Poisson Not Up to Par

The city has once more privileged us eaters with access to yet another dizzying sushi restaurant, auspiciously named Dake, as if the ‘only’ one worth visiting. And, at the request of my dear culinary brother, Daryl, and a little bit of my own contention, I wearily agreed to check it out.

We were ready and assuming we’d do nothing more than stuff ourselves, Dake being a big restaurant from the outside, and therefore an assumed all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant on the inside. So, stepping through the doors, and feeling a little out of place, our garbs juxtaposed by a space of ambient blue and purple lighting, gaudy chandeliers, wooden frames with paper membranes, a sushi bar, booths and hearths, we managed a quick perspective, remembering the city we live in, and that any cosmopolitanism seems like nothing more than a jeunesse ruse to be culturally superior, especially in another Japanese place that is nothing more than another Japanese place; an aesthetic monster under our culinary beds. Nothing more.

 
Boothed and ready to write on whatever little piece of paper laid before us, we were both surprised, wondering instead if we should have both been confused at our waitress’s assertion that Dake is not another all-you-can-eat sushi place. It’s just a sushi place. However, that little bit of news did nothing to dismay the very necessary skepticism that rained over us like a sudden shower at Atake. The menu is big, the choices typical and underwhelming, and any combo platters patronized with something as trivial as a free pop (which I never received) with meals that run, at their least expensive, just under eleven dollars. There are, of course, things with some artifice, like a Tuna appetizer seared with ponzu sauce, but which warrants purchase for only the wealthiest of connoisseurs as far as I’m concerned. But don’t let me stop you. That may be enough.

I asked for a bowl of vegetable udon soup, seeing if my own skepticism could be smashed with a simple dish that floats its way around every Japanese restaurant in the city, and with that, a combination plate of what the restaurant named the Waterloo roll: a sushi roll of shrimp, crab, avocado, and cucumber skin made into cheap matchsticks. Rolled in tempura crumbs it was dry fare, with pieces that required large mouthfuls, but nothing I couldn’t forgive, if only because I didn’t really care to. Accompanying that was a spicy salmon roll: salmon chuck rolled in crab and sauce with a good layer of chewy rice. Texturally pleasing, it was nothing out of the ordinary, so familiar to these parts that my only problem with the thing might have been its banality. But don’t worry, there are tons of other rolls to entice you, or at least have you giggling- like the love love roll, strawberry roll, or, of all patriating things: the Cambridge roll. Y’know? In case you feel a little homesick and want to be reminded of a place with factories, sprawl, and cheap developments. Oh, and a downtown with coffee shops that serve cigarette ash in water. To each his own.

 
Bathing in a steaming stoneware bowl, my udon was a savoury combination, albeit a little salty. Topped with tempura crumbs, seaweed strips, and bitter greens, the dish did its best to uphold any veritableness as an udon bowl, but fell short with vegetable ingredients like broccoli, cauliflower, and button mushrooms floating in the soup. In a city that openly offers ingredients available to a true bowl of udon, I’d at least expect mushrooms on the level of shitake, or at least portobello. Although, I did spot a few enochi in the batch.

It’s only been three weeks since Dake’s Grand Opening, and though my own skepticism was solidified with familiar food and average taste, it’ll be up to its patrons to decide if familiarity is all Dake needs. 
 

Dake Japanese Fusion Restaurant

519-744-7557

607 King Street West, Unit 1
Kitchener, Ontario. N2G 1C7   
 

Fri-Sat: 11am-11pm

Sun-Thurs: 11am-1030pm

ANY PAYMENT

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