Mhel — Restaurant in Toronto

the constantly changing menu causes the kitchen to have limited ability to “perfect” a dish. For example, the yuan yaki ($35) sounded good on paper but didn’t have the taste to match. The thick slice of kanpachi needed more seasoning and something stronger than just a yuzu marinade. Its uneven thickness meant the edges were cooked through while the centre to be raw. Ultimately, I had to leave a piece uneaten given it was gross and gummy.

After all, the dish wasn’t meant to be eaten raw like the ishidai sashimi ($33), a fish flown in from Nagasaki. In lieu of soy sauce, Mhel created a flavourful seaweed salad providing flavour and a chewy garnish that could be wrapped in the fish to create a delicious bite.

In fairness, there’s many dishes that Mhel gets right. The sogogi ($46) was fantastic, a sizeable slice of Australian wagyu cooked to perfection so that it’s juicy and hot. Brushed with galbi sauce, the beef’s Korean flavours reminded me why it could be eaten with chopsticks. Although, I would have loved for a small slice to be put on top of the sushi rice nugget. It’s what Mhel describes as a perilla ssam, so a piece of meat would make the bite complete.

Mhel’s portion sizes are small. Hence, we followed their advice and opted for the heartiest dish for the evening, the dak gaseumsal ($30) with a bowl of steamed Japanese rice ($5), and side of kimchi ($8).

The dak gaseumsal’s buttery miso sauce was great for pouring over the sticky rice and I loved the accompanying sauteed seasonal greens (garlic scape, Swiss chard, and collard greens). Yet, the chicken breast, while juicy, wasn’t overly exciting… perhaps because it was sous vide versus grilled. At least they were true to their word, this dish was much larger than the rest.

Still, you may want to get a side of the potesala ($15), their version of a potato salad. The shallots added a slight bite to the potatoes and the pickled ramps and peas gave the dish a freshness that helped balance off the otherwise rich dish. Yet, it’s the onsen egg that really made the dish, I wished there was more than a half.

If anything, Mhel ensures you have room for dessert. The purin ($10) was a fantastic crème caramel, one of the best I’ve had in a while. The thickened Sheldon Creek cream was rich but perfectly balanced by a maple syrup glaze that had a toasty taste, much better than your regular caramelized sugar. My husband and I immediately regretted getting...

Wow, what an incredibly disappointing experience. For $750 (inc. tip and sake pairing) you would expect SO much more. My partner and I went for the special NYE seven course meal. We were both not impressed at all.

Service It was good. Not great. And absolutely NOT $750 great. When you charge that much it needs to be perfect. But we had pairings served before dishes, servers reaching across us, and only checking on us at the end or beginning of a dish. I've had the same level of service for less than half the price. And to reiterate, it was good serice, but not exceptional.

Food Out of the seven courses, maybe one was standout, and that was the galbi dish. The rest were ranging from mediocre to straight up terrible. There was one dish which paired sashimi with pickled carrot and horseradish, but then added caviar. It was bizzare and a horrible combination that ruined both the caviar and the sashimi. Such a bad choice. And this continued on with most of the dishes to be honest. I cannot believe this restaurant has such good reviews with how bad the taste combinations were. The ingredients were clearly high quality, although the fish in one dish was super stringy. But it's like that was the only thought. Everything else was incredible sub par. And for $750 this felt like a huge rip off.

Ambiance This was a standard Toronto restaurant. Literally nothing special. In fact, it would rank on the extreme lower end of most Toronto restaurants. Boring interior, cramped, and close seating. Again, this would be TOTALLY FINE if you were paying like $100 or less per person, but this was an $750 meal. Beyond unacceptable for that price. The music stopped playing for several stretches at a time, and there was basically no decor.

Conclusion I've had significantly better meals, in all aspects, at other restaurants in Toronto for far less than half the price. The only good thing about this experience was the sake, and even that was overshadowed by the badly timed service. I whole heartedly do NOT recommend this restaurant. I cannot believe it has such a high rating. Extremely...

The flavors were exquisite, and each dish was crafted with meticulous attention to detail. However, the portion sizes were surprisingly small, leaving something to be desired in terms of portion-to-price balance.

recommended items: beans, chawanmushi, tamarack’s ep, Shima Aji, Kosho Dai, Sogogi

Items ordered: anju - $12 - drinking snacks “Footsteps organic’s water eggplant & Tamaracks tomato”

this was the one disappointing item on the menu, it lacked flavour and found it to be rather plain.

chawanmushi - $13 - egg pudding “cold egg custard, organic corn cream, Trillium’s summer corn”

an extremely unique combination of flavours and textures. very rich and creamy, the corn and egg paired so well, one of our favourites.

beans - $13 - french beans snack

simple yet so so good. nice crunchy bite, the sauce with notes of ginger, miso and mustard elevated every bite, the pine nuts were a great touch of smokiness.

ohitashi - $13 - summer cabbage

good flavour, very fresh tasting. paired well with our drinks.

squash - $16 - Tamarack's romanesco squash

it’s as quite flavourful, nice crunchiness from the arare (rice cracker), cooked to perfection.

tamarack’s ep - $26 - Australian Wagyu

beef was perfectly cooked, served beefy and smokey broth, paired well with the eggplant. a very intricate combination of flavours, left us wanting more.

Shima Aji - $30 - sashimi

about 4-5 pieces of shima aji from Ehime, in a out-of-this-world sesame sauce, it was the best dish of the evening for us. just fresh, savoury and light.

Kosho Dai - $30 - sashimi and cucumber

another beautiful plate, the sashimi melts in your mouth the cucumber introduces a nice crunch. very refreshing very summery plate, pairs well with the drinks!

Sogogi - $47 - charcoal australian wagyu

juicy, cooked perfectly, beautiful presentation, the sauce was an incredible pairing, rich and creamy. stellar plate.

Oiji - $8 - mom’s pickled cucumbers

quite crunchy, interesting texture, good flavour.

Drinks: chu hi - $14 - sochu highball niwa no uguisu tomari -...