Matsuda Japanese Cuisine - Steeles Location — Restaurant in Toronto

First time being here - a friend suggested and we all went as a party of 9. I was certain that they wouldn't have any tables, since we requested to have a table at around 8pm for 8:30pm (over the phone). As soon as I called them, they were very quick to say that they didn't have any seats. However, when they heard we had 9 people, they paused, and then said "yeah yeah yeah" and told us a table would be ready at 8:30. Well, that was not the case. We arrived, and we waited almost 45 minutes for a table despite being told that the next table was ours. HOWEVER, I will give the benefit of the doubt that we barely gave advance notice - even though they should have been honest and told me that they did not have a table.

Important to note: I did make it known to them that I was upset at how they weren't honest to us about the table being ready, so they gave us all unlimited drinks. We had this lychee drink, not sure what it's called, but it was blue and you had to mix it to drink. It's pretty good, I suggest giving it a try. They also gave us 10% cash discount - not sure if this applies to everyone or if it was just because we had a poor experience getting the table.

I was quite impressed with the food. I ordered a lot of the pressed sushi and the torched sushi - lots of flavour and was made very well. The regular sushi quality, however, was mediocre and wasn't anything special. We ordered a few basic rolls (salmon avocado, spicy salmon), and the rolls were just huge - either a lot of rice or the piece of fish was triple the size as the fish. Sashimi was ice cold, and it felt like I was biting into a cake, so I wasn't very happy with that. The sirloin steak was very nice though - came with roasted garlic chips and the combination of flavours was excellent. Dessert was okay, they have a wide array of it. I was pleased that they had the ginger milk though!

Overall, the experience was a little bit rough at the start, but we were all satisfied with the experience after we left. Food came out at a slower pace, but some came faster than others. 12% service charge was included for us (not sure if this applies to smaller tables), so I guess this service charge also paid for this experience. Owner (or manager) helped collect the money, and was very organized and friendly since some of us paid cash and some of us paid using card. I would come back, maybe with a smaller...

Now open for Lunch again! This is THE best all-you-can-eat sushi joint in the city, both for the freshness of the fish and especially for the amazing selection of outstanding cooked food that accompanies the sushi offering.

This is the O.G. location of Matsuda, and my return is because covid has caused AYCE lunch to be a thing of the past at my former go-to Don Mills location, but it is back at the Middlefield & Steeles location!

Renovated, peaceful, and very cute, with attentive service and dynamite food, you really cant do better anywhere in the city. Lunchtime means a much better price, but no sashimi, and a smaller menu selection - it's not cheap, but it features outstanding food and great value for your dollar.

Standouts are freshly-made nigiri and handrolls, great maki, plus the must-have delicious yakitori-type skewers in beef, chicken, and pork, great teriyaki chicken, neon-green seaweed salad, killer tempura, fantastic fried chicken wings with a hint of 5-spice, and the star of the show "golden shrimp" which are big, fresh, bouncy shrimp battered and tossed in a kewpie mayo and tobiko glaze that are out of this world.

To be honest, I would happily pay for this all-you-can-eat lunch if there was no sushi at all, and all I could eat was skewers, wings, and unlimited golden shrimp. Yes, they are that good.

Add to that the wide array of ramen and udon noodle bowls, torched salmon and surf clam nigiri, crab rangoon, enoki beef rolls, takoyaki, tonkatsu, gyoza, and grab a fun crispy sushi pizza or japanese hash brown, plus their cute little shot-glass desserts, especially the lychee 'pudding', mango 'yogurt', fried banana and green tea ice cream, just for fun.

If you can't find a bunch of items that you love here, then you just don't like great food. I've been coming since 2010, and the food is great, with an easy order-on-your-phone-system, in a really cute atmosphere that is calm and peaceful, not crowded and hustle bustle.

Give it a shot, you...

TLDR: Service: 5/10 Food: 6/10 Value: 7/10 Overall Experience: 6/10

Matsuda has been my go-to AYCE sushi for many years (since they opened, really!). It was cheaper than others for a wider variety menu with relatively good service. I finally returned since the start of COVID and honestly, many things have changed. Located on the border of Markham and Scarborough, Matsuda is an AYCE Japanese restaurant with a large dining area, including two party rooms. Parking is also great and is in the same plaza as other notable businesses, like Coco and an Asian supermarket.

Firstly, service wasn't great anymore. It took very long for dishes to come out. We had to flag down an employee many times to see where our order was and by the time we ordered dessert, our previous savoury foods arrived.

The food itself is mediocre at best. I've been having a lot of takeout a la carte sushi throughout the pandemic, and I don't know if that's made my tastebuds snobby, but the fish isn't as fresh as it used to be and all the cooked foods aren't as tasty. I used to devour all the sashimi, but this time, I really ate more cooked foods than raw. The items also weren't consistent. We ordered a miso soup in the first round and it was steaming hot and very good. We ordered it again in the second round and it was cold (not even warm!). I strongly recommend the garlic shrimps and chawanmushi (steamed egg). They also have ginger milk on weekends, which is also great (but came out very, very slowly). One of their newer desserts is the B&B yogurt - which is brown sugar tapioca on a light coconut pudding and this is definitely one of my new favourites - along with the mango yogurt and lychee pudding.

Our party of 8 (we made a reservation) arrived at 6pm on a Sunday. Each adult is about $40, kids are $12 and seniors are $35. Not sure if it was because we were a large group, but tip was already included in the bill, so be sure to look at your...