When I travel, I've taken to ordering delivery or takeout poke. It is kinda my travel thing, ideal for when I just need an easy option on evenings when I'm too worn out to even imagine going out to another fancy meal, and when I want something fairly reliable, moderately healthy, but fun.
And thus, my first night in Toronto, I ordered poke delivery ... while still in a cab from the airport. It arrived right when I did. Perfect.
My venue of choice was a chain, Rolltation, with locations all over Toronto. Home of sushi burritos, plus the bowls I was after. Not exactly known for plentiful quality sushi options, but every category of the menu had something that really appealed to me, and Yelp reviews were solid, so, it was an easy pick.
Ordering online was easy, I had many options, and went with Uber Eats. It was delivered even ahead of estimate, no troubles there.
But the actual product ... was just fine. I wouldn't really order again.
Menu
Rolltation basically just makes made to order burritos/rice bowls/salads, with a few pre-set options, or "Roll your own" style.
All creations come as your choice of sushi burrito, poke bowl (with white or brown rice), or salad (with kale or lettuce). I was pleased to see the kale option.
Next, protein. Vegetarians can go for tofu, seafood lovers have two shrimp options, either just boiled or tempura, and those who actually want raw fish can pick between salmon or tuna. Your carnivorous non-seafood eating friends can select chicken or beef. Again, I was pleased to see things like tempura shrimp, as I haven't been into raw fish as much these days.
Then it is time for "veggies", only 3 are included, with options that are fairly standard raw ingredients (cucumbers, onion, carrot, cabbage, tomato, red pepper, kale, lettuce, jicama, jalapeno), plus a few cooked vegetables (purple potato, asparagus, edamame). You can add 2 more for $0.50 each, but no more. Again, I was happy enough to see things like jicama and asparagus on the lineup.
The next category though was odd, just called "toppings", and only 3 included. This section spanned everything from cheese (?), to kimchi or kidney beans (??), to more standard poke additions like mango, pickled ginger, pickled radish, avocado, two kinds of tobiko, green onion, corn, and seaweed salad or kani salad (for $1 extra each), and then more wildcards like tangerine and even pork floss (yes!). Many carried a supplemental fee of $0.50-$1.50. If you wanted more, again, only 2 more were allowed, no matter how much you are willing to pay. I loved the sounds of so many things here, and wanted far more than 5 I could order.
Then sauce. A huge lineup of sauces, including 5 types of mayonnaise (sriracha, wasabi, teriyaki, spicy sesame, or plain), fun things like green curry, katsu, and teriyaki, and standards like unagi, sriracha, and even, uh, mango sauce. Here you could select 2 and no more. I did like that you can specify regular, extra, slim, or on the side, and I loved the lineup, I just wanted to pick more.
And last but not least, my favorite category: CRUNCH! But again, limitations! Only two allowed, no matter how much you pay. I wanted lotus chips AND tempura bits AND furikake AND garlic crisps, and I had no way to do it.
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| Roll Your Own: Salmon Burrito. $12.79. |
It was a generous size, well stuffed.
He did mention that he prefers Sushirrito, in SF, though.
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| Roll Your Own: Tempura Shrimp. | $11.99 |
I opted for a kale base, and cabbage, jicama, and asparagus as my three veggies. The kale was fine, curly kale, but a fairly small portion. Again fine, but, if you were expecting a generous salad, this was not it. The shredded cabbage (red and green) and shredded jicama were also fine, fairly crispy, and in nearly as much quantity as the kale itself. I liked the base they formed all together, lots of good crunch.
The asparagus was more boring than I expected, and I admit, I ordered this in March, in Toronto, having just left San Francisco where asparagus season started a week or two before, and I had been eating incredible grilled asparagus daily. This ... was just steamed asparagus. 4-5 half pieces. It was tender enough, not woody, but quite boring.
So my base was fine, and I liked having a salad option that wasn't mixed greens, but nothing extraordinary here.
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| Top Layer: Pickled radish, kani salad, wasabi tobiko, garlic crisps. |
Starting with what you can see, two of my toppings, wasabi tobiko (+$0.50 for the wasabi version) and pickled radish. The tobiko definitely wasn't worthy of one of my 3 slots, nor the upcharge, just a tiny, tiny, tiny scoop of green tobiko, that was completely lost in here. I didn't taste any wasabi at all.
I adore daikon (pickled radish), so I was trilled to see the three large yellow slices right on top, but they lacked any flavor, didn't seem pickled at all, and were thin ... not a style I've seen before.
Digging under that layer I finally found ... most of the rest of the ingredients I selected.
My final "topping" was tamago, and I uncovered it to find 3 slices. The tamago was ... fine? It wasn't the sweet awesome "dessert" style I get at a sushi restaurant, but it wasn't too eggy/omelet-y, if that makes any sense. I wouldn't get it again though.
My final extra slot went to the meat floss (+$0.50, so rare to find!), but sadly there wasn't particularly a lot of it. I also wanted bigger clumps, but it was still a fun thing to get the chance to add.
And finally, the protein choice I went for: tempura shrimp. You can see two of them here, once I unburied them, on top. The tempura shrimp was ... not good. At all. Three pieces, every single one limp and soggy. Uh, not what I look for in my tempura. Two were pale blonde, one darker. At least they were not soggy, and added some protein? Not that I needed the protein, with the tamago and kani in there too.
The crunch elements I really wanted, and had picked, the lotus chips and tempura bits, and the additional furikake were never found. Sad, sad, sad.
So overall, not much exciting here, even though the ingredients *sounded* so different and appealing.
And finally, sauces! I asked for my two included ones on the side, and asked for two more too. It was hard enough just picking 4, I kinda wanted them all. Unlike the crunch toppings, at least I did get these.
The sauces ... were ... interesting.
Top left is the teriyaki mayonnaise, I think, as it was fairly sweet. Creamy, sweet, ok, and I dunked several things into it.
Top right was ... THE WORST. I think this was the katsu. It just tasted ... bad. I can't even really describe it. It just had a funk, not a good one. I did not like it at all.
Then, bottom right, unagi. I think. This was very sweet, tasted a lot like teriyaki. They do have a teriyaki sauce too though, so I'm not convinced this is what I ordered either.
And last, spicy sesame. This one was actually good, a creamy style, that certainly seemed like mayo, but perhaps was just rich from sesame seeds? I thought this might be a spicy thin sesame oil / soy sauce type dressing with sesame seeds, and it most certainly wasn't. I liked the creaminess, the flavor, slight spice. I dunked nearly everything in this, and mixed it into my salad base.
I used up one of my two extra slots for kani salad (+$1.00), since I love crab, particularly fake crab, and I was pleased with this choice. Definitely the best element in my bowl. A decent sized scoop, just shredded fake crab, in mayo. I would gladly take more and more of it.
And finally, crunch. I selected my top two crunch as the two I could select (lotus chips, tempura bits), but they were nowhere to be seen. In the notes, I said I'd love to have furikake and garlic crisps too. The furikake was also no where to be seen, but I could see garlic crisps right on top. They were ... uh, garlic-y? I wasn't particularly pleased with the flavor combo, but that is my own bad choice. There was a generous amount of them, not just right on top.
So overall, fairly lackluster layer, but the kani salad was the star.
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| A few more ingredients ... tamago, meat floss, tempura shrimp. |
My final "topping" was tamago, and I uncovered it to find 3 slices. The tamago was ... fine? It wasn't the sweet awesome "dessert" style I get at a sushi restaurant, but it wasn't too eggy/omelet-y, if that makes any sense. I wouldn't get it again though.
My final extra slot went to the meat floss (+$0.50, so rare to find!), but sadly there wasn't particularly a lot of it. I also wanted bigger clumps, but it was still a fun thing to get the chance to add.
And finally, the protein choice I went for: tempura shrimp. You can see two of them here, once I unburied them, on top. The tempura shrimp was ... not good. At all. Three pieces, every single one limp and soggy. Uh, not what I look for in my tempura. Two were pale blonde, one darker. At least they were not soggy, and added some protein? Not that I needed the protein, with the tamago and kani in there too.
The crunch elements I really wanted, and had picked, the lotus chips and tempura bits, and the additional furikake were never found. Sad, sad, sad.
So overall, not much exciting here, even though the ingredients *sounded* so different and appealing.
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| Sauces: Teriyaki Mayonnaise, Katsu, Unagi, Spicy Sesame. |
The sauces ... were ... interesting.
Top left is the teriyaki mayonnaise, I think, as it was fairly sweet. Creamy, sweet, ok, and I dunked several things into it.
Top right was ... THE WORST. I think this was the katsu. It just tasted ... bad. I can't even really describe it. It just had a funk, not a good one. I did not like it at all.
Then, bottom right, unagi. I think. This was very sweet, tasted a lot like teriyaki. They do have a teriyaki sauce too though, so I'm not convinced this is what I ordered either.
And last, spicy sesame. This one was actually good, a creamy style, that certainly seemed like mayo, but perhaps was just rich from sesame seeds? I thought this might be a spicy thin sesame oil / soy sauce type dressing with sesame seeds, and it most certainly wasn't. I liked the creaminess, the flavor, slight spice. I dunked nearly everything in this, and mixed it into my salad base.
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