Kirei Sushi and Bar - Toronto

I have been living in Toronto for 15 years, and this restaurant is located just 3 blocks away from my place.

I have found a great sushi restaurant in my neighborhood. The sweet potato special roll was fantastic and everything else on the menu was good as well. I would give this place a rating of 3.5 out of 5.

For my meal, I chose the sashimi appetizer and also ordered a serving of uni sushi (nigiri).

Was here for a bit of a special dinner with a teenager who loves sushi. Kirei gives a great dinner experience, attractive decor, a varied menu, and a good kitchen that does some creative things with high-quality ingredients. I found the service was a bit random, as the staff seemed to share accountability (which rarely works well). But it was a good choice for an evening out.

There are so many good sushi restaurants in Toronto that there seems no particular reason to go to Kirei. The food, though reasonably priced (as is the wine) and quite generous in quantity (at least in the bento dishes we had), is neither very flavourful nor, on the day we were there, as fresh as it could be. Service is well-meaning and polite, though not altogether efficient or attentive: having ordered a bottle of wine, we waited about 15 or 20 minutes for it to arrive, and this in an almost empty restaurant, so the delay wasn't caused by excessive demands on the staff. The dining area is clean, spacious, and comfortable. All in all, our lunch experience was adequate but lack-lustre, and we probably wouldn't return, though we did speculate whether a part of the explanation could have been that we were there on a Monday. It might be worth trying again on a later week-day, or at the weekend.