Nobu’s all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch ($110 per person, $55 for children 5-12 years old) is sprinkled throughout the second floor of the restaurant. As you’re guided to your table, hot food and carving stations line the walkway, doing a great job of whetting your appetite. Front and centre in the bright dining room is the sushi bar, where a team of chefs continuously turns out maki and nigiri. Off in the corner sits the dessert table, with a ceviche and spicy cucumber salad ice bar tucked in for good measure.

I appreciated how the food stations are spaced out. There’s no dreaded bottleneck of diners waiting, nor that frantic urge to grab everything at once just to avoid lining up again.

Chef Nobu Matsuhisa was one of the pioneers of Japanese-Peruvian cuisine back in the mid-90s. At the time, dishes like spicy tuna crispy rice and yellowtail crudo felt fresh and exciting, while miso black cod became a signature that kept people coming back. These are still dishes I enjoy, but decades later they’ve been copied endlessly, making what’s served at Nobu feel far less groundbreaking than it once was.

If you’re going for the miso black cod, make sure you get it hot. My first bite, taken from a platter that had been sitting, was bland and slightly fishy. A second round, straight from a freshly placed tray, was noticeably better. It’s tasty, but it didn’t rank among the best miso cods I’ve had.

The crispy rice station is a great idea in theory, but the execution falters. The wooden spoons make it awkward to scoop up the rice nuggets, and many of the serving utensils (spring-hinged chopsticks and oversized soup ladles) are poorly suited for a buffet.

Thankfully, the soft-serve ice cream station sits right beside the crispy rice, so I grabbed a simple stainless steel teaspoon. It turned out to be the perfect tool for neatly dolloping finely chopped tuna, salmon, and mashed avocado onto each bite. The crispy rice itself would benefit from being thinner and longer for easier spreading and eating.

Unsurprisingly, the sushi was underwhelming, even when taken from freshly dropped plates. The rice was bland and too cold, though at least the pieces were kept small, letting the fish take centre stage. All things considered, it’s better than most buffet sushi, though I usually steer clear of buffet sushi stations altogether.

Some of my favourite bites ended up being the unexpected ones. Nobu’s Greek salad has a generous feta-to-vegetable ratio that leans salty but spooning it over the garden salad below helps balance things out nicely.

The prime rib carving station also drew me back for seconds. While the meat quality wasn’t exceptional, the variety of sauces made it fun to sample and customize each bite.

Despite not having a big sweet tooth, I found it hard to resist the dessert spread. The pandan-laced crème brûlée and flan-like matcha panna cotta were standouts. Just do yourself a favour and skip the dry Earl Grey beignets.

Nobu offers something for everyone including the breakfast staples of bacon, sausage, tater tots, and eggs. Just be warned: their scrambled eggs are the ultra-soft, almost runny style popular in many Asian cuisines, which isn’t for everyone.

Nobu’s Sunday brunch is fun and indulgent - just don’t expect to be blown away by anything. It’s worth doing once for the experience and is a great option for an unhurried catch-up with loved ones (they did not kick us out after 2 hours). Some hits, some misses, and plenty of options to keep everyone at the table happy. Just make sure you grab the good stuff while it’s hot.

I feel bad for restaurants waiting for their liquor license. The most profitable menu items can’t be sold, and staff suffer from paltry gratuities from lower bill totals. If available, I generally get a drink. Yet, the regulators were dragging their feet as not a drop was available during the first two months of opening. After I got over the initial disappointment, I left the meals feeling great! Satisfied and nourished in a healthy way. Maybe I don’t need wine in my life.

Limon starts off the meal with a pickle plate that usually contains a combination of cabbage, cucumbers, and carrots. Lightly vinegared and salty, the pickles help wet the appetite.

Almost every table gets a dip and while the typical babaganoush and hummus are available, the eggplant and pepper dip ($9) intrigued me. Starting with a base of roasted eggplant, slivers of quickly smoked pepper and raw celery & onion are mixed in, so the dip is creamy and crunchy. As a babaganoush lover, I thoroughly enjoyed this version! Without tahini the dip is lighter and brighter.

Still their bababanoush ($9) is good with large chunks of eggplant and tons of tahini turning it creamy. It's just a touch sweet for me.

For the carb conscious, the dips arrive without a pita ($1.50), so you won’t be tempted. I wanted one with the eggplant and pepper… it’s your regular run-of-the-mill thick pocketed pita.

It's remarkable how much they can stuff in a pita. You'll need to unhinge your jaw to bite into lamb kefta in a pita ($18), the ground meat kebab juicy and each bite bringing different flavours. The bites with their zesty and slightly spicy amba sauce are my favourite and despite the abundance of onion, they're well soaked so the acidity is removed and a crunchy sweetness remains.

Their sandwiches arrive solo but is enough to satisfy. The price for a side of French fries ($11) is a bit steep but it's a huge portion, enough to share amongst three.

The beef shish kabob ($30) was a tad chewy but at least cooked well and perfectly seasoned and not overly salty. I recommend upgrading to their Greek salad ($4 supplement), a village style version containing large chunks of juicy ripe tomato, crunchy cucumber, briny creamy feta, and onions. Limon augments the salad with roasted red paper and capers adding a savoury smoky element that’s delicious.

If you’re in the mood for beef, order the strip steak ($34) instead. It’s less grizzly and you get a sizeable portion of meat cooked to your liking.

With three pieces of fish arriving in the roasted rainbow trout ($30), this is a shareable main. It's well cooked with crispy skin and tender meat and simply topped with onions and pomegranate seeds. 

Having visited on three occasions, the sole visit the restaurant wasn't full was during a weekday lunch. And when it gets busy the ordering and paying process slows down as Limon creates a bottleneck by flowing both operations into one person, who I assume is the manager. Despite a number of workers, they seem to focus on serving, refilling water, and cleaning up. If you ask one to take an order or pay, the request gets redirected to the manager. What an odd way to slow down table turnover at a restaurant.

Warning: the tightly packed tables create a loud ambient noise at the restaurant. It’s a bit much at first, but as the meal progresses, I tuned it out. When the weather’s nice and they open the front windows, it almost feels like you’re sitting al fresco somewhere a bit more exotic than Midtown Toronto. A beautiful meal indeed.

Dark chocolate and espresso is incorporated into the cake’s batter to balance out the caramel sauce and sweet meringue topping. As you enjoy the moist cake, there are so many flavours and textures that start to peek through … and just like that, the dessert’s done.

• Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
• 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
• 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
• 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
• 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
• 10 - absolute perfection!

• Globe Bistro
• Entice Culinary Lounge