Junah — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

What an outstanding new restaurant option for SLC! Congratulations and thank you to chef Oliveriera, chef Tagai, and the entire team involved. My first exposure to Itameshi was in Japan in the early 1990s. When I read about Junah's opening in SLC, I was more than a bit surprised and definitely excited to give it a try. Our overall experience here was outstanding, significantly exceeding our expectations. We will be back many times!

Food (5): outstanding quality, preparation and presentation in all respects. We ordered the gyoza shaped gnocchi, arancini, risotto, and the gnocchi in tomato sauce. For dessert we ordered the matcha tiramisu and the pear with sake. It was all outstanding with a wonderful blend of flavors with unique and beautiful presentation. Some of the very best food we have had dining in Utah.

Service (5): surprisingly excellent service for such a brand new restaurant. The description of specials, answers to questions, recommendations including for wine were excellent.

Atmosphere/ambiance (5): after reading some comments about the atmosphere before dining here, we were pleasantly surprised with the ambiance. It is a fairly small space, but the team has done outstanding work. The ambiance, layout, flow of the restaurant is lovely. There is a subtle but interesting blend that is reflective of the Itameshi roots of Junah that is very well done.

Our experience at Junah was such a pleasant contrast to some of the other new restaurants in SLC that we've tried in the last month. Congratulations, again, to the clearly very talented team at Junah...

This quickly became one of our top 5 favorite restaurants in SLC last night and mainly because there aren’t many restaurants of this caliber in the area. The presentation and more importantly flavors of the food matched what you would expect to get at a restaurant in nyc. For the two of us, we ordered: 2 antipasti, 1 primi and 1 segundi and it was the perfect amount of food. Bread with some amazing butters and arugula pesto dipping oil are also brought out. The aurora crudo, tartare di manzo, tagliolino al mentaiko and tagliata di bosco were all delicious. I would absolutely order them again and recommend. The tartare, served on a foundation of thinly sliced and stacked potatoes, and the mentaiko, such a unique pasta flavor, were probably my favorite standout dishes of the night.

You definitely need a reservation if you’re coming on the weekend. It would be cool if you could reserve the type of table or at least the “chefs” counter vs a booth. The ambiance and vibe wasn’t as intimate or unique (we were seated in a booth) as I was hoping but it wasn’t an issue.

We...

The food was wonderful. Asian fusion IS my thing! The only real complaint I have was the service. Our server was not bad, but sometimes, it took a while to get a hold of her. Also, I asked for more complimentary bread and butter, but she did not bring it out. In addition, she didn't seem too friendly.

The food itself was good. Each dish was definitely unique. The tagliolino al mentaiko had a very subtle taste to it, but it was nice and creamy. The matcha tiramisu was soft and had a hint of matcha flavor. I really like the midnight burrata! It came out very hot haha I think it could be a dessert with how sweet it is. The complimentary bread and butter/sauce was nice to have. The butters are made in house. I like how they gave me different kinds of butter, one being truffle flavored. I wanted more bread & butter but was not given any more, even though I specifically asked. Overall, nice vibe. It's very minimally modern. I would consider this place a more upscale dining...