REVIEW | Spice Route - who said $1 sushi nights can't be fancy?

When I think about the times I had sushi because of its low price (you know the ones I'm talking about on Bloor Street), I can tell you that the quality usually suffers, which explains why they can sell at such a low price.  However, when we found out that Spice Route, Asian Bistro & Bar had $1 sushi on Thursdays, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to try it as we knew this place isn't a cheap-eat.

The entrance is very dramatic and grandeur- when you go inside the restaurant, it's even more dramatic with the lighting, open concept booths, asian-inspired walls, furniture and floor to ceiling glass windows.

It's a beautiful place to eat, that's for sure! Seeing that there's a outdoor dining area, we'll definitely want to try that next time we visit.

After being greeted by the hostess, we're promptly taken to our table.  No matter where you sit in the restaurant, you have a good view of the entire open space.  Again the walls, there are big booths that looked like they can seat about 8-10 people.  We also saw to the side a room where a private party is in? We could be wrong.  Must check out next time!

We order a bottle of Tozai "living jewel" sake.  It was light with a bit of sweetness to it, which was good to drink with our sushi and rolls.

Since it was Thursday, we ordered from the Weekly Special Menu (view here).

The Red Hot Roll had tempura shrimp, spicy salmon, cream cheese, avocado, cucumber and tobiko.  It was delicious and SUCH A STEAL as a Thursday Night Special.  It was everything a delicious roll was - a perfect combination of ingredients complementing instead of overwhelming each other.

The White Tuna Sashimi was to die for and probably the best we've ever had.  Salmon Nigiri was pretty spectacular as well.  It's harder for simple sashimi and nigiri to be amazing unless the fish quality and the rice was perfect since they don't have various toppings and sauces to provide flavour.  However  the sushi & nigiri pieces at Spice Route were so yummy!

The Volcano Roll consists of spicy salmon, white tuna, avocado, asparagus, tobiko and chili mayo. Very flavourful as well.

So yummy that we had to get another plate of it!

After we were done, they served us these delightful Sweet Rolls, which were the perfect finish to our meal.  They were warm and crispy on the outside but as you took a bite, you can feel how soft and fluffy it was inside.  They were served with a pear sauce but we liked it better without it.

As for the service, throughout the night, our server made sure all the food was to our liking and checked up on us many times. She was friendly, efficient welcoming.  Their great service definitely made us want to come here again and try the rest of the things on the menu!