[Richmond Hill] Sushi Tei

Review Location
115 Times Avenue
Richmond Hill, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Highway 7 Rd & Valleymede Dr.)

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Having not eaten sushi for a while, this was a much anticipated meal for me. My blog probably needs this injection of a sushi review as well, since it seems like I had a good dominating Japanese theme going on!

When I found out that Sushi Tei is a Korean-Japanese fusion restaurant, I was immediately skeptical about how much I would enjoy this place. I am a huge fan of Japanese and Korean food individually, but I'm not too fond of is most Korean influenced Japanese food. I'm not saying that all Korean made sushi is terrible (because quite frankly in my opinion Sushi Bong can kick a lot of Japanese place out of the water), just that most of the time I don't find it as satisfying. However, rob had been here before and commented that it was alright so we decided to eat here anyways.

Sushi Tei Menu and Table Setting

Restaurant decor

The restaurant is a very spacious, and I found its decor to be very refreshing. For a Friday night, you can see from the picture that it was definitely under capacity. On the bright side, the service was relatively fast. All our food ended up coming at the same time! They had upbeat and catchy Asian music playing and almost made me feel like I was watching a fashion show! In order to have the true korean japanese fusion experience, we ordered both Japanese and Korean dishes.

Spider Roll ($9.95) -Soft shell crab with flying fish egg and avocado

The rolls were exactly as I invisioned most korean sushi rolls to be. Slightly damper rice that lacks rice vinegar, and a roll composition that is loosly bound. I must admit that in terms of ingredients and rice balance, this was right on. The soft shell crab was crunchy and tasty. A Teriyaki-tasting sauce was drizzled over it, and topped with a salty spice. In my opinion the roll was too salty if you intended on dipping it in soya sauce.

"Chrashi Sushi" ($13.95) – Sliced fresh raw fish and seafood over a bed of seasoned rice

Close up of the Sashimi in "Chrashi Sushi"

I was really attracted to the plating of the Chrashi Sushi. It's so colourful that it makes me happy just looking at it! This is the first place I've been to where they actually put ingredients other than raw fish with the rice. The egg, fish roe, seaweed salad, and crab meat would've been a nice bonus, if it wasn't drench with a excessively salty teriyaki sauce. I'm starting to see a pattern with the Japanese food here. The saltiness didn't make it taste bad, just made me really thirsty afterwards. The sashimi itself was actually quite good. They were thick cut pieces of considerably quality fish. While I normally don't enjoy having white tuna that much, it was not bad here and not frozen like it is at most places. Definitely would've enjoyed this Chrashi more if they toned down on the sodium.

 Korean Appetizers 

"Pork Bone Soup" ($8.95) -Pork neck bone soup with potato

While the description on the menu says it comes with potato, I do not recall having any in my bowl of Pork bone soup. It literally was just pork bone, and soup. The soup came out boiling, so at the beginning I just picked off the meat. The meat was practically falling off the bone and came off effortlessly. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but on top of the pork and in the soup there is a handful of these tiny hollow seeds. I later did a little research and found out they are perilla seeds. They don't really taste like anything, but added a nice crunch.


At the end of the meal, I feel like I needed to drink a galon of water from all the salt. It was a pretty unmemorable experience. Everything was up to standards by the books, but for whatever reason it just didn't cause sparks to fly. I wouldn't go out of my way to seek the food here, but I also wouldn't be against coming back as it does serve up a filling decently priced meal. I still stand by my opinion that however similar Korean sushi may be in substance to Japanese sushi, it is by no means identical.