Kin Sushi - North York — Restaurant in Toronto

I came here as I was searching for a quick meal while in the area. It had 4.5 stars on google reviews so I thought it would be a decent/safe budget sushi joint.

First the good -- they are really efficient. They seem to be quite busy with pick up and delivery orders (lots of uber eats drivers coming and going to pick up orders). I was dining alone and didn't want a slow dinner, so this was perfect. I was in and out in well under an hour. Service is prompt and friendly. They make sure your tea cup is refilled. The space is clean and comfortable. Miso soup and salad were standard.

I got one of the sushi combos which comes with california rolls and 7 nigiri sushi. The fish quality was mediocre but the rice was not fresh and was a hard/sticky texture, similar to those bento nouveau sushi boxes at the grocery store (anyone who had a sushi craving in a town with no good sushi options who has caved and resorted to grocery store sushi will understand). It basically ruined the experience for me -- the rice is basically KEY for sushi and they couldn't get it right.

No idea why the other reviews are so good - either they were just having an off night when I went, or people don't know what sushi rice is suppose to be... (this part of Toronto doesn't have tons of great sushi, so maybe there is no...

I fell for the 4.5 rating on yelp (46 people there) while my husband and I were in the area, and suffice it to say, we decided we would never try new restaurants again unless we were certain it would be good. The rolls were NOT good; the rice was too soft, the ingredients were not fresh and they were generally slathered with way too much sauce. The salad consisted of a few leaves of withered spring mix and a gallop of -- you guessed it -- too much salad dressing. The miso was not TERRIBLE but one of them was mixed well and the other one was just... well, salt water... we were surprised it would be served that way and decided to allow them to change it... they brought the same soup back TWICE, with the same sad little mushroom floating around in it... one of the servers was rude and argued with us and the other one tried to make some incoherent excuse and finally brought us another one... We genuinely tried to enjoy the food after that, but it was so disappointing we decided to call it a night. If you haven't already been here and don't already think it's good (which would be a stretch, c'mon...), consider...

Ordered on Valentine's day 2021 around 6pm and arrived at 630. There were tons of people waiting for orders outside and inside (which that many people should not have been allowed inside at all). My food was not ready until 8:05 so I waited for an hour 1/2. I do commend the staff for holding their composure during all of this. Many people were being rude about the wait.

I do think however that a better system for doing online orders through their website could be implemented. I did not receive a text or call about my order and while I was there I asked 3 times about it and did not get an update.

All of that being said. Kin sushi is still one of my favorites in the area. They gave out free drinks to people still waiting which I thought was nice.

In the future I would try putting an hourly limit on the amount of orders you are able to accept through any and all platforms. This may mitigate future holdups and long waits.

Thank you for being so kind while I waited and having such great paitence with all of the...