? yeah they give you only 2 types of mini can soda LMAO 🤣🤣🤣

seem like they are proud with Japanese chefs and quality but all I heard was Chinese and bad quality.

They gave me 10% off coupon for next time I see why and will never go again just go to...