The Price of Piggery: A Morality Tale, or “Only as Much as You Can Eat” Resto Review

Last night, my BFF (best foodie friend) and I succumbed to piggery again at the all-you-can-eat Aji Sai Japanese Restaurant, 467 Queen St West, in Toronto. Sure, we’ve had far more refined Japanese cuisine, but value for money creates return customers, including us. The food is good enough and, since the restaurant is always busy, freshness is guaranteed. +

The dinner menu is extensive and varied. It includes a number of soups, salads, appetizers, special rolls, hand rolls, sushi and sashimi. It also features a full hot kitchen that serves up the typical fare. You can order à la carte, but where’s the oink-oink in that?

The kitchen fills food orders quickly. It’s an assembly line and that’s okay. If you are looking for sophisticated Japanese cuisine, this is certainly not the place.

Our meal for two came to $47.44+ including tea, dessert and taxes. No drinks. We had miso soup (a bit too salty for my palette), seasoned seaweed salad, an assortment of sushi and sashimi, grilled squid, shrimp tempura, but my faves were the spicy tuna rolls. Yum!

If you’re in the mood for piggery, Aji Sai will most certainly satisfy. But be prepared to go all the way because, if you can’t finish what you’ve ordered, you will be charged extra for too many leftovers, whether you take them home or not.

Problem is that “too many leftovers” is an undefined quantity (determined by wait staff eyeballing your table), as is the additional charge. Worst of all, this policy is sprung on you when you ask for the bill, without any previous warning. We were charged an extra $10 for approximately 20 sushi-roll pieces. Wasting food is certainly not cool, but being charged arbitrarily and without prior warning ain’t cool either.

We paid the price of our piggery and learnt that our gluttony is punishable at Aji Sai Only-As-Much-As-You-Can-Eat Japanese Restaurant.