Out & About #230 | Aka-Oni Izakaya + Revisiting Love Me Sweet

Izakayas are a hit or miss: some items are lovely and economical, while others are seriously overpriced and lacking in quality.

Situated in a small plaza along the Scarborough-Markham border, just across from Pacific Mall, is Aka-Oni Izakaya. Its Kanji roughly translates to "Red Demon". For whatever reason a restaurant would opt for such a name is beyond my reasoning. It's not like spicy ramen is their renowned dish either.

The exterior of the (likely) Chinese-operated izakaya is quite unobtrusive, leading us to completely miss its sign at our first glance around the plaza. Upon closer review, the glass entranceway was lined with at least a hundred colourful sake bottles of different sizes. Inside were dark grey walls, a tall ceiling sporting a similar rope decor piece to Santosei, and red paper laterns that seemed oddly out of place in my opinion. Mounted directly behind the lofty sake casing was a television screen, from which Breakfast Television was airing. (Talk about things getting weirder and weirder...)

I requested the booth closest to the doorway, in hopes that some natural light would shine our way. It didn't - the area was as dim as could be. The booths were roomy though, and quite comfortable at that. Our table even had a two port outlet directly underneath, meaning that I could recharge my phone's aging battery as I snapped away.
A total of four menus were placed in front of us, along with a steaming pot of genmaicha - a noteworthy contrast to the standard Jasmine green tea at sushi restaurants. The Taste of Asia deals were also presented after I inquired about the poster near the entrance.

The Taste of Asia menu provided three set meal options, priced at $20, $30, and $40 per person. Each included a mix of their most popular items, all at a fraction of the price. The only catch was that all members of the table were required to order the same meal.

Being first-timers, we knew not the original prices of the tapas, and instead ordered four items individually in fear that we wouldn't be able to finish the sets. Little did we know that this was, by far, one of the worst mistakes ever committed in ordering tapas.

View the full album HERE !

First up was the Ikura/Uni Donburi. I'm uncertain why it didn't immediately occur to me that ordering sea urchin sashimi in a Chinese-dominant area was a bad idea. We were charged a whopping $14.99 for a bowl of plain short-grain rice topped with a spoonful of fish roe and a few teaspoons of uni.

But the size wasn't the most outrageous factor of the dish. Rather, it was the uni itself. Instead of exhibiting sweet, melt-in-your-mouth properties, we received a tiny pile of tacky, bland, pale-orange putty. With a heavy heart for the newly-burned hole in my wallet, I can only express my reaction to the dish as utterly disgusted.

Thankfully, the next few contenders weren't nearly as bad. Though simple, Ikura Chazuke, proved to be a substantially satisfying dish. Its combination of sweet tea, refreshing kick of wasabi, and grassy hint of Shiso was a clear winner in our books. At $5.99, it was the most budget-friendly out of our four selections.

​At this point, I should note that Chazuke is normally served with the teapot on the side, allowing customers to pour in their preferred amount of liquid. Understandably, I was subject to utter shock when the waitress set down the dish and began to pour the tea herself without consulting our opinions beforehand. Clearly annoyed, I requested for her to stop immediately, to which she responded with an innocent, puzzled expression, and only proceeded to set the teapot down after filling the bowl to her liking.

Atrocious indeed.

Another item of interest to us was the Angus Beef Tataki. Instead of being placed strategically to ensure maximum visual appeal though, it was delivered to us like roughly blanched shabu shabu slices on a stack of pungent onion shreds. (No, it doesn't look like a rose.)
​Upon tasting, it proved to be a decent dish texture-wise, exhibiting the coarse surface of steak with the soft interior of seared tuna. The accompanying ponzu-ginger dipping sauce, while successful in enhancing the natural flavours of the beef, wasn't entirely satisfactory; grated ginger was found to be in excess, rendering the sauce spicier than need be. At $11.99, it was an acceptable dish. overall.

The Black Diamond Roll was the last to arrive. Six pieces of Aka-Oni's most famed tapas dish arrived on a narrow ceramic serving plate, each roll topped with black fish roe (caviar?) and several gold flakes and drizzled with olive oil-like greasiness.

On top of each purple rice maki roll was a small piece of grilled unagi and a scallop-sized piece of torched pork belly, making for an extremely satiating version of the typical sushi roll. Candidly speaking, it was an interesting combination of locally-available ingredients, every element subject to some additional type of crafting and/or styling to produce a more refined product. The end result carried a substantial price tag of $15.99, meaning that each roll averaged out to $2.67.

I suppose I should mention that the Black Diamond Roll wasn't particularly vile; the only issue my tastebuds were in disagreement with was the amount of fat and oil used in the dish to give the illusion of a melt-in-your-mouth consistency. It was unnecessarily greasy. For the same price, I could have ordered 2.5 Student Burger combos from McD's, which would probably still taste less greasy than this sushi platter.

Despite my aforementioned remarks, I must praise the restaurant for several things: exceptionally stable Wi-Fi and the availability of outlets. The wooden box in which our eye-boggling receipt arrived in was rather cute.

Otherwise, I can confirm that Aka-Oni is simply a plethora of over-priced dishes of mediocre quality with decent customer service in a poorly-lit atmosphere filled with random decor pieces. (I should've stuck with Guu...)

Afterwards, we proceeded to walk off our excess food intake and wallet-destroying heartbreak at Pacific Mall, picking up some beauty items along the way.

As we were on our way out, I made a quick call to Love Me Sweet. The staff was kind enough to set aside a Chocolate Cheesecake and a Coffee Cheesecake, each of which was produced daily in limited quantities. Seeing as we were already in the building, I suggested trying Latte Mei for an afternoon pick-me-up.

Latte Mei is another bubble tea joint that closed its doors on Dundas St. before making its way to the eerily quiet food court of Shops on Yonge. In addition to a wide variety of iced teas, they also have savoury lunch and afternoon snack options.

A Tangerine Juice with Basil Seeds and an Apple Iced Tea were ordered to obtain their BOGO 50% deal. While the cashier had been extremely nice, the drinks simply did not deliver. I finished my cup since I was dehydrated, but my friend refused to touch her drink after the first few sips.

Our final stop was Love Me Sweet, where I picked up my cakes of choice and finally managed to snap a shot of the chalkboard art without anyone perched in front of it.
(Side: My photos of the cheesecake shop are scattered throughout this space. It is with much exasperation that I proclaim: a proper entry shall make an appearance in due time. The cakes are demolished at a rate so rapid that I fail to capture them in their original state each and every time.)

To continue reading about the remaining adventures of the day, check out Part 2 HERE !

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