Hiro Sushi Restaurant

Grabbed some takeout sushi for the night, with three maki rolls: spicy salmon, tuna, and negi-​hama, coming up to a total of $ 24.
Didn’t buy any drinks (like a $ 3 Coke/​soda) since I had water. That should be enough, right?
But holy shitsnacks! I should’ve ordered it with a carton of milk because the amount of wasabi in those things was enough to burn me a whole new breathing hole. It got to the point where I was choking on the wasabi, and only the relief of a milky, cold ice capp could bring mediocre relief to my burning sinuses. I was surprised, in picking a piece apart, to find that it wasn’t much more than a small smear inside each piece. However, those smears were enough to hold the wasabi power level of wasabi peas x 10 – 15 times what you get from those snacks. What fresh hell is this? Yes, yes, they probably use the real wasabi stuff which has actual depth of flavour, quality, etc. but the amount of it was just too much.
True that the fish seemed fresh. Rice was nicely vinegared to compliment the fish. But I don’t think I’ll ever be able to return, on the basis of I like not having my sinuses on fire, thank you very much.

There seemed to be a mix up about our reservation, they thought we had booked another night. They accommodated our group of five in the front of their restaurant.
We ordered the three course Omakase. The server highly recommended all members at the table order the same type of meal as not to confuse the staging of courses, we listened. We were unsure what the three courses were but placed our faith in the chef. We were served soup, a brilliantly smoke salmon with sticky rice, and then various pieces of sushi. The sushi was typically served four varieties at a time. We found the sushi to be heavy on the wasabi, and the rice fell apart more than once. Our servers had a hard time describing the dishes and sushi that came out. Additionally they did not recommend an order to consume the pieces in, something I’ve seen at most restaurants of a similar style. At one point we were given three types of maki, but only four pieces of each. When we asked our server about a fifth piece such that each person would have a chance to try each type, we were told the chef said these are meant to be shared. This was a little disappointing.
Perhaps some of the communication issues stem from being so far from the chef, but with half the seating not at the chef’s table I would expect better.
The variety of fish is better than most ayce places, but not as extensive as other premium sushi places. The overall quality, service, and presentation are also not in line with what I’ve seen elsewhere.

Slowest sushi ever … And not the best one i had. Check it out If you have a lot of time. Was here on Tuesday night and place was not that crowded

I have died and gone to sushi heaven. So authentic. I don’t know if I will ever be able to have regular sushi again. Our Japanese friends took us here, which should have been my first clue. Chef Hiro is a delight. Go Omakase (chef’s choice) and spend the money, it’s the way to go. Every dish he served was so tasty. There really wasn’t a fish I didn’t like. I will sorely miss this place when I head back to Chicago. The mackerel cooked with sesame oil was so tasty. The tuna marinated in Hiro’s homemade soy sauce. Every bite made me giggle with delight. I wish I had two stomachs and didn’t have to stop eating.

I love sushi and had really high hopes for Hiro Sushi. I was disappointed by their service, and the quality of the rice.
FOOD
I ordered the Sushi lunch for one and a half, and to my disappointment, the rice was a bit stale and was not «sticky.» A good nigiri would come apart, yes, but it wouldn’t be «individually» grained. Maybe the cooling process was a bit odd :\ The size of each nigiri was perfect though.
A delicate smear of wasabi would normally perfect a good quality fresh sashimi. However, it is unfortunate that the smear of wasabi was more like a glob plopped on. It was overpowering to the taste, if not a little painful to eat.
SERVICE
We came in a large group, about the 8 of us. It is quite obvious that the server was overwhelmed by our orders, and insisted to come back for our orders after grabbing our drinks first. We were a little pressed for time so we wanted to do it all at once, but not a big deal.
What was a disappointment is her forgetting 3 of our orders, and after 5 of us had almost finished our meals and followed up, she then realized she has forgotten.
OVERALL
The dining experience was overall great, I enjoyed watching the itamae at work, and the décor is nice. However, I think it is overhyped.

I have no idea where to begin. The food was so good that there are no ways to emphasize it’s greatness.
Let’s start with the very few negatives, which didn’t ruin my rating for this place. I basically left the restaurant with an empty wallet and in search for a cheap place to grab something else to eat, since this omakase experience did not completely fill me up.
But now to the actual omakase ‘experience’:
We entered in to find the cutest little japanese restaurant, which was both cozy but well laid out, making it look upscale but not too pretentious.
We opted for the most expensive thing in the menu, which was the 5 course omakase dinner.
The server was a very friendly and well trained lady who kept refilling our glasses of water and smiling throughout. Since omakase involves Hiro (the chef) to personally make each sushi there and then, each course would arrive one by one, and therefore the dinner lasted a good 2 hours.
The first course was miso soup, and honestly, I have never tried miso soup that good my entire life! It was literally creamy. I could have drank a whole gallon of that stuff!
I have posted pictures of most of the courses I got, which were all spectacular. I would like to specially highlight the butterfish sushi… it actually melted in my mouth!
Hiro was there quietly making sushi right in front of you with full concentration and passion, which definitely shows in his, what I would call, ‘art’.
I’m not a sort of person that’s willing to spend more than $ 100 on a meal, but ever since this experience, I have chosen to eat at Hiro sushi at least once a year. It was definitely worth it. But, like I said, I did have to go home and munch on some more food after.

Hiro sushi is probably the best in Toronto. Ichiro Suzuki of new York Yankees visits whenever he is i town.
The food is amazing but it is not cheap. Highly recommended is the Chef selection. Let Hiro San feed you until you are full. It is worth it. He smokes his own salmon. He does his own marinated shitake mushrooms and preserved plums. All the best ingredients. The sake selection is large. Of course I notice the better you know Hiro San the better the selection (not that he skims if you are a stranger but he tailors to your tastes).
It is the only place where I had grilled blue fin tuna on the cheekbone. It was from a large tuna and it fed 12. Also only place I have had lobster sashimi in Toronto.
Great place to be :)

This is a great place if you want to order 10 slivers of fish for $ 30, and then go to McDonalds.

I returned for the omakase a little while ago, and I have to say, I’m sort of sad.
On one hand, Hiro showed me again his mastery — he has the ability to make the ordinary into the extraordinary. He can take a piece of salmon sushi and with his special preparation methods, make something that is exquisitely smoky, perhaps with the exact right amount of saltiness.
But maybe it’s because I look young, or because I don’t seem like the usual client for Omakase. I was treated somewhat disrespectfully and standoffishly by Hiro himself. It’s pretty normal in an omakase at the sushi preparation area for the chef to converse with their patron.
He, however, ignored me. And even though he did great things with normal ingredients, Omakase is about showing me your best! He flashed out a hunk of o-​toro then conspicuously put it away in front of me. He gave me around 11 pieces (3 pieces of salmon, red snapper, flounder, sea urchin, escolar, marinated tuna, albacore tuna, Monkfish Liver, mackerel) asked if I was done, then served me a strange tuna roll with raw burdock root in it.
This place might not be my cup of tea after all.
For my full review with more pictures, feel free to visit my food blog, located conveniently on my Unilocal profile. Cheers!

Have recently eaten here twice. Once ordering a la carte and the second time omakase. Both times it was very satisfying. Watching Hiro work is mesmerizing. If you have a chance to dine here, I’d highly recommend it. The sushi is some of the best in the city.

The sushi was good, but not the best I’ve had in the city. The seating was cramped, and the service was slow. For what came out to be a $ 30 lunch and not very full, this place is not worth it…

Heard from a client that the omakase at Hiro is ‘really good!’, so my fiancé and I have decided to check it out last night. Unfortunately, it was just a whole BIG disappointment from beginning to end. Really NOT worth the time and money.
There was only one sushi chef in the house and the restaurant is full… so most of the time, we are just waiting and waiting for the food to come. Omakase was priced at $ 70 and up per person. Ended up paying a total over $ 200 before tax and tips.
Food was really not up to par. I think I had salt overdose. They put so much salt and seasoning in the cooked foods and even had rock salt on my sashimi (to enhance flavours… but seriously, it’s just too much salt intake overall)! Also, I literally had a wasabi brain freeze and my jaw became numb. Chef used way too much wasabi in the sushi, it is extremely spicy and I had to pick them out. Be sure to ask the chef to go lighter on the wasabi when you order. But the chef was drinking beer and was in his zone. I don’t think he gives a shit of what you think.
By the time we had the 7^th course, our waitress asked if we had enough food. We said we would like one more plate of sushi. The chef whipped up some half ass job sushi as our 8^th course with sashimi we already had, sweet Chinese mushroom (bad choice) and a maki roll with sour vinaigrette, mint leaf and white radish roots (extremely bad choice). This combination tasted like soap. Yes, soap. Not soup, but soap. The impression we got from the chef was ‘Get outta here’.
During this whole omakase experience, we did not get uni or hamachi or raw scallops or whatever fancy things out there. My fiancé loves hamachi, so after that horrible 8^th course, we specifically asked the chef to make us a hamachi hand roll. I’m sure everyone knows what a hand roll is, but instead, we got a hamachi maki log. Should’ve taken a photo of it. The impression we got from the chef after the log was ‘Really, get da F outta here’.
So we have decided to call it a night and asked for dessert. ‘Homemade’ black sesame ice cream was definitely not homemade. They should seriously take note from Zen Japanese Restaurant of what homemade black sesame ice cream is. Apple and pear sorbet was just flavored crushed ice rolled into a ball. Ice cream and sorbet cost $ 5 each, just in case you were wondering. I can’t believe they charged us extra for dessert during a dinner omakase. For $ 5, I can get better stuff at Ed’s Real Scoop.
Overall, it’s just bad. But kudos to our waitress… she was so busy running around helping out the restaurant (which seemed short staffed) and trying to keep all the customers happy. Not the best omakase in Toronto for sure.

I enjoyed the vegetarian sushi combo, however I felt it was a bit overpriced. I think the bento boxes are of better value as they’re quite large compared to other sushi restaurants. The place itself is ok. There’s no air conditioning so during hot days it feels a little stuffy in there.

Emancipate yourself from expensive emaciated sushi, and stay away!
How bad was it? The salmon nigiri appeared to have been attacked by piranhas before an dull blade shredded the hell out of what was left of the carcass. It was literally the width of my baby pinky and practically transparent. Seriously?! The rolls were equally inferior, SUPER SUPER tiny & poorly assembled. Huge discrepancy in cost, value and presentation.
Beyond food, service lacked decorum. The waitress tried to make alterations to our order. Apparently what my date and I wanted to eat, is not what we should be eating.
It was a memorable dining experience for all the wrong reasons. Maybe it was my date? Maybe it was the food? Irregardless, not venturing near either again.
— single sushi lover in Toronto

This place is for very serious sushi eaters only, or those interested in obtaining knowledge of what real sushi taste like. Flavors are subtle, just as they are in Japan (I’ve been 3 times). Prices are not cheap and your not gonna find spicy tuna rolls, california rolls or 99% of the other stuff on your ordinary sushi places menu. The omakase was amazing and only about $ 30 for lunch. Standouts were mackerel, salmon smoked japanese style, tuna marinated in garlic, butterfish.

Cool. Great ambience… light jazzy music, and what seems like a small following. The service is very slow, which forces you to slow down and enjoy, removed from the fast pace city life. Also, because there was only one waitress.
They have great lunch prices and easily above average and authentic. I wish I payed more attention, but they have a handwritten appetizer menu. The last one on the list the day I visited was I believe a roasted persimmon, and was wow. Simply amazing. Add to that the ambience and its a gem.

Some good dishes but overall not a fabulous experience. Very expensive but not worthing it.
Ordered 2 things from the menu and waitress came 15 minutes later to tell us they were out of it… the place was empty, so there is no way someone else ordered it before… we should have been told before, when ordering at least… ok…
Chef’s sushi plate was disappointing. 8 different sushis (some with already dried fish) and 2 rows of the same small maki rolls (maki is NOT sushi!). No wasabi on the plate and very little amount of sliced ginger.
Had to ask twice to get my ordered sake. green tea is too bland and not hot enough.
Mackerel salad was pretty good (I should have eaten only that, but twice, even though it is written that it is for two persons on the menu!).
May try it again, but only if invited… otherwise I will continue to try other sushi places (I also have been to Tokyo and Gari sushi in NYC, so please stop writing that this place looks or is as good!)

Most interesting Japanese cuisine.
I love Japanese food, and the menu here is ok, but there are certain things that I just never had elsewhere.
The mackerel salad was one of them!
Raw Spanish mackerel, topped with hot sesame oil and ponzu sauce! Wow!
Something else that was very different was the veggie tempura. Hiro’s version is shredded veggies deep fried in a light tempura batter. Very interesting!
Its a bit pricy but worth the experience.
Would go back for some of the rarer menu items.
Not sure I would go often though. This definately not a first date type of place!

Hiro may have completely ruined sushi for me as this place (and the sushi chef Hiro) are so good that I don’t think any other sushi will ever compare. Everything here is quite delicious and you MUST sit at the sushi bar and just get whatever Hiro puts on your plate. It is the only way to eat here.
Here are a few of the highlights of our dinner:
–Bottomless, sweet, cold and delicious Sake
–Flight of salmon (smoked, salted and wrapped in tea leaves and regular)
–BUTTERFISH (regular and smoked)
–Spanish Makarel
–Monk Fish
–Fried Red Snapper
Honestly I must have tried at least 20 different types of sushi. You know the place is good when the chef is slicing fresh ginger root and grinding his own wasabi. Anyone that doesn’t think this place is incredible is seriously jaded and needs a good kick in the pants.

It’s hard to imagine what people would complain about here. This has to be one of the best, authentic sushi places I’ve been to outside of Tokyo and Sushi Yasuda. Really really fresh fish, perfectly cut. You won’t get any dragon rolls or rainbow rolls here.
If you’re non-​japanese he may serve you a really spicy hotategai handroll, and tell you it’s a Gaijin-​Roll. Look it up.