Konnichiwa

I’ve been coming to dine at Konnichiwa for a long time (since I was a kid, for at least ten years now). It has changed slowly over time, but the dining experience has remained true to how it was when I was a youngster. I came here with a friend recently just before they wrapped up lunch service. (They close for a couple hours before reopening for dinner.) I ordered the soba noodle soup with shrimp and vegetable tempura on the side. I’ve been getting this dish for years and it hasn’t changed at all (that’s a good thing). So delicious and comforting on a cold winter day. My friend ordered the chirashi. I snuck a piece of squid. it was delicious and I don’t normally even like squid. The highlight of the meal was definitely the sushi we ordered. (two pieces inari, two pieces uni). The inari was great and they were HUUUGE. But the uni. best uni I’ve ever had, to be honest. So creamy and sweet, not a hint of bitterness. I wish I could have some right now. If you’re on Baldwin, try this place out!

I had high hopes for this place considering the owners are Japanese and have worked in the food industry in Japan for many years. Anyhow, you can find this little restaurant on Baldwin where there are other small boutique like restaurants. The restaurant is quite small and cannot fit many people but definitely bigger than Japango. The waitresses are nice here and the service is decent. Their menu is very creative I must say, but it creates problems for comprehension. Each item on the menu is written in a different font and it’s written in those creative design fonts you would find online. It made it longer for me to decide what to eat because I was too busy understanding the menu. Anyhow, I got a miso garlic ramen and some nigiri rolls: yellow tail and red tuna, dynamite roll, and spider roll. The ramen is definitely overhyped. It’s alright but it was not bad. But I wouldn’t order the ramen again. The broth was weak but the pork was cooked right. The nigiri rolls were not that fresh and the rice kept breaking apart. The dynamite roll was the biggest rip off. It was all rice with so little ingredients. The spider roll was better but it still had too much rice. If you like rolls with 90% rice, then this place is right for you.
But anyway, I don’t think I’ll be returning to this restaurant anytime soon since it didn’t WOW me. The restaurant was very mediocre. There are way better Japanese restaurants in downtown Toronto.

Some of the best Japanese food I’ve had was from this beast of a restaurant. Put aside the craving for sushi and try something else for a change. The Gyoza dumplings, hokkaido hoke, grilled mackerel, and katsu don should be given a chance upon your visit to this gem. Or order something off the chalkboard menu. I’ll be going back to konnichiwa very soon.

Super fresh sashimi! If there’s anything you should get, it’s the sashimi. We got it as part of the dinner combinations, which was a great deal since it also came with tempura, rice and miso soup/​salad. The rolls, on the other hand, really suck. The Dynamite roll was tiny and not worth the price. Also ordered the unagi, which is a part of their grilled items menu. It is pricey, but they do give you a good amount — most importantly, it was done really well!
The place is tiny and cozy but service is great. We were very fortunate to find a table on a Friday night without reservations.
Before you ask for tea, you should know that they charge $ 1.00 per cup.

+.5 for service
Konnichiwa was a very interesting Japanese restaurant that I would not have stepped inside without searching Unilocal at first.
I believe this place recently moved across the street, as there were two Konnichiwas on Baldwin, but one of them was vacant. Either way, the restaurant is on the north side now, and it has that nice cozy feel to it. However, reservations are pretty much required especially if you’re reserving on a weekend, as walk-​ins will be turned away.
This place has a decent variety of Japanese foods (including a lot of tapas options and hot food options), though I mainly focused on the lunch special. I had the sushi lunch special, which consisted of about 8 pieces of sushi and 6 pieces of rolls.
While many sushi restaurants nowadays go crazy with aburi style sushi, this place still lays it the traditional way, without the pizzazz. The fish is very fresh, delicious, and it didn’t even needed to be seared to get that flavour! If you still like your sushi with the basic fish and without all the eye candy, this is definitely the place for you.
Service was excellent and we were attended to the entire time. It may be a small restaurant, but sometimes these places are where you get some of the best, traditional food, and it was definitely the case here!

I really like this place. This japanese restaurant is nice and cozy. I really enjoy the ambience — it a small restaurant but it give you a nice cozy and welcoming atmosphere. It is also not noisy, great place for dinner. The food quality was really good too. All the ingredients were fresh. The servers were friendly and attentive. I would definitely continue to come here to satisfy my japanese food cravings.

This is the BEST sushi place in Toronto (other than Ja Bistro, but this place is much more affordable). Authentic Japanese, fresh food, tastes great, and it’s a very cozy restaurant with friendly staff. It’s small so make sure to make a reservation, but you might find seating from just walking in (this is a hidden gem that I don’t think a lot of people know about).
The unagi donburi is SO delicious. It’s difficult to find fresh sushi for this price. This is my new go to spot for sushi in Toronto.

The first time I hear the name, I thought it is one of those scam restaurants opened by Chinese that can not make Japanese food. It was a pleasant surprise to find out this little cozy restaurant was runned by Japanese and delivers authentic Japanese food. Strongly recommend everyone to eat the dinner special as it is cheap and delicious. It is a little restaurant located on Baldwin Village, I decided to give it a try because I am sick of going to Kinton. The Chirashi (sashimi on rice) portion was huge and all the fish were very fresh. I was too full to have dessert because the Chirashi was that good, I felt the need to finish the whole bowl.

Ever since Guu stopped selling their clear-​broth sweet shoyu ramen, I have been searching all over the city for my Tokyo-​style ramen fix.
AND I FINALLY FOUND IT!
Konnichiwa’s Shoyu Ramen. It’s $ 10.95, with your protein choice of Beef, Chicken, Pork or Tofu. Everything about this ramen was perfect and delicious. I tried the Beef, but I will go back and try the other 3 options. It’s the broth and the noodles that really make this dish.

High quality food. Worth the price.
I come here often at lunch time, spicy salmon with tempura is my favourite.
Their Ramen is also surprisingly good, arguably better than the two nearby Ramen restaurants.

I had to visit again. Again, a great experience. A friend and I shared the spicy salmon roll which was fresh and delicious; my friend thoroughly enjoyed her tempura don; and I ordered the blue mackerel which came grilled, the skin was crispy and salty and amazing while the flesh was juicy and tender. It came with steamed veg. Most of it was just straight up steamed, except the carrots which were boiled in something flavourful.
Service was kind and discreet. The restaurant was busy but food came out quickly.

We thought we’d tried all the restaurants on Baldwin until we saw the beautiful Konniciwa with the sign advertising sukiyaki. We ordered the scallops fried in butter and soy, sukiyaki, eel hot pot, and chicken curry. The scallop appetizer was amazing and something I’ll try to duplicate at home. The eel and sukiyaki were both very good. The sweetness of the sukiyaki will keep us coming back. The curry was good, but is better at Kaiju. Although, the accompanying vegetables that went with the curry were better than the coleslaw that’s served at Kaiju.
We really liked the décor and atmosphere of the place. It seemed very authentic and the menu was more than just sushi. The sushi was good as we also ordered a dynamite roll to go.

A friend turned me on to the mackerel. It comes with flavourful miso soup, delish veggies and the most perfect little bowl of rice. 9 or 10 dollars!
The fish. Be warned this IS crack fish and you WILL get addicted. I fear I smell fishy for the rest of the day but I don’t even care. I went today and they were closed. I nearly wept

We came here for lunch with a group of 9. We had called a few minutes ahead of time to reserve a table and we were able to sit inside.
FOOD: I ordered the spicy sushi plate that came with 6 pieces each of spicy salmon and spicy tuna roll. It also came with salad and miso soup. The sushi was great, and the fish tasted fresh. The serving size was just perfect for a workday lunch. Some of my coworkers got bento boxes and one got sashimi lunch. My friend said the sashimi tasted very fresh and everyone enjoyed their food.
SERVICE: I would have to say their service is on the slow side. It could be due to the busy lunch hour but food takes 15 – 20 minutes to arrive. So be prepared for that. Besides that their service is decent.
DÉCOR: I have to say something about their amazing chalk art. Whoever is drawing them is a true artist! Take a look around at the cute and funny chalk drawings around the restaurant to keep you entertained!
Would recommend for lunch since the prices are affordable for decent sushi. Although personally I think Etsu (just a few doors down) has better food, this place is slightly cheaper.

So delicious :) We had the chirashi, the black cod, and the taco wasabi, as well as a seaweed salad…
But this is not your typical toronto sushi restaurant! Everything was of the highest quality. The chirashi had an impressive selection of premium cuts, the black cod was better than Guu’s, the salad featured a variety of rare delicate seaweeds, and everything was beautifully presented.
The service was wonderful and the restaurant itself is warm, cozy and clean. A new favorite :)

We always have a weird eating schedule on weekends, after brunch, you get hungry around 2−3pm, but it is also a time when many restaurants close for the afternoon in preparation of the dinner rush. There are a lot of Japanese restaurants in Baldwin area, and since it is a nice sunny day, many people are out in the patio. We decided to try Konnichiwa. They were open for another hour before they close for the afternoon.
I got the chirashi don, it’s the first time I had it since back from Japan. There was a wide variety of fresh sashimi. Of course, it is not as fresh from the ones in Japan but it is comparable. We also got the soba noodles with tempera and sushi set lunch special. It was pretty good, I like their soup base. The food was pretty good, it is not cheap but compared to other high name Japanese restaurant in downtown, it is reasonably priced.

I always end up here when I’m in the area. It’s perfect for lunch — cozy, good value, friendly service, consistently delicious, and pretty fast (you can make it, even if you only have 1 hour for lunch). The lunch combos are a great deal and come with miso soup and salad. Bonus points for having actual mixed greens, and not just colourless iceberg lettuce. The sushi is always very fresh. I have also tried their ramen and gyoza which are also quite good! (not as many choices as Ryus and Kinton next door, but quite respectable).
There are not that many tables, so I would not come here with a group bigger than 4 people. The patio in the summer is pretty nice though.

Cute little place, feeling like in a Japanese family. However, the food is average.
After having chirashi at japango, this one is really disappointing. The got different sashimi and it is fresh, but I don’t like the rice. It’s sour.
The dumpling is tasty, but you can definitely make one at home.
I love the deco here. It is small and warm. I also love the neighborhood. It is my first been in this area. It is really cute and got a lot of attractive places.

Great apps. Server doesn’t really have good English though so that could be frustrating. Prices on the higher side but dishes are unique.

How have I missed this place? In fact, how have I missed that there is some kind of Japanese/​noodle nexus on Baldwin Street? No matter — I guess it’s a nice problem to have; too many wonderful choices within that block.
This one definitely is high on my favourite list now. Konnichiwa is unpretentious, friendly and delivers on its promise of Japanese comfort food. My experience of their teriyaki is now going to make it impossible for me to enjoy it anywhere else — seriously, the most flavourful one I’ve ever had. Sushi and sashimi are fresh and wonderful. And it seems it is possible to do all this without a lot of over the top restaurant theatre. That said, if you’re in the mood for some over the top restaurant theatre, there are lots of other decent places to go. If you’re just looking for some Japanese yummy, I highly recommend this place. And you get all of that without emptying your wallet.