late night AYCE for $12.50 is OK

[Idil]

One thing Taisho has going for them is its convenient location. Their late night menu at 8:30pm is a great ending to a shopping trip. Now don't get me wrong as Burnaby, especially Kingsway has a lot of better sushi choices, but that would require getting back into my car and driving, so I ended up at Taisho.

My main issue with Taisho is the food quality. Not exactly bad, but most kitchen items (tempura, teriyaki, gyozas) were barely warm when they arrived. Deep fried items like the karrage and katsu looked like they were fried twice and tasted like it too resulting in a hard, not crispy texture. Both were also luke warm. Rolls fell apart easily and we had to send back the toro sashimi because it really didn't taste "right" / fresh enough.

As for service, our server started talking to a friend in the middle of taking our order. (We sat by the mall window and he happened to pass by and they started to have a conversation with me and my partner in between) She then later realized this was wrong and apologized.

Tea was refilled and she was nice but just a little inexperienced. Wrong food was sent to our table and the wait was long for some items. I agree with others that the 10% tip is silly especially since we were a table of 2 not 8. Judging from the way the restaurant is run I guess not everyone tips 10% with good justification.

Value: $12.50 for the late night all you can eat menu. While this looks cheap, the menu is limited with no sashimi unless you add on 5 pieces and a pop for another $2.25. They have sashimi salad, which is a few pieces of sashimi on a bed of greens / spicy salmon sashimi (Limit 1 order each). Both weren't very good btw.

Paid $31.40 for two people (inclu. 2 pops) considering the quality of the food, I would rather spend a few bucks more and go elsewhere.

Ambiance was good and the washrooms were clean and the restaurant was clean.