Mizu Omakase Sushi — Restaurant in Toronto

A Chinese Omakase, run-before-you-walk restaurant:

While the quality of good is slightly better than that of other Omakase restaurants around the GTA, the overall customer service ranks Mizu lower than its competitors.

We begin our dining experience being seated at our assigned spots. The seating is a little tight, but I will not fault the restaurant for their intent to maximise space and capacity. The ambience is loud, but this is largely due to the almost-all Chinese customer base that was there at the time of our seating. Chinese people are generally loud, myself included, but in an environment such as an Omakase, there should be a little bit more respect to the restaurant. Again, not entirely the restaurant's fault, but they do play a part in how they want to set the tone of the restaurant for customers.

My partner and I quickly noticed that all the staff was also Chinese. And while they were not loud like their guests, this was the first real red flag. Of course, I will not judge a book by it's cover. Perhaps, the staff are all trilingual and could speak Japanese if a Japanese customer were to dine at their restaurant, but they all spoke Cantonese/Mandarin, which suggests an upcoming unauthentic experience.

The night starts off reasonable, but not the best. The beginning appetizers were better than others, but everything went down hill as soon as the first piece of nigiri began. My partner and I I had a similar experience with other negative reviews about Mizu:

Bits of rice falling off on the serving plate/stuck on the chef's fingers; nigiri is casually slopped on the rice, with no mastery of the craft; the ratio of rice/fish was a little off for most pieces; our chef would introduce the nigiri pieces by their English name and use phrases like "from Japan". Yes, we expect them to be from Japan, but which region? It was evident that our specific chef was not an expert at this craft.

The staff would joke with each other in front of the customer, showing that their attention is not 100% dedicated to the customer and showing a lack of professionalism -- something true of Chinese culture but certainly not in Japanese culture. The overall delicate nature of Japan is lost at Mizu, and you can definitely feel that it is just another Chinese-owned restaurant taking advantage of the Omakase-craze that has sparked about in the GTA.

The restaurant needs to understand that the customer can see everything you do. Everything. All the little things you do not do to prepare your staff and restaurant to give customers the best possible experience, we notice. All the subtle elements of an Omakase that customers expect but are sadly missing, we notice. It is not just about the food. It is about the entire customer experience: How you set the tone of your restaurant, how your chef and wait staff engages with each guest. Every little movement is seen and analyzed at an Omakase. You are literally in front of the customer, and there is no escape. As such, the small imperfections and lack of mastery in your craft will add up nigiri piece after nigiri piece. Your menu serves 10 nigiri pieces. Your chefs are put to the test 10 times.

Handroll was decent. Tamago a disaster. Dessert, perhaps another unprofessional choice. Again, similar to other negative reviews, it was a heavily sake-infused ice cream, which can be a deterrent for those who do not drink. However, in an Omakase, we entrust the restaurant to serve whatever they decide to offer, so I will not fault them to their choice, as I have made the choice to trust them. From a business standpoint, it just may not be the best option -- that's all.

I hope for the best for Mizu. They are a local restaurant and perhaps they will stay afloat due to the high demand of Omakase in Toronto, poor quality or otherwise. If you choose to dine here, beware that you will get a less-than-authentic Japanese experience and expect lots of Chinese-cultured dining elements to replace the subtle arts and mastery...

It’s been a while since I visited Chef Kevin , and he never disappoints us with innovative ways to improve every single items on the menu ! (I promise I’ll take better and timely photos , it’s always difficult to keep up with the tempo of the meal and remembering to capture a digital copy of what I eat )

Nevertheless, here are some of the highlights from the evening :

1. The seasonal Japanese whelk must-try ! It’s like a mini version of conch a unique taste and texture. The flavor is mildly sweet with a hint of brininess. The texture is firm and slightly chewy, truly refreshing. Always a fan of shellfish !

2. Their signature Tamago I wish they can open a boutique shop featuring different tamago dishes ! I’ve had it for several years , and I’m quite surprised every time it gives me a complete new palete experience.Unlike the generic tamago they have replaced the mirin with sweet shrimps and scallops , which adds more depth to its flavour profile. I think it also has a hint of sake in it , the texture is to die for! Smooth and cool that melts in your mouth like chocolate!

3. • udon appetizer* it’s not something fancy , but the texture is cooked to 100% perfection , the chew gives you a bouncy mouthful feel . Although the dashi broth is slightly too savoury for my preference . I quite enjoyed this simple delicacy.

4. Japanese sweet grape tomato with mozuku seaweed

greenhouse planted tomatoes from Shizuoka , Japan that guarantees a consistent sweetness for every batch of harvest using sugar refractometer

-below are delicate strands of mozuku seaweed, lightly marinated in a tangy rice vinegar dressing. A blend of sweetness and umami, garnished with a sprinkle of feuilles d'or for aesthetics

5. Ice Wine Sherbet -The last time I tried a wine flavored cold dessert was a store bought one by Dassai . The taste wasn’t what I expected, I’m guessing they used leftover Koji to make additional byproducts (which I don’t know how to appreciate , it wasn’t a pleasant taste ) . So in comparison , this wine sherbet from Mizu made with oat milk was so good that I think it beats the soy Icecream from Zen right by next door. The hint of alcohol really brings out the flavour of oat milk.

There are many more hits and a few miss on the menu , but I ain’t complaining for the price tag along with the service and atmosphere it offers. Nowadays, you can easily find yourself paying $20 for something that’s overcooked without service or anything extra , so I’m quite satisfied with the quality of food and continuous creativity from the Chef at Mizu. Thanks for serving good food...

Honest review: for $85 per person, it was quite a disappointing omakase experience. Although the quality of the fish that they used were actually decent fresh fish, the service and presentation really made this dine in experience disappointing. There were a few reasons:

3 out of 11 nigiri pieces were torched and I got to say these pieces were over torched. I barely taste and admire the actual fish taste. Unfortunately, all I could taste was the torched taste. The toro handroll had very little rice. All I could taste was the seaweed. Normally, the toro would be marinated, but unfortunately in this piece, it was quite bland. My fiancé tamago had a piece of dust on it. The ice wine ice cream was served basically melted. The chef knew that I was taking pictures of every individual pieces, and he purposely gave me a better looking piece in comparison to my fiancé. I clearly remember that my fiancé’s Chu toro piece had a broken tail, and he just took that the broken tail piece and slapped it back on top of the Nigiri, which I find very unprofessional. I feel like every customer should be receiving the same service and quality and that made it a very disappointing experience for my fiancé. I should not be treated better just because I am a foodie or a blogger. lastly, although I did not receive this piece, the chef was preparing a egg roe nigiri piece for everyone. I watched him prepare all of the seaweed pieces for everyone, and as he was preparing one of the Nigiri pieces, the seaweed broke on both sides. Hence, seaweed piece was now in three pieces instead of one. He tried to use rice to mend it back into place and in true honesty, I was shocked he did not try to just get a new seaweed piece (Which would’ve cost nothing). I watched him basically play with this piece and proceeded to serve it to another customer. This was honestly the most shocking and disappointing part. Additionally, although I don’t expect a chef to talk to us during the dinner, during multiple occasions when he was telling us what PC was serving us, he spoke very quietly, and I had to ask him on several occasions to repeat what the fish was to me.

I am not certain if I had Kevin the main chef as our chef instead, if it would change our experience here. However, I truly believe that this Omakase experience should be standardized.

A large part of an omakase dinner is related to its experience and service and I definitely got to say, the chef did not play this part. Unfortunately, I will...