Calgary, AB — Towa Sushi

Towa Sushi 2116 4th Street SW Calgary, AB

(403) 245-8585 website map

The disoriented author asked for the best sushi restaurant in Calgary. The one that made everyone's list was Towa Sushi. Towa is located just south of the city center (centre since this is Canada). After my evening swim at the Eau Claire YMCA, I took a taxi to Towa.

Towa is a beautifully decorated Japanese restaurant. The walls and decor are done in an off-white bordering on green. I walked in and was greeted by the waitstaff and the four chefs behind the sushi bar. Imagine my surprise, this is the first time I have ever seen female sushi chefs.

The table setup was interesting. Each table had a glass box with gari (Japanese ginger) and two unlabeled soy sauce bottles. The gari was a nice touch but imagine my surprise when I discovered that one of the bottles was a thick sweet terriyaki sauce.

When I opened the menu I saw something intriguing, the Towa Duck Salad. The salad has warm duck on a bed of field greens with shitaake mushrooms, fresh papaya and yellow peppers. The salad was wonderful. I have not had fr sh papaya in 30 years and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. The tastes went together sublimely. The salad was huge and with a bowl of Miso soup, it could have been a complete meal.

Unfortunately I didn't have the salad as a meal, I went on and ordered a sashimi combo. Sushipilgrim, however rates restaurants primarily on the quality of sushi and sashimi. I loved the salad but I cannot say the same about the sashimi.

I ordered the sashimi combo. It was a disappointment in nearly every way. The sashimi was served on a bed of ice chips. The waitress brought the sashimi while I was still working on  my soup and salad. By the time I was ready for the sashimi the ice had started to melt. The sashimi was served with a pile of shredded sweet onions instead of the shredded Japanese radishes. I thought the onions were to strong and overpowered the normally delicate sashimi. By the time I ate it, the sashimi had deteriorated into a fishy slush or sno-cone.

Even before it melted, the sashimi was arranged rather artlessly around the icy plate. The fish chosen were hard to differentiate from one another by either texture or color. There was only one piece of mackerel and and the salmon was not very firm.

The maki(rolls) served to neighboring tables looked to be carefully made and nicely arranged. One last complaint is that the sashimi was cut into long strips about 15cm long (metric since this is Canada). The pieces were folded in the middle, making it very hard to eat with chopsticks.

Towa Sushi seemed was full of promise but did not quite deliver.

Towa Sushi: 2 rice bowls