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On a Saturday evening, my friends and I we were deciding between Terroni and Nami, the restaurant with the black exterior, located next door (on Adeleide, just west of Church street). We decided to go for Japanese and ended up at Nami. We noticed that the restaurant had a sushi bar with seating, as well as private booths available, but we were seated at one of the regular tables in the middle of the restaurant.

Kaiso Salad

After reading over the menu, we decided to just order a bunch of items to share since there were four of us. We started with the Kaiso Salad – “Three different kinds of seaweed, served with crab leg, thinly sliced cucumber and house dressing” ($8.95). This was a different kind of seaweed salad that I’m typically used to. It came with three types of seaweed and wasn’t very flavourful (even with the house dressing). I definitely prefer the typical seaweed salad served at other Japanese restaurants. The crab leg really didn’t add anything to this dish either.

The next dish we ordered was the Beef Sashimi – “New York Strip (US Black Angus) seared to perfection, then sliced paper thin. Served with ponzu sauce and ground radish” ($10.50). The presentation wasn’t very appetizing to me and the taste of it didn’t really change my mind. It tasted decent with the ponzo sauce, but was overall just an okay dish.

Beef Sashimi

We also ordered the Nasudengaku – “Deep fried eggplant topped with chef’s own sweet miso sauce” ($8.95). Finally, a dish I really enjoyed! This came with two pieces of eggplant and was absolutely delicious! The skin was crispy on the outside and the sweet miso sauce really complimented the dish. Although it was a little on the pricier for just two pieces of eggplant, it was really enjoyable. I highly recommend this dish if you’re a fan of eggplant.

We also wanted to try a sushi roll, so we decided on the Spider Roll – “Deep fried soft shell crab with avocado, mayonnaise, cucumber and flying fish roe” ($17), which came with eight pieces. Despite the fact that the roll tasted decent, I felt it was a bit overpriced at $17. It wasn’t really anything special, if you ask me.

Nasudengaku – "Deep fried eggplant topped with chef’s own sweet miso sauce"

One of my friends wanted to try one of the hot pots, so we went with the Sukiyaki Hot Pot – “Thinly sliced US Black Angus cooked in a sweet soy sauce based soup with hakusai cabbage, green onions, spinach, shiitake and enoki mushrooms, tofu and udon noodles”. Served with raw egg for dipping. The price of this is $33 per person (with a minimum order of two people, and orders have to be taken before 10:15pm). Since we had ordered several other dishes, we requested two servings ($66). For those of you who aren’t familiar with sukiyaki, it’s a Japanese style hot pot, where meat and vegetables are cooked in an iron pot filled with a sweet soy sauce. The server started it off by sautéing the onions and carrots. After a minute or so, she poured in the sweet soy sauce. We waited for it to come to a boil before we began cooking the meat and veggies.

Spider Roll

This was my first time trying sukiyaki and at first, the idea of cooking meat and veggies in soy sauce wasn’t very appealing, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. The sweet soy sauce was nice, and added a nice flavour to the items cooked in it. The udon noodles at the end were my favourite part.

The sukiyaki hot pot also came with ice cream. We tried the black sesame and green tea ice cream (2 scoops each), which were served with a sesame snap. The sesame snaps were a great compliment to the ice cream.

Sukiyaki Hot Pot

Overall, I was a little disappointed with my experience. Although the service was good (the servers came by often to refill our tea and to ensure everything was okay), I felt everything was overpriced – in particular the eggplant, the spider roll and the sukiyaki hot pot. We paid $66 for the hot pot, and it didn’t come with very much food at all. However, it did introduce me to sukiyaki hot pot, something I’d definitely like to try again…just at a different Japanese restaurant.

The Sukiyaki veggies and beef

At a glance

  • Overpriced
  • Average food (at best)
  • Located on Adeleide, near Church (next to Terroni)
  • Ratings (out of 5):

  • Food: 2.5 stars
  • Service: 4 stars
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    Nami Japanese Seafood on Urbanspoon



    1. Amy (Reply) on Monday 13, 2011

      Aw, I’m sad that you didn’t enjoy your experience at Nami. Nami is one of my favourite Japanese restaurants. You should’ve tried their sashimi as they’re very fresh and tasty! Great review nonetheless :)!

      • Jess (Reply) on Monday 13, 2011

        Thanks, Amy! Nami’s one of your favourites? We probably didn’t order the right things. Maybe I’ll give them another shot to try the sashimi! 🙂