Schema Magazine

Photo courtesy of dinehere.ca

From the outside, Yummy Sushi doesn't look like much; its faded storefront is easy to miss, tucked away on Pine Street just past Fourth Avenue. Two handwritten signs on the door warn "CASH ONLY" and "NO WASHROOMS." Inside, it's a tiny space, crammed with glass patio tables and wooden chairs; the kitchen spills out into the dining area, with a sink and fridge in plain view.

Contrary to the name, this mom-and-pop diner's best-known feature is its $2.99 Western breakfast. It's a straight-up greasy-spoon experience: eggs any which way, a tangle of bacon, mountainous hashbrowns and Wonderbread-white toast. Come to this place for an excellent hangover breakfast that's greasy, unpretentious and dirt cheap. What's mysterious, though, is that there's no sign of the yummy sushi--or anything suggesting Japanese food—except for a red-and-gold cat statue by the cash register, its upraised paw pumping up and down silently.

Yummy Sushi's $2.99 breakfast special. Photo courtesy of cheapappetite.com

Ordering sushi is a cryptic business. When I come in, I'm immediately handed the diner menu, and have to call the owner back and ask about the sushi. The separate sushi menu lists an assortment of shockingly cheap maki rolls; I choose the six-piece dynamite roll for a measly $2.80. As you might expect, it isn't great: skimpy on fillings and extremely bland.

After sampling from both menus, I can't help but wonder why the owners chose such an odd combination in the first place. The diner side of the business seems much more popular, and it fills a much-needed niche in Kits. A $2.99 breakfast is a wonderful thing for basement-dwelling university students who can't afford to eat at adorable, organic Fourth Ave cafés. Cheap, tasteless sushi? Not so much of a hot commodity.

Oddly, though, I wouldn't have Yummy Sushi any other way. Something about the culture clash is charming, and I think I'll keep dragging myself there on bleary-eyed morning-afters.