The Next

9 Reviews on “The Next”

• 3amigos

  The Next was our go-to place for lunch when we arrived for a stay in Victoria recently. Just off the ferry, in the city, looking for some lunch (while waiting for our hotel room to be available), Japanese food sounded good, and this was ‘the’ place on my Sunday short-list of open restaurants to consider. The restaurant was a short drive away from the hotel, located in the ‘Cook’s Village’ area of Victoria, with the entrance on Sutlef Street, just off Cook Street, the main drag there.It’s a small place – about 12 tables ‘for two’, but easily moved and arranged for four, or larger-sized groups of diners, plus, a bar/stools area immediately in front of the kitchen. Nothing too exciting about the decor or ambience, but it was bright, clean, and tidy.What we (a threesome) ordered and shared:- tea: when seated, we asked for some tea and water. We received a warm and tasty, green-coloured tea – apparently, it was genmaicha tea – and we were charged $2/each for it. When seeing this charge on the bill, I thought it would sure have been nice if our server had informed us of this charge before ordering.- appetizers: agedashi tofu, and prawn & veggie tempura. Both well-prepared and presented. The tofu was prepared as quite large, square pieces (as opposed to ‘cubes’) , very lightly-coated, the tofu inside soft and creamy – a big yum. The tempura pieces were lightly-battered and crispy – prawns large and succulent, veggies (green beans, broccoli, yam, squash, zucchini (?), and red onion) cut quite thin, cooked perfectly, and tasty.- sashimi: regular assorted – salmon, tuna, scallop, and another (?). Very pretty presentation. Sweet and tasty preparation, but total portion size was sure small. – rolls: avocado roll, and a more deluxe roll called ‘Canadian roll’. Very poor preparations and presentations. The two different rolls (I guess because of their very small portion sizes) were placed on the same plate, and the total presentation was certainly not especially colourful or exciting to the senses. The avocado rolls were very small and firm – the Canadian rolls much the same, though not quite as small, and they had a touch more colour (from the strip of smoked salmon on top of each piece). We were not impressed with taste of either – just barely ‘ok’ would be a high rating.Overall, our dining experience at The Next was ‘ok’, but definitely a touch disappointing from expectations.

  May 28, 2016, 10:19 pm

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• Sycvictoria

  Good food, disorganized service.Went for lunch and ordered ramen, deluxe sashimi, bbq eel and green tea. The broth was flavourful and the noodle was done ‘al dente’ perfectly. Sashimi was a combination of tuna, yellowtail, scallop and wild salmon, FRESH FRESH FRESH!!! Now the not so great part, the eel was mushy and had an after taste-definitely was not fresh. The tea was not freshly brewed, instead a finely ground powder was used, which was fine, it tasted good. However, my mug never came back when I asked for a refill. Finally, the bill … they forgot to ring in the 10% discount for the ramen.I will go back and try their dinner, just hope they have more experienced servers to help out.

  May 1, 2016, 1:42 am

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