Yumei Sushi Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Toronto

Made a reservation with about an hour's notice on a Friday night for myself and my partner. The host mentioned that all the booths were taken, and I inquired about seating at the bar area but she couldn't guarantee as they don't typically hold those spots - we were seated close to the bar on arrival which was great, as we like to watch the action.

They were extremely busy with takeout orders and seemed a little flustered - two wait staff on and two chefs at the sushi bar. It was 7pm, and the restaurant was about half full. It took a while for the server to take our drink order, and by the time she did, we had decided on mains as well. We ordered vegetable tempura, a sushi / sashimi combination and not finding spider roll on the menu, ordered the "East End" roll with soft-shell crab as we both had a craving. The server mentioned that they were a little backed up so it may take a while, but we didn't mind.

The sushi combo arrived before the tempura, and the overall feeling was one of disappointment. There's a lot of competition for sushi in Toronto, and at a mid to higher price point, Yumei at least projects an identity of quality, but we found nothing in practice. Half the sushi and sashimi was tilapia, which is tough, cheap, and has a less-appealing taste than many options. No tamago (egg), shrimp or anything of note aside from a surf clam and a watery piece of octopus that felt immediately thawed. The sashimi, a combination of tilapia, salmon, and tuna was cut into odd chunks, with no apparent care, and the tuna was of extremely low quality - with dark fishy bits untrimmed. The tuna for the nigiri was prepared with an equal lack of care, with small, ragged bits.

The East End roll was not great - mainly due to the fact that the soft shell crab was not fresh, tasted stale, and felt like it had been fried days ago - jammed into a hastily prepared roll then drenched in siracha sauce...possibly to mask the "old oil" flavour of the crab.

The tempura was the highlight - light, crispy batter and a great portion size. The warming of the dipping sauce was a great touch. The chilled glasses for our beer was something that we appreciated as well.

Unfortunately, these two highlights were far outweighed by some mediocre sushi, which is unfortunate as that's the reason we were there. It was so bad I should have mentioned something to the staff, but was the guest, and had a great time otherwise chatting over beers.

I can't recommend this place with the higher price point, and unfortunate value / quality. I will not be returning, and I would encourage others to look elsewhere for quality sushi...

This restaurant is very special to us because this is the place me and my boyfriend went for dinner on our first date. We have been coming here for years and decided to go back on our anniversary and have another great dinner to celebrate. On Monday night we arrived at the restaurant around 6:20 pm and the restaurant was dead with only 2 other tables. The host (a big guy) was very rude to us by the disgusting way he greeted us and told us we had no choice where to sit because the place was fully booked so we had to sit between 2 other occupied tables. We ordered 2 daily special boxes and an order of Dragon Rolls. Even though there were only 3 tables including us, 2 guests on each, one table already finished, it took 20mins for the salad to come out. After 45 mins since we ordered, the dragon rolls came. We waited for 15 more mins and there were no signs of our main dishes. We asked the waitress where are food was she said it was coming. So after waiting more than 1 hour we asked for the bill. While waiting for the bill/food the host kept putting a “post it” note on the waitress’s back and getting a good laugh out of it. I just couldn’t understand why he had so much time to flirt with his staff but not enough time to get our food out in decent manner. He then stormed over to our table like a “tsunami” He yelled how we were going to pay? I said cash. He brought the bill over and slammed it on the table. He stood over my boyfriend with his hands crossed waiting for him to pay. The bill was $19.95. He grabbed it and started to walk away. I then asked for my change. So after more than an hour sitting in that restaurant we ended up getting pizza for dinner because we had lost our appetite. I am very sorry to have to write this review because this restaurant meant so much to me and my boyfriend but I will not stand for the way they treat their customers. I will never step foot in that place again. As a matter of fact I found a better sushi restaurant called “NAMI”. It way better and the service is above and beyond. I wish I could...

One of the interesting thing about Japanese restaurants in Toronto is the number of them operated by South Koreans, who have a cuisine which is only starting to come into its own in terms of appeal to a mass customer base of North Americans. Yumei Sushi is one of these Korean-staffed Japanese restaurants and in my opinion offers the best Japanese fish-based meals in the east-end. But increasingly, it's offering Korean side dishes and even mains, such as Bi Bim Bap. I hope they continue to evolve. I have evolved too. I first tasted Korean food in 2007 when I toured Korea to work with farm groups opposed to free trade with Canada and the US -- a moving but fun experience I wrote up in my book, The No Nonsense Guide to World Food. I admired Korean food for its incredibly high level of nutrients and its ability to serve such a wide range of ingredients from strictly local sources. Now thanks to Yumei Sushi I like Korean food for the taste too. The salad dressing comes from Chef Young's time in Seoul in the 1980's. It is made of apple, ginger, garlic, onion, carrot, Japanese rice vinegar and soy sauce, and it is the best I've ever tasted. After the salad comes a small cup of broth on the house, another Korean specialty that goes well with kim chi, the food of the Korean gods. The Bi Bim Pap is fantastic. They'll make it with brown whole grain rice if you ask, plus bean sprouts, sea food morsels, spinach, zucchini, mushrooms, radish and an egg fried on top by the heat of the dish. Add some scoops of chili sauce and chop it in and it's a great meal. Korea did end up signing trade deals with North America and that will threaten its farmers, but I hope the mainstays of this great cuisine...