CoCoLo

rainbow roll

When you have three children under the age of 11, going out to eat as family often ends up being a lunch affair. We needed to head to West Fourth for some shoe shopping, and since we'd been meaning to check out CoCoLo, we took advantage of the opportunity.

When we walked in shortly after noon on one Sunday in February, we were only briefly confused until we realized that they were empty because it was during the Olympics.  The server who greeted us gave us the pick of tables or, even better, a tatami room. After our children started into the room with their shoes on, our server's reminder to remove shoes was quick but completely professional; we did not feel the least bit admonished.

We took a long time deciding, and while we caught glimpses of our server walking past our room, he did not disturb us until we were ready to order. Our children have various food allergies, and inevitably, special orders are par for the course. In the better restaurants, this often means that the server makes a trip or two to the kitchen to ask the chef, and sometimes, the manager or chef will come to our table to make sure we are accommodated properly. Our server conferred with the sushi chef and gave us a thumbs up for our off-the-menu sushi requests.

saba

In a world where sustainable seafood is an important consideration, mackerel is a fine choice, at least for now. This fast-growing fish is not only relatively abundant, but it is full of healthy Omega-3 fatty acids. Some people might think it has a strong flavour, but ordering a grilled saba, is a tasty way of experiencing mackerel.

We could show you what we ordered for the children, but realistically, if you've seen one avocado roll, it's not too exciting. Even a tofu roll, which you don't see every day, is kind of boring, white tofu with white rice in black nori. Okay, okay, in reality, those photos just did not come out. The first photo above, is the rainbow roll we ordered. Yes, it is far from an adventurous sushi choice, but it's hard to deny that it sure is pretty.

Knowing the restaurant was pretty empty and that they did not need our table, we enjoyed a leisurely meal. If you peruse the menu, you will see that the prices are significantly higher than your run-of-the-mill sushi joint, but on par with some of the higher-end Japanese restaurants. Given our menu choices for the children, we are unlikely to return with them, but perhaps we'll return sans kids for dinner one day.