Ordered two noodle dishes - tako sunomono & beef yakisoba - among others. It was the best sunomono I've ever had! The noodle was perfect, not over done like all the other places. And I have tried this starter at every Japanese place that I go to. But the yakisoba was bad. Too oily, salty and burned. What I noticed was anything from the front (i.e sashimi and rolls) were good, but anything made from the back kitchen was bad. So beware... don't order items from the kitchen.

I keep going back with groups that want to go. I will bail next time. I have always been seated in the storage room in the back, never in the real restaurant. There you can smell the garbage out back as well as the cooks smoking. yUK. The waitresses get a lot of the orders wrong and they often serve one person, and then tow more 10 mminutes later etc. Whenever it's ready it's brought without consideration of the entire party. The sushi is good but the miso soup is over priced for a 1/2 portion and not very good. I don't feel like I've had a good time when I leave.

This is a duplicate posting to the one I left for "Toyo Tomi" (2 words) - apparently the same place is being reviewed under 2 different names, so here goes again:

Lunched at Toyo Tomi on the advice of a friend who works in the neighbourhood. All we wanted was a bento box, but the lunch hour crowd had packed the visible seats in the front of the restaurant. There was a table right by the door that was empty, but to their credit they advised us that the cold air from the front door opening and closing would make that table unpleasant. So we waited and waited, expecting that the staff was expecting one of the tables would leave as 1 pm was approaching. Instead we were finally told that a table was being set for us "in the back". Led down a long hall past the kitchen in the general direction of the bathrooms, to find ourselves in a dimly lit windowless cavern with a couple of tables (less than half of them occupied, so why the long wait at the front desk??). This was a depressing, charmless room devoid of music or any redeeming quality at all. The overhead lights were some sort of industrial vapour lamps that gave off a weak but sickly blue light - the kind that make even healthy people with tans look cadaverous. Why they have the front seating area squished into about 1/4 of the total floor space of the restaurant is quite beyond me. Whatever the reason, the experience of eating what turned out to be an otherwise tasty and fairly priced bento box in a room that only an undertaker could enjoy was just too much. I'd go back for the food and location, but I won't sit anywhere but up front. Nor should you.

One of the worst service experiences I ever encountered. Which is unfortunate because my wife and I have been eating here since 2007. But the service and food quality have been going downhill over time. They don't seem to have the passion anymore, like they once did. And that's the unfortunate thing with many restaurants. They can either stay passionate about their product and continue to be consistent over time, or they lose their passion and it shows in the deterioration of both service and food quality.
The spark is lost and you can see it in the eyes of the staff. Sure they will stay busy with a strong loyal customer base. But overtime, long term customers will experience the loss of quality that I have experienced.
Tonight was the camels back. After being seated and reading over the menu, we were ready to order. A waitress tried delivering another tables order to us, but didn't notice we still had menus in our hands and the order was for someone else. Another 10 minutes passed and I had to approach the sushi bar to tell them we were ready to order (no floor awareness). Asked for no onions in the tempora udon but they didn't get it right. Waited 10 minutes and still waiting for return of onionless soup. Had to get up again to hunt down waitress to ask where soup dish was. Finally brought to table, no apologies or acknowledgement whatsoever. Maybe my standards are high, but I expect service where I'm not having to ask for help. As for the food: Katsudon was dry, agedashi tofu didn't have enough sauce. Waited for more tea but it didn't come for the rest of the meal. This is not typical service at a Japanese restaurant, or any restaurant for that matter. Had to get up and ask for the bill. If I didn't we'd probably still be waiting for it.
When paying the bill explaineed to the manager about the poor service and she didn't even give eye contact. it seemed she just wanted our money. Her passion had disappeared, which is sad because I remember this restaurant when it was once sound. This is very unfortunate as one time they were on my top 3 list of Japanese restaurants in the lower mainland in the $30-40 range for two people. I felt compelled to write a review as soon as we came home as I will not eat at this restaurant anymore. What's funny is the manager knew us from our previous visits and it was their lack of sincerety and empathy that was most concerning, when we brought our service experience to her attention. Very unfortunate.

Decor was ok and the value for the meals were pretty reasonable. Service was actually pretty good, with frequent tea stops. The sake there was always nice and hot. Just how I like it. I love their daily specials.

Only complaint I have is that when you order take out, they lack any customer service. How about a smile girls? Is it too much to ask for? Oh, and their beef sashimi is overpriced and sweet. It shouldn't be sweet, it should be slightly sour-tangy with a hint of spiciness. I don't want to pay $9 for less than 10 pieces. I've been to other places that charge less for more.

this place has so many "special" rolls, and a lot of them are really good. my favourite is the toyotomi II roll. the crispy onions topping is wicked good. they also have a great selection of small donburi's to choose from that are really inexpensive. the ambiance isn't great, but as long as the food is good and the tables/plates clean, that's good times for my stomach.

I have introduced 50% of my co-workers to Toyotomi, taking them away from other local sushi joints, and they all agree that this is the best one around.The food here tastes fresh and delicious. I know that some people have said that is not authentic japanese, but since I am not a connoisseur, I welcome their adaptations to please our western tastebuds.
I only wish that the owners make an effort to make the ambiance brighter, cleaner and more attractive, even if not expensive.

We happened upon Toyotomi on our way home from the beach on Canada Day. We understand that holidays are a busy time for businesses, so we were really lenient on the service.

What we cannot excuse is how the hostess chose to service two take out orders and take a long, extended phone order while we "waited to be seated". We cannot excuse the fact that there were several other servers and employees in the restaurant, and that there were three clean and empty tables just *waiting* to be occupied by me and the man (TM). We also cannot excuse the fact that once the hostess was done with her multitude of tasks, all she did was take two menus from a stack that we had been perusing for 10-15 minutes, nod at us, and walk 1.5 meters to a table and gesture that it was our table.

What. Was. That.

It also took a while for the server to notice us and take our order, which was just aggravating, seeing as we had our menus closed and were in a major traffic area where many servers passed us.

However, the food was cheap and there were many appetizing specials. I believe we had the rainbow roll for under $4 that day, although I must make it known that since it is a special, they only give you about half a roll. We also had an assorted sashimi, katsu udon, and another roll combo.

I felt that the food was good value, but the service was extremely lacking. Sashimi freshness may be an issue, but as we arrived at about 7pm on a busy day, I think it was just the opening and closing of the sashimi refridgerators that was more of a problem, not particularly the quality of the fish.

Personally, I would go back, just to try some of their daily specials, but without a website or a hard copy "reference" of their specials menu, as well as TMs discouragement, I don't think I'll be returning soon.

on fridays they have an alaska roll special...best in town! the other sushi rolls are all great too, but this is also easily the best value in town. we go for lunch on friday's just for the alaska rolls....the sashimi is good too. and so is the teriyaki chicken...but we mostly stick to the sushi..yum

I always have a good experience at this place. I generally don't order 'cooked' foods at Japanese places, so I can't comment on terriyaki or anything. The rolls are always good-sized. They have the best salads - I really love the ohitashi (largest portion I have ever seen, by far) and the garden salad (they use red leaf lettuce instead of iceburg). I know the owners aren't Japanese, but they still have decent food, so I will continue to patronise!