Nami Japanese Restaurant

Glad to see that Nami continues on! For many years, this was the place that my husband and I would go to when we got paid. While the faces and menu have changed, it still remains a great spot for sushi and robata.

I came here to celebrate my wife's birthday with family. I am stuck on how to review this one. I wish we could do halves but I guess I will round it to a 5 star. I will say that staff, ambience and decor are all spot on. We had the private booth in the back, a nice touch of traditional Japanese flooring but with the "comical" bottomed out seating so you do not have to sit cross legged. What I am hung up on is the food and its value. I know sushi is a huge market, and there are levels of quality you expect for certain establishments. For a very upscale restaurant, I was expecting a little more. I hate to compare restaurants, but I just find the portions here are something left to be desired. For the value you get from the orders, you just do not get enough. The quality of fish is good, some exquisite, but some other orders are why add this to your menu at all? An example is the spicy salmon, it just looks pretty similar to what you get at other spots but it might be more expensive with no real reasoning other than the spot you are in. It is a bit unfortunate, but otherwise everything else was fairly stellar. Though the complimentary ice cream was also nothing spectacular. It is a good unique spot for some dishes but not all.

Came here for their summerlicious menu. Food was decent but for the price, expected slightly more. Presentation was great and ingredients seemed fresh, but just didn’t hit the spot. Maybe pricing is more of the issue.

For the appetizer (Hassun), seemed like they tried to cram a tasting menu into a single dish and so lacked the punch to bring any one component home. The wagyu was well cooked and flavourful but maybe could have used a few more veggies to accompany it. The onion that came with the wagyu was so pungent it tasted stronger than eating a raw onion (perhaps it was just this particular onion that came with my steak or perhaps other people would have like this). Tried a few sakes and their house Caraffe sake was actually quite nice.

The ambiance is great and service was outstanding!

Honestly the food was delicious and the quality of fish for sashimi and sushi is premium. However the agedashi tofu was disappointing and the sauce was rather bland. Wagyu steak was very good and well prepared, our only complaint was the slowness of the service, the absence of the server, the unclarity of the menu, we couldn't do any omakase courses because it was summerlicious but were only told after we had ordered, indications on their website are also unclear. Place is a bit overpriced if I had to be transparent.

The ambience of the place is okay but they had no AC and instead had to use fans. It definitely lowers the upscale of a sushi restaurant. I suggest you choose to sit in a booth V the main area because that area feels more like a cafeteria.

Another downside is how my Sake was poured. Usually sake are served in a shot glass filled up to the very top. This is the first Japanese restaurant where my sake glass was not fully filled. For 33$ the shot glass I expected better.

3.4/5

The food is decent but way overpriced. The dine-in menu is different from the takeout menu, and the prices seemed abnormally high for the serving sizes. You can, however, expect authentic Japanese food of a certain quality here.

The Tempura and Karaage were hot and crispy and quite tasty. We ordered the sushi rolls and Tataki to be shared amongst us and these were good choices as well. The Warayaki Oysters were the only thing we weren’t a fan of as they were a bit fishy.

Although the restaurant was quite empty when we visited, our server was absent. We had to waive him down multiple times for water as he seemed overwhelmed serving other tables.

Overall, not the best experience despite the polite staff. I was a bit disappointed as we expected better.

We came for the experience, and I’ll give 5 Michelin stars for that. The food was alright for me. It was fresh and imported from Japan. Overall, 4 stars seem right.
Our bill was almost over 400$ including HST and tips. Overpriced, yes; but if you are one who sees reality as something made out of multilayered experiences, this might be one of them.

We really enjoyed authentic Japanese dinner at this restaurant. According to them, this restaurant is one of the oldest Japanese restaurant in Toronto. I do not know if that is true or not, but what they served tasted real quality Japanese food. As for drinks, they have several choice of Japanese sakes (rice wine) and we can enjoy the difference of their aroma. Please notice that this is my very personal opinion, but their choice of sakes seemed a little bit too sweet, I mean they are good to enjoy by itself, but too sweet to drink with food. So in case you feel the same, it may be a good idea for you to drink a glass of dry white wine, not sake. Their food was quite delicious with white wine. At least I felt so.