Aki Donburi — Restaurant in Toronto

It's always a great sign when you walk into a restaurant and you see the people preparing your food cutting up fresh veg. And it definitely was fantastic! I ordered the Buta Donburi for take out. From ordering at the counter to putting it in my basket, it was incredibly fast! The whole bike ride home, I could smell it wafting up from my basket.

Opening it at home, I was quite happy to see they did not skimp on meat or toppings. It was a perfect amount of rice to toppings ratio. I actually felt full from a take-out meal in this price range. Quite uncommon these days. The included soup was good. Tasted like a typical delicious miso soup and had nori and green onions in it which some places neglect to add. The star of the show was for sure the pork. It had a hint of smokiness with it's sweet and salty flavour. Very similar to a bulgolgi sauce but adapted well to the slightly fattier meat like pork. It wasn't overwhelming or separated from the flavour of the pork. They worked perfectly together! I also liked they included a few slices of hot peppers that I could try and add and they do work well for the dish, I'm just not great with spice and had to cut out some of the seeds to cut back on the spiciness but still enjoy their added flavour. They even left a little note and delicious candy to end off the hearty meal!

It's great that they have a smaller menu. I feel that the smaller menu allows them to perfect a few dishes rather than offering a massive variety where they're only just okay at. It also makes selection of a dish easier for those who are feeling indecisive. My only suggestion would be to remove the kitchen prep table out of the customer area and make another usable seating area. With food this good, you need more places to eat it up! And I hope you guys enjoyed a Happy Thanksgiving too after all your...

If you’re looking for a breakdown of how good the Donburi is compared to other places… look to a different review lol. There’s actually very insightful reviews about this place, and it’s what got me to try this place.

My review is purely based on what I ordered and how my stay was. Got the classic Salmon Don and I wasn’t disappointed. I’m bias cause I love salmon and salmon sashimi, but I also know what good and bad salmon tastes like, and this one was good.

Honestly, as much as the salmon was good, the rice with the sauce, MMM. It was so good by itself too, but then paired with the salmon, my mouth waters thinking about it. I even ate all the wasabi and ginger too lol.

On top of all that, you can doodle on sticky notes and post it on their wall, which at first feels kinda gimicky, but then again, I drew something and posted it haha.

Staff were lovely, s/o the chefs. Anyway, I’d love to bring close friends to this spot if I’m ever in...

Disappointed Takeout Experience – Stale Chicken & Overpriced

We ordered two Chicken Teriyaki Don bowls for takeout from this restaurant close to their closing time. When we got home and opened our food, we were shocked to find that the chicken was stale, had a bad smell, and was clearly not fresh. It tasted off and was completely inedible. We also saw the cook microwaving the chicken before packing it — which already raised red flags.

Just because it’s close to closing doesn’t mean you serve reheated, low-quality food and still charge over $38 for it. That’s unacceptable. We were really looking forward to a good meal but ended up throwing it away.

This experience was disappointing and definitely not worth the price. Won’t be coming back unless quality improves significantly.

However, the service was...