Yasu Toronto — Restaurant in Toronto

The whole dinner was served with courtesy but the reason why I did not feel welcome was how they served the sake pairing. They preserved the tradition in izakaya of serving sake by the glass inside a Masu (pine wooden box). That is fine and dandy. HOWEVER, it is also customary that they should OVERFILL the sake to indicate that they are happy to have you there, too happy that they forgot to stop pouring. Yasu did NONE OF THAT. The waitress made sure every pouring was to the rim of the sake cup and nothing more, not even a single drop, on every pouring. This kind of service is so halfway that it's trying to impress by following the tradition to a certain degree and then drop the ball because they were playing cheap. Why serve it in a Masu then?!?! It was insulting. For a $80 pairing, I didn't expect such a cheap treatment. In this day and age, just simply being courteous does not win you any stars! MacDonald's cashiers are equally courteous. And as for $80 pairing, it is definitely NOT worth the money. Sake they serve can be easily purchased from LCBO. For instance, they served Dassai 45. This is the CHEAPEST Dassai you can get from LCBO, $33.65/bottle. I expect more exquisite sake choices, if not 23, at least 39. The pairing quantity is also sorrowfully limited and has nothing to do with the fish that's being served. I feel like ordering another bottle of Dassai to finish the dinner but they charge $150 for that, and in light of the rush time frame (they need to serve another round after my dinner), I gave up. It is customary for a restaurant to charge about 3 times the LCBO price, but X5 is highway robbery. As for the food, only fools would try to distinguish freshness and taste of fish between Japanese restaurants in Toronto. All fishes come from the same limited number of suppliers in Toronto. There is no difference in fish quality between a $50 Omakase and a $600 Omakase. The chef serving us had bluntly admitted that over 50% of their fish do not come from Japan but Spain and Portugal rather. That included the Akami, Chu Toro and OToro that were served. I still gave them 2 stars on food because they served their sushi in WARM sushi rice which is uncommon amongst Toronto sushi restaurants. It is a conscious choice by the chef as I realize that even after they had refill their Ohitsu (rice bucket), the temperature is constant between refills. I applaud such choice on a late Fall night. This is really a personal preference, some like it cold, other likes it room temperature and I haven't had warm sushi for a long time so I savored the occasional change. Finally, the atmosphere. This restaurant was converted from an old resident so admittedly, space is limited. However, having the washrooms located upstairs and customers access them through VERY narrow stairway is very uncomfortable. You really feel like being Cinderella, descending into the banquet as you return to your seat after you finished your business upstairs. Lastly, It is also sad that they do not have a waiting area. DO NOT ARRIVE EARLY! In light of how bad constructions are going on all around downtown, I planned extra time just so I won't be late for my dinner appointment. I arrived 25mins early and was politely asked to leave and return. Most high end Omakase restaurants in Toronto wouldn't dare serving THREE rounds in an evening (2 rounds max) and since Yasu thinks that they could do that, at least have the courtesy to have a small waiting area for customers who might arrive early. The 2 table seats they have are entirely there for money grabs. Omakase shouldn't be served to the table but directly from the chef right in front of you at the counter. Since their business is so good they made those 2 tables so they can grab more money while giving up the essence of omakase. Make those tables sofa or even stools is the least they can do! This restaurant is another example of restaurants who treat profitability above hospitality...

WHAT TO TRY?!

Omakase!! Whether it be the regular omakase or the premium upgrade of the omakase, they are both delicious!

Regular omakase costs $105 pp and the upgrade is an additional $25 pp. The only difference between the regular and the upgrade is the amount of sashimi you get with the upgrade as the first course. Regular would only get you an oyster and scallops whereas a premium omakase will get you an additional sashimi pieces. You get uni from Japan, blue fin tuna slices, lobster sashimi, and stripe jack fish slice.

You have to really love fish because the whole omakase is fish from different areas of the world! The experience really takes you around the world with the fish they source from and present before you. Their kitchen is basically what you see when you enter the restaurant! They make everything at the bar. It's really cool to see them make your sushi right before your eyes.

Unlike other omakase, it's not about the presentation here. Nothing fancy accompanies the sushi or sashimi slices and you won't see any flowers or fog or great presentation. It's just the freshness of the fish and where they source their fish that makes up the price that you pay.

My favorite dish is of course the blue fin tuna. There were three pieces of different sections of the blue fin tuna that was served as three pieces of sushi as one course. I loved every piece of it that I ordered more of it! If you want more sushi, you can order at the end of the meal too. Just to let you know the benchmark you're looking at is $7-9 per sushi if you want more sushi and depending on what sushi you order more of!

There is also a wine menu that you can order alcohol to accompany your omakase experience. Ranges from 4 oz of sake to 9 oz of Japanese wine to a full bottle of 300-700 ml. There was one bottle of Japanese wine that was about $1000! You can also do sake pairing ($65) with the set course which is nice!

Overall, I thought the chefs were nice to show their knife craftsmanship before our eyes and our particular chef greeted us with a smile. I liked how they kept asking us how our experience was and made us feel very welcomed. And most of all, the dishes came from all over the world. From Boston to Vancouver to Mexico to Iceland to Alaska to New Zealand, I felt like I went fishing around the world and got to taste of the world!

LAST TIP?!

The restaurant is REALLY small. I really recommend you to make a reservation to sit at the bar because you get to see the knife action before your eyes. Like I said, the kitchen is basically where the three chefs stand at the bar. There are only two tables that surround the outer area of the bar that people can sit at. Either two or four people. You can somewhat see the chef but you won't have a good view of the fish they are slicing or what they are doing behind the bar! So yes, worth the wait to find a spot at the bar!! Premium upgrade is worth it if you love sashimi and want to try out more sashimi from various parts of the world. It is also additional food so if you're up for more, premium is a good option to go. I think I would still order premium set next time I go! Mind you, some of the sushi you order may appear throughout the courses you see with the regular omakase too (except for the lobster sashimi, and the uni sashimi that is from Hokkaido). There's no particular spot where I would sit at the bar that would be better. I guess it depends on which chef you like best if you go here often but it's usually preassigned because there's only 12 seats around the bar for...

This is the second google review ive ever left. As someone that enjoys cuisine from all cultures and especially japanese omakase/kaiseki i feel compelled to give my honest review.

My brother and i are in toronto for the weekend visiting and tried to find a top level sushi omakase restaurant. We ended up booking Yasu as the reviews & images from sources looked like aligned for what we were seeking.

At first everything met our expectations of what a 185 dollar kaiseki omakase course had to offer. Fresh fish, clean environment, tentstive staff, warm room temperature and balanced sushi rice. Everything was good up until the trio of blue fin. For those that know it typically starts with akami, the leanest part of the tuna, followed by chu-toro and o-toro (medium fatty & fatty tuna respectively).

This is where everything started to not make sense. My brother and i watched as the chefs lined up each cut of the tuna before us. Keep in mind there was roughly 12 guests at the bar in which one chef was was in charge of 4 of the guests (3 total chefs).

We noticed when they first brought out each cut of the tuna that there was an exceptionally beautiful piece of o-toro. For those that know what i mean you can see the distinctive layers of fat marbling separating each layer of flesh.

This is where the reasoning comes in as why i made this review. My brother and i noticed as each chef prepared their cuts for their respective guests, that only the main chef used the prized o-toro cuts. The other two chefs used chu-toro (medium fatty tuna) for both the medium AND the fatty.

At first my brother and i thought that perhaps the main chef was going to be the one to provide every guest with that cut. But immediately soon after we were told that the “o-toro” presented to us was “o-toro but just a different cut to that which the main chef had laid out before his “returning customer section”.

I feel as though clients who dont have that much experience with this type or dining may not know the difference or may not have been paying close enough attention to the preparations.

Little did they know my brother and I have been grateful and privileged enough to have experienced some of the highest caliber omakase, ranging from Masa in nyc (3 michelin) to ginza onodera in LA (2 michelin at the time) as well as many few and far between renowned across the States.

The point is, we KNOW the difference in not only the cuts of a popular fish like a blue fin tuna but any fish thats presented. The fact they felt they could not only slip by with us not noticing, rip off 2/3’s of the guests who they apparently think are too dumb to notice, but then LIE about it once asked. That was what was unaccetpable.

I hope those that have spent the time to read this understand i did not wish to smear this restaurant. The food was very good for the most part with a couple pieces having mushy rice and one kombu marinated suzuki over marinated duration without enough salt to balance out the texture and flavor.

The staff was EXTREMELY kind and accommodating and that was the hardest part about leaving this review. This is not a disgruntled client rant. Like i mentioned previously my brother and i have been blessed with the experiences we’ve elapsed over the years and we have a major respect for Japanese culture.

With that said, whoever is responsible for deciding that certain guests do not deserve to have the same treatment as others whether it is to preserve the finest most expensive cuts for higher spenders deserves to be held...