Hanafubuki Sushi

Almost a year ago, I came across a groupon for a five course meal for two for only $22. Thinking that this was quite the steal, I immediately bought it after confirming its decent rating on Urbanspoon. True to the procrastinator that I am, it wasn't until recently, around a couple weeks until the deal was due to expire, that I went to Hanafubuki Sushi for lunch with the boyfriend.

It should be warned that the restaurant is the epitome of a hole in the wall type of restaurant. There were only 3 tables that could seat two people each. Also, when we came here at around 1 pm on a Saturday, we were informed that there would be a wait of at least an hour because of call-in orders. So for future patrons, I would definitely avoid the peak hours during lunch and dinner.

So onto our $45.50 valued five course meal..

The first thing on the table was two small orders of Vegetable Udon. This was pretty plain, with a couple pieces of lettuce and two triangular slices of marinated tofu skin. The udon was perfectly cooked while the broth was average in taste. My boyfriend noted that it was nothing special and that the soup tasted merely of salt and spices.

Next we had 12 pieces of Fried Pork Gyoza dumplings. These were pretty standard, comparable to the variety you may find in the frozen aisles at T&T. My boyfriend also thought that the accompanying dipping sauce was a bit off because of a slight bitter aftertaste.

The California rolls were okay. Meh.

Then came the Tataki Salad with Seared Tuna. I would have liked it if there were more than the 3 pieces of seared tuna that it came with but overall, it wasn't bad. The sauce was sweet and tangy with a lingering hint of horseradish.

Lastly, we had the Feux d'artifice sushi roll, which consisted of a combination of prawn tempura, barbeque salmon, avocado and cream cheese, topped with roe and chef's house sauce. The roll was also surrounded with a "siu mai"-like wrapping. Both my boyfriend and I are normally not huge fans of cream cheese in sushi rolls but it was okay here since the cream cheese was hidden by the flavours of the other contents in the roll.

For a $25 lunch between two people, this wasn't bad at all with the groupon. However, the meal overall just didn't stand out and I most likely wouldn't venture all the way downtown just to eat at this spot again.