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By Adam Waxman
When a new Toronto restaurant opens in the heart of the Financial District, heads turn en masse. “How will it be different?” We ask. “How will it distinguish itself from all the others?” “Is that even possible?” With virtue and virtuosity, Sushi Yugen has vaulted to the fore with a unique essence of Japanese cuisine and aesthetic that is beautiful, earnest, sincere and without peer.
Yūgen is a concept originated in Chinese Buddhism, introduced into Japanese arts through poetry to become something uniquely Japanese. As in haiku, latent beauty is impressed upon our senses, but not revealed literally or superficially. It’s the mystery that stimulates our imagination and appreciation.
From the foyer of 150 York Street, we enter the outer seating area of Sushi Yugen. We step through a portal into the domain of chef Hiroyuki Sato from Ginza, Tokyo. At his spacious 12-seat sushi counter, he prepares 14 courses of slender sushi that appears like a colourful display of jewellery. Each one is like a decorative, unctuous morsel of silk.
Beyond a sliding door lies the inner sanctum. Here, eight patrons are seated around the culinary theatre of executive chef Kyohei Igarashi. Chef Igarashi studied at the Culinary Institute in Yamagata, Japan, before working with master chefs in Tokyo and in Yokohama at high-end sushi and kaiseki restaurants for 15 years. It would be nine more years of exploring sushi internationally to understand Japanese cuisine outside Japan, including in Michelin-starred kitchens, before arriving in Toronto.
His concept is a “kaiseki-inspired omakase” experience. Omakase means that the customer leaves the decision-making to the chef—it’s the “chef’s choice.” Kaiseki is the chef’s interpretation of nature, emphasizing seasonality and the chef’s creative imagination in a unique balance of colour, texture and taste.
A high bar has been set right out of the gate, but our second course is even more awe-inspiring. The Shiromi Truffle is a delicate mélange of fluke lacquered in chef Igarashi’s signature soy sauce, black Périgord truffle, edible flowers, teensy purple murame sprouts, shizo and gold flecks presented in a glass bowl that sits on cedar within what looks like an edible diorama within a miniature igloo of ice.
With our next course of crisp tempura of shitaki mushroom and Japanese beltfish, served with matcha salt and sudachi lime, it is clear that this dining experience is about so much more than sushi. We are tasting the essence of Japan from one edible landscape to the next.
The richness of the Truffled Chawanmushi is like foreplay for the palate. It has all the elements: the sensual softness of the custard is infused with the earthiness of the chef’s original truffle sauce, topped with fresh truffle shavings. The chef has also chosen a chicken-based broth instead of bonito, which brings everything together and enhances the aroma. It is heavenly.
Our anticipation builds with each course, and the sense of mystery continues with a Dobin Mushi pot of steaming dashi broth nourishing blacktip grouper, Japanese tiger prawn, hen-of-the-woods mushroom, shitaki mushroom and a mitsuba leaf. In Japan, there is an expression that you can tell a good chef by the purity of his dashi. This broth is so quintessentially Japanese–in its expression of umami, its nutraceutical quality, and in the chef’s recommendation to enjoy it in three distinct ways. Our first taste is by pouring the dashi in a cup; the second is to alter the flavour by squeezing a few drops of sudachi into the second tasting; the third is to open the pot and enjoy the contents that have absorbed all that goodness. By that point, we have completely forgotten the politics of the outside world and are swooning with each new wave of flavour.
The best abalone in the world comes from the northern Pacific coast of Japan. This fresh wild abalone from Ibaraki is steamed in a rich creamy-textured sauce made from the liver of the abalone. There are multiple parts to this tasting as well. First, we enjoy the luxurious abalone, and then we receive a ball of rice with which to soak up the remaining sauce. The rice is from Niigata, which is renowned for its pristine waters in which this elegant rice is harvested. Chef Igarashi blends three different red vinegars into the rice to elicit his preferred profile. This is his signature dish, and its combination of textures and rich flavour is sublime.
Texture is an integral component to each of these dishes. The Hokkaido Uni Gohan is a confluence of textures so luxurious, that around the room we are all nodding to each other, wide-eyed, to acknowledge our shared experience.
One ball of Niigata rice wearing a necklace of pop-in-your-mouth ikura salmon roe and a jaunty cap of chopped blue fin fatty tuna, premium grade bafun sea urchin from Hokkaido, French caviar, and a fresh and mellow shaving of wasabi from Nagano, all blended together, is such a seductive mixture that reveals a masterful chef whose culinary palette extends far out-of-the-box to source the finest ingredients in the world—and then knows how to incorporate them to their optimal flavour profile. Simply divine.
Important Note: While it would be easy to look at chef Kyohei Igarashi as the star of the show for his inimitable talent, through his humility, he makes his guests feel like the stars. This is a very subtle and distinct feature of Sushi Yugen, and an integral difference that we all feel: a chef who loves the art in himself, rather than himself in the art. From the outset, that is part of the philosophy of hospitality instilled by co-owner Kamen Sun.
Sun’s passion and hard work to maintain authenticity, without cutting corners, and with honest and unyielding determination is praiseworthy, and imbues her elegance and fun in our dining experience. “We want our guests coming in to have surprises,” she enthuses.
And now for the sushi. Not only does chef Igarashi seamlessly slice fish like butter, he also scores them to elicit their natural oils and to enhance the mouthfeel. He does not use too much rice or too much wasabi—they’re just there holding it in place–because he knows that we want to experience the superlative quality of the fish.
Thick, plump Hokkaido scallop and sweet Japanese tiger prawn are oceanic delights, followed by three tiers of tuna: beautifully lean Akami tuna; Chutoro, which is meaty and fatty, and full of flavour; and Otoro, the sweeter, fatty, melt-in-your-mouth tuna belly. The piece de resistance is the gently-charcoal-seared blackthroat seaperch. It is extremely rare to find this on a menu, because its depths are between 300 to 600 feet below sea level. It gives the ultimate mouthfeel of fattiness and firmness with a lingering sensation of savouriness.
Fresh water eel, a Japanese delicacy of summer, is charcoal-grilled to a thin crisp and served on a bowl of that delicious Niigata rice. The delicate crunch of the fish is brushed with a sweet soy-based sauce. Combined with the smoke of the grill, it is enlivened further by a light garnish of Sansho pepper, which has a similar citric taste and numbing effect of Sichuan peppercorns.
To further heighten the dining experience, the selection of sake here is so refined and plays a supporting role in each course. When pairing, sake is not like wine, there is no colour code and there are tannins. The pairings is much more subtle and nuanced. The suggested pairings here are carefully selected and curated for their subtle floral and fruity nuances that add another wonderful dimension to the flavour profile of each dish. Each course of sake is presented in the most artfully-coloured handmade ceramic and glass cups that pull in another medium of art into the experience. The range of sake, delicious on its own, but so complimentary to the food, is a lovely and privileged component to this dining experience that we highly recommend. We leave the pairings up to our hosts, and are happily like putty in their hands.
A pretty dessert presentation of fruit jelly topped with Japanese whisky syrup is a refreshing summer-sweet palate cleanser for the finale, and we leave feeling so impressed and gratified by this unique dining experience that has carved its own niche in Toronto’s evolving dining scene.
Time was, Toronto didn’t know sushi. By the 1990s, a few traditional Japanese restaurants began to appear. They each provided an authentic taste of Japan. Then came the fashionable health-conscious eaters who appreciated the dietary benefits of freshly prepared, low-sodium food. A wave of dynamic sushi rolled onto fast-casual menus and into supermarkets. And then, wagyu. Along with an exponential increase in Canadian tourism to Japan, an insatiable interest in seeking ever-more sophisticated nuances of Japanese cuisine became the implacable intrigue of Toronto’s dining-cognoscenti. As Michelin showered Toronto with stars, a constellation of high-end sushi bars shone out. Today, there are over 600 Japanese restaurants in Toronto. Sushi Yugen easily stands at the pinnacle among the very best.
The post appeared first on DINE and Destinations Magazine.