Tilapia, by any other name, is still tilapia. It's definitely not red snapper.

That's what a Toronto Star investigation determined after we caught sushi restaurants passing off cheap tilapia as high-cost red snapper.

The Star collected 12 sushi samples from restaurants across the city and had them genetically tested. Ten listed on menus as the more alluring red snapper were actually tilapia. One listed as "red snapper from Japan" was red seabream. The 12th was correctly listed on the menu as red seabream but verbally identified as "Japanese snapper."

"It's common practice ... Most people know that when they order red snapper, it comes with tilapia," says John Yum, owner of Sushi & Bento Japanese & Korean Restaurant on King St. W.

"Of course, it's cheaper," he adds. "And it's not easy to get the red snapper, even with the higher price."

Tilapia costs about one-fifth the price of red snapper.

At the restaurants that substituted tilapia, two pieces of nigiri sushi (the type with a slice of fish draped over an oval of pressed rice) ranged from $3 to $4.95.

The restaurants with seabream charged about $7.

On Japanese menus, tai or dai denotes snapper.

0 Red seabream may be called tai or madai. Tilapia is izumidai.

"Anybody in the restaurant business that buys fish, they clearly know the difference," Winters says.

An experienced sushi chef, however, would be able to tell the difference between seabream and tilapia. Not so for consumers.

"Cheap restaurants, they use fake things," says Masuda, vice-president of the Japanese Restaurant Association of Canada.

