Hana-Bi Japanese Restaurant - Markham

I decided to try the lunch special at this restaurant.

Having visited this restaurant multiple times, I have decided to finally write a review for it.

I was surprised to find out that Shiso Tree was closed on Mondays when we planned to have lunch there. After considering our options, we decided to choose between Shiso Tree and Kaka.

A sushi boat for 3 of us with an extra order of hamachi for about $100 with 10% cash discount - priced around medium-low of a la carte Japanese restaurant in general, I will be concerned with food quality if anything lower than that price. (any decent AYCE will charge you more than that.) Unfortunately, the overall quality was just like an average AYCE, not any better, certainly not the best cut or freshness. The size of each sashimi / sushi piece was about half of regular size, if not, even smaller. I was quite surprised and disappointed - especially the additional orders of hamachi, they were just about 2 sq cm (1 cm thick which was about right,) probably the smallest I have ever seen in hundreds of Japanese restaurants including those in Asia (i.e Japan.) Speed was on the slow side, although only 3 tables occupied including ours (total of 12 customers,) we still waited over 30 mins for our boat since they had to take care of 2-3 take out orders first.No doubt that food quality and value were below my expectation, however, offset by two big pros; (1) A complimentary grilled salmon (half) head and a teppanyaki beef dish(2) A super nice and polite server (she may be the owner) who gave us great service

The ribs are too well done. The spicy udon are okay, but the soup are not hot enough so the spice is not well spread. Lunch combo are well priced.