Yu Seafood Yorkdale — Restaurant in Toronto

• Update October 9th 2022 *

Happy Thanksgiving long weekend to one and all. I am back on this long weekend for Dim Sum. The restaurant is BOOKED solid with reservations. It is heartening to see that life is going back to normal. There are many families and friends enjoying their meals and conversations along with a good laugh here and there. Update July 12th 2022:

Alrighty folks, I have returned for some more Dim Sum. I know, I know...I was supposed to check out the sushi and dinner menu. But I will return for that rest assured.

I have to upgrade my experience to 5 STARS. The combination of the level of service and attention along with the quality, taste and presentation of the food is absolutely elevated here.

The service alone conjured up memories of dining at a Michelin Star restaurant where the service must match the level of the food. And you will find that marriage here.

Please drop in if you are in the area and give them a try and then let us all know what your thoughts are.

Happy Eats everyone I have heard some whispers about a high end Dim Sum restaurant serving up some elegant, opulent and elevated classic Dim Sum dishes inside Yorkdale Mall.

I have been to their sister location in Richmond Hill on WBC. But I was told that the taste and experience are worlds apart. I said really....hmmmmm.....let us find out then.

Since I had to do some shopping with my wife & family. Off we went. I have to say that you will feel the elegance and sophistication as soon as you walk in the lobby because there is a sushi bar there with Waygu Beef rated from 1-5 along with a variety of fresh fish and shellfish.

I made a note to return to try the sushi and non Dim Sum fare at a later date..probably at the end of June.

The service is top notch. It is befitting a 5 STAR / Michelin Star level of service. And the prices here will bear that for all to see.

I am always skeptical about " elevated " Dim Sum. I have been to Susur Lee's restaurants where classic French techniques are paired with Cantonese chef skills and flavours to create a new level of sophistication. And I find that I am still a fan of the dare I say "regular" Dim Sum places.

But I have to admit that I did really enjoy and I was able to taste and distinguish the subtle nuances of these dishes from those at a regular Dim Sum restaurant.

The hint of saffron, sea urchin and the use of Kani-Miso make the Dim Sum dishes fly into the stratosphere. It is very delicious, fresh and unique all at once and you will be able to savour the varying levels of flavour. Now this takes some serious Chef skills !!! My compliments to the Chef.

Even the selection of green teas are top shelf !!! You can return again and again to try all the flavours.

I have to admit that I am a fan of this type of elevated Dim Sum now. My wall of reluctance and skepticism have been torn down. I will return again and again.

I will reserve my 5 STAR rating after I have returned several times to check on the consistency of their food and service of course.

Please drop in and give it a try and then let us all know what your thoughts are.

Happy Eats...

Yu is Yummy Booked Yu Seafood in Yorkdale for my wife’s 75th Birthday. I had visited the restaurant a week before and spoke to one of the managers Nelson Yeung about booking a dinner for 9. I had checked out their menu and wanted to order the Peking Duck and Live Lobster fixed menu for 8 plus a faux meat entre or two for my vegetarian daughter. The duck and lobster are my wife’s favourites, so along with my kids, their spouses and my wife’s best friend who came up from Florida just for the birthday we took the plunge. Not for the faint of wallet. With booze (Cocktails are in the $20 range, single shot of Grey Goose $18, 5oz Sauvignon Blanc $18) the dinner was $100 per person plus taxes and tip. And you can easily bump that up to double with Crab or Abalone. Dinner took 3 ½ hours. We loved it. They did have a couple of issues. We declined to give our drink order when only half of us were there. I had to engage the area manager to order drinks since our waitress Chi Mi was too busy to get back to us until our soup arrived. Our area was mostly large tables and when a course is served they are very busy. The vegee dish (faux meat and eggplant) arrived before the soup? A bus boy showed up with two 4 pound live lobsters to show us what we were in for. The soup was hot and sour or crab and corn. Take a pass. The Duck was sliced up by a dedicated server. Done perfectly and served with all the goodies including a caramel sauce along with the hoisin and plum sauces. Deep fried mozzarella and milk curds showed up. The second course of minced duck with the lettuce wraps was spectacular Chi Mi directed us as to the options for the two courses of lobster. The tails and shoulders done Typhoon Shelter style and the claws and legs Wok fired in Premium soy sauce. Both courses were fantastic. Cut up and done so well that other than a lobster fork no other utensils were necessary. We were done. Then came out the third course. General Tao Chicken with just the right amount of heat. Sweet and sour pork with not just pineapple but strawberries and blueberries. Both excellent. Then 3lb of Soul arrived. Some of it deep fried. Some succulent and tender with mushrooms and pea pods. Also delicious. Never did see the deep fried boneless duck with mashed taro but we had no room for any more food anyhow. Everybody in our section went home with multiple goodies. Between her faux meat dish, the fried rice and perfectly cooked baby bok choy, the veggies with the fish and the hot and sour soup, my vegetarian was well satisfied. Dessert was some mango tapioca. Also not necessary. The area manager was constantly around overseeing everything and helping with the multiple plate exchanges that kept taking...

Overall we had a good experience. The menu has some similarities to the Richmond Hill location (e.g. the bbq pork bun is on both menus, the beef meatballs etc) but there's definitely a lot of new items at this location. We arrived mid day in Sunday (around 2PM) and there was no wait, got seated almost immediately. I imagine that because it recently opened maybe the staff is still very new so the wait staff seemed a little disorganized, but it didn't ruin our experience, and I think it can be improved on but I wouldn't count that negatively on them, growing pains are hard, but the staff were still very nice, and explained how to order with the menu and took our orders and cleared the empty dishes pretty quickly. They did offer to dish out the rice and noodle dishes too which was a nice touch. The food that we ordered came pretty quickly, I was actually a little surprised at how quickly it arrived honestly! The food itself was delicious, I do agree that they add more pricy items on traditional dim sum (and thus the ticket price is also, as expected, higher) and some of it doesn't necessarily enhance the flavor but some of it does! At the same time you're not really coming to this restaurant to eat the regular traditional dim sum either, if I'm looking to have regular dim sum i'd just go somewhere else. Looking at the menu it's sort of expected to be paying a higher price. They do allow to order smaller portions (e.g. if you really want to try that crab dumpling, you can order 2 pieces instead of 4 and you pay per piece). Overall we ordered 1 fried rice, 1 noodle dish, 10 dim sum dishes and the total came up to about $200 for 4 people. Which is what I essentially expected, but I definitely left full to the brim. One of our friends forgot he wanted to order the egg tarts after we paid the bill and we asked if we can order it anyway and just pay for the egg tarts additionally after, and they were ok with it, and in the end the Manager came by and told us that the egg tarts were on the house, which was a...