Kibo Sushi House - Leslieville — Restaurant in Toronto

Really good sushi places are hard to find on the Eastside. This one is... okay. I liked it enough both times but it's nothing extraordinary.

Really weird tuna tartare--it came on lettuce, fine. But that lettuce was loaded in ceasar salad dressing. Raw tuna + caesar dressing at a Japanese restaurant? Very odd. I had to try it a few times to be sure that was what I was tasting because I've never heard of this before. Ended up trying to not let the tuna touch any of the dressing. Sushi pizza was severely lacking in sauce, and the thin sauce it did have was really sweet. It wasn't the eel sauce that we are used to. The scallops were fresh but the whole dish was sort of bland except for the overly sweet sauce.

Tempura veg and shrimp was good, batter and oil was fresh and perfectly cooked. Octopus was... balls. We thought it would be actual octopus, but it was what I assume was fish-like balls, with a tiny piece of octopus stuffed in the center. Agedashi tofu was just not good.

We tried a new roll for us instead of the usual green dragon or unagi variations, so we chose the Kamikaze roll. It wasn't spicy at all. It was well made, but lacked a lot of flavour. However, you do get A LOT for the price. So, that's a good thing.

They never seem to have beef tataki even though it's on the menu.

By the end of the meal, the roof of my mouth was cut up and sore, which has never happened before but perhaps that's just because I made the mistake of ordering so many fried options. Not the restaurant's fault, but I just found it strange.

Prices were good. Everything was wellmade and nicely presented but not particularly flavourful or really tasty. The space is comfy, clean, and well decorated and everyone at other tables seemed to be enjoying themselves a lot. Server was nice as well. It wasn't a bad experience at all, just the food wasn't as tasty as I had been hoping.

EDIT: September 2022. I added a star because our last visit here was very good. Much better. Everything was available and all of it was tasty, and great server too. Had tuna and beef tartare and so much better than before. Sashimi was...

This place seems to be universally acclaimed, but my experience was average at best.

We were craving sushi last night after months going without during COVID, so we bit the bullet and ordered takeout from Kibo Leslieville. It was a simple enough order, a bunch of spicy tuna rolls, one unagi roll, and some tuna/salmon sashimi. The rolls we requested with brown rice, which we were told would be accommodated.

Upon picking up the order and opening it at home we were bummed to see the rolls were white rice. I'm not sure whether I was charged for the brown (should have looked at the bill), but it's a pretty glaring omission. The rolls themselves tasted fine. Good, but nothing exceptional. The sashimi, on the other hand, was disappointing. It was cut incredibly thin, and did not taste particularly fresh or flavourful. It wasn't awful, by any stretch, but definitely underwhelming after the long wait.

They seemed pretty slammed with takeout orders so I'll chalk a lot up to that, and the fact that I'm sure COVID has disrupted supply chains. I'll give them another go, but as it were, it was a three...

[Attn: People who have Food Allergies] I was fan of this place until a recent visit where I witnessed the true side behind their friendly face. I am allergic to fish roe, and mentioned it before I make my order. The roll came with red roe on it, hence I asked for a new roll with no roe with repeated explanation of my allergy. After a sincere apology, I got the roll again, and it had faint and obvious roe residue on top and side of the roll, clear indicator of scraped off fish roe from the same roll. They wanted to reuse the allergen contaminated roll for some reason. Unacceptable. I could have suffocate from allergic reaction. I saw them using same cutting board, same roller, same knife and reuse allergen contaminated rice roll. I was sadden by the fact that I was treated as a mere source of money for them, my health issue didn't even worth a trace of new rice for a roll in their business mindset. I really liked their smiles and hospitality but since then, I just don't trust these guys anymore. If you are concerned with your...