Cho SAN Sushi — Restaurant in Markham

My friend and I tried out the $260 dine-in omakase at Cho San and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Cho San emphasized heavily on the quality of the ingredients and fish served, with plenty of them flown in fresh from Japan multiple times each week. The chefs served fish that were typically not seen in other omakases and I can definitely tell they prioritize on the quality of the ingredients used and can see the chefs really dedicated his craft into making the experience special for his customers.

We started off with a smoked seabream sashimi app, followed by a noodle appetizer that was topped with abalone (and liver sauce) and uni. We then got a piece of sea eel tempura and a grilled fish piece which were all tasty. A light fish broth was also served. Afterwards we were served the nigiri main course which ended with a piece of uni and a tasty negi-toro handroll. Each piece was crafted with perfection and tastiness in mind and I enjoyed every single piece of it, especially the triggerfish with triggerfish liver and the o-toro kama, which was soooo soft and fatty and had such a nice texture to it. The shrimp was actually live and freshly steamed, and the freshness/sweetness of the shrimp was really enhanced by this preparation. For desserts, we each got a home-made matcha ice cream which was of perfect sweetness while also having the proper matcha flavour! Chef also gave us a new brown sugar soy ice cream to try which i enjoyed a lot as well.

As for the environment, I found this omakase to be quite intimate and actually had a homey feel to it. We were served by only the chef and his assistant, and both were very friendly and knowledgeable, with them explaining each dish and ingredients with great details. I definitely prefer this over some other omakases out there that were more 'luxury' in vibes!

We were told that if we return in the future, the chefs will try their best to curate a menu for us with ingredients that we likely havent tried, and i definitely look forward to visiting again...

Cho San Sushi is a new sushi establishment on Woodbine, in the same plaza as Cafe n One. Chef Zhang, former sushi chef of Zen Sushi (a high end premium sushi restaurant) became well known over the pandemic for making premium omakase sushi boxes ordered via Instagram. With the popularity of the online business, Cho San now has a physical space with beautiful wooden interiors. Fridges with a large selection of fish imported from Japan line one wall of the space. You can order sushi off their menu or select sashimi grade fish by weight from the fridge, and watch as they prepare your food behind the plexiglass enclosed, open concept sushi prep counter.

Maki options are more limited than other sushi places. You won’t find Dragon Rolls or Rainbow Rolls here. Unique to Cho San is that they offer is a premium chirashi box and omakase takeout box ($100 each). Although steep in price for a takeout order, this includes otoro and similar premium fish.

We selected a ready made sashimi tray ($28) from the fridge and ordered a spider salmon roll ($8; which was probably meant to read Spicy salmon roll as there wasn’t soft shell crab as one would expect in a spider roll). The sashimi was really really fresh! The scallop and shrimp were deliciously sweet. The spicy salmon roll was made with what looked like brown rice, but more likely it was seasoned. As such it didn’t hold together as well and grains of rice fell off the maki as we picked pieces up from the tray.

For you uni lovers, they have a great selection of uni from Japan, Vancouver and Boston. Their soy sauce comes in cute little bottles rather than packets. It is really exciting to have another high quality place to buy fresh, high quality sashimi in Markham and we will definitely come...

Ordered and received a wrong order. I offered to return items but they said they ran out of rice. Then promised that I would receive missing items. That sounds reasonable. As for the food, we received 5 bad pieces of uni. I mean they stunk and were blackish. I notified them to no avail. I called a week later to receive the missing items as promised. They chose to not uphold their promises and only offered 1 missing item. I believe their reason was because we received another item that we didn’t order. I don’t believe they understand when you give someone items that they don’t want and miss others it is not one and the same. Not fulfilling promises is another. Overall horrible customer service and poor quality. They tried even saying that giving us the missing item was a “treat”! I will not be returning ever as I have provided the team and owner an opportunity to rectify the situation. Stay away!!! Overpriced sushi takeout at its finest. We paid over $550 and this is the experience that we received. I have since declined the “treat “ and instead am happy to give them my overpayment to simply not deal with them anymore. Learn from my mistake and take your...