Delicate Omakase in Toronto – Sushi Yugen

Sushi Yugen offers two types of seating – the sushi bar and a chef’s counter which serves a more kaiseki type meal. I prefer more sushi, but this was a bit of a last minute booking for me so I booked the chef’s counter. Note that the sushi omakase is significantly cheaper than the chef’s counter (just below $100 vs $275). Here was the menu that evening:

Things started a bit slowly, about 30 minutes past our seating time. It turns out that one of the owners was dining with us that evening and she informed us that the menu we had that evening was new so it is understandable that it was a bit slow to start. Anyway, the first course was a tiger prawn mochi and salad:

The flavors were very delicate. I thought that the salad, while good, could of used some acidity. The taste of the ocean was present in a very pleasant way. The mochi was actually the round white slice on top of the above dish, and the prawn was in a meatball format, I thought it was quite good.

Next was the white fish truffle. The presentation was in an ice sphere and very unique. I appreciated the work that must of gone into it. Again, the flavors were delicate, but the truffle taste was prominent which is good because sometimes a chef will shave truffles on to something and the truffle taste is not present. When I say delicate, its almost as if my mouth was craving more flavor so I wanted to eat more. This is totally different from bland which has no flavor at all.

The next dish was an oyster with yuzu jelly. I asked to sub the oyster, because I had a really bad experience with oyster last week in St. Mortiz. They gave me tuna with yuzu and caviar. The jelly was well done.

Here was my wife’s oyster:

The next dish was a chicken chawanmushi with truffle. This dish was outstanding:

Next, some braised fish:

…and then my favorite hot dish of the night, duck soba. The broth and the duck had really savory flavors. I was glad the chef didn’t make the broth delicate, this was bold and had good balance of sweet and savory. The only thing I was a bit disappointed is that they didn’t make their own soba at this level of cooking, and the soba should be more aldente:

The last dish before sushi was abalone. Usually, I am not a fan but the way they cooked it, and the sauce was really good. After you eat the abalone slices, the chef will drop some rice in your bowl so you can eat the sauce up:

Finally, it was time for sushi. The first piece, hotate, was just ok:

Squid was good with good use of citrus and perfect amount of wasabi:

The ishidai was interesting because it was a bit chewy, but in a good way. The rice was very good:

otoro:

A very sweet and delicious uni:

anago:

The last few dishes were unagi on rice. The chef presented the unagi being grilled over binchotan.

It was cooked perfectly and you could hear the crunch as the chef sliced up each piece. It was served with miso:

The last dish was a mille feuille for dessert:

Overall, this was a really good meal. I think that they should serve more sushi though or at least offer people the option to add more pieces. Service was very good. The atmosphere was traditional Japanese. The room is separate from the sushi bar. Overall, I would return for the sushi omakase and also would recommend this place.