Richmond Hill is known for their variety of different restaurants around the area – ranging from their Chinese, Japanese and Korean selections. Today, my family and I paid a long awaited visit to Tanaka Sushi, a visit I have made with my family back when I was only a child. Spontaneity kicked in during a drive down to Richmond Hill and we decided to give Tanaka another try. 

The visit started off smoothly – we got a table in no time, and we were given the paper and pencil to fill in our order for the Dinner Buffet Selection. Down below are some of the main selections we made:

These were only a few of the selections – and all were very filling and satisfying. The one problem I had personally with Tanaka was its service. It is one thing to have great food, but all the other factors in a restaurant play a role as well. Let me explain.

Firstly, the service seemed great at the beginning as I mentioned – they gave us a table swiftly, and took our orders once we filled it all in. Of course, coming to this restaurant, we came in with full intentions of eating the sushi and sashimi, and ordered all the fried and cooked variety foods along with it. As the evening progressed however, it seemed that they served us all the hot foods and maki first, but never gave us our sashimi until we inquired about it several times! The reasoning behind this, I cannot confirm. However a theory does come to mind – perhaps the restaurant wanted to make their customers more “full” on the fried foods and rice in order to cut down demand for the main dish. After all, the supply could be limited, and it is an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet – there are many that want the exact same thing.

Secondly, we started realizing our orders were being neglected, and it seemed the priority of other customers were higher than ours. I believe the restaurant was being run by Chinese individuals, and so they tend to cater towards their fellow Chinese customers, rather than our table. This faltered our experience there, not being Chinese and realizing this subtle “racism”.

Lastly, towards the end of the night when we “finally” got our sashimi (and by that point, we were so full with our previous orders) and the bill comes out, we realized that with a debit/credit card payment they charge an extra 5% on the bill, in addition to including their own tip amount on the bill. This was definitely a turn off coming to Tanaka, and we hastily paid so we could leave as soon as possible.

Overall, if you ever come by Tanaka Sushi, on a personal level I would definitely tell you, there are many other restaurants that exceed this one. However, if you ever stumble upon Tanaka and curiousity gets to you, I recommend the following:

       1) Order in small amounts – don’t order anything cooked or fried until you get your fill of sashimi first! In other words, sushi and sashimi first, fried and cooked later!

       2) It does get packed, so be prepared to wait some time for the food to come out.

       3) Sometimes they do forget your order, and it does get lost in the pile of other orders made by other tables, so be prepared to remind the waiters about your order…. a lot.

Check out their website, to see if you’ll be making your visit there: http://www.tanakasushicanada.com/

Ratings

Plating – ♡ ♡ ♡ 

Ambiance – ♡ ♡ ♡

Taste – ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

Service – ♡