Yukashi Japanese Cuisine
This quint Japanese omakase-style restaurant hidden in midtown Toronto crafts gorgeous and imaginative dishes. The dining room intimately seats around 24 people, with light music by Joe Hisaishi playing in the background.
I had the pleasure of trying their 9 course summer tasting menu here.
The cover image was their fish dish; otoro, red snapper, and smoked yellowtail. Every piece of it was rich and fatty.
Their starter was uni from Hokkaido served on top of a bed of yam foam garnished with shiso flower served on a crisp lotus leaf. The uni was delicately sweet, which was well balanced by the shiso flower’s unique flavor.
This was my favorite dish, modeled after a summer garden in Kyoto. The dish felt like a carefully tended garden full of mysteries to be explored. The centerpiece of the dish was cubes of Miyazaki A5 wagyu beef, surrounded by leaves and moss made from tempura and matcha biscuits. Eating the wagyu didn’t require chewing. A light press on the cubes with my tongue was enough for the decadent beefy flavor to permeate my taste buds.
Squid ink pasta with monkfish liver as the sauce. The monkfish liver was full of umami like uni without any of its fishy taste.
Egg custard made with corn.
Their red snapper with winter melon broth was refreshing but slightly bitter.
I forgot to take photos of the other dishes(︶︹︺). One of them was the chef’s signature; Foie gras and Hokkaido uni wrapped in Miyazaki wagyu and torched. The other was a Salmon roe rice ball paired with miso soup. The dessert was a piece of Japanese crown musk melon.