A night on the town turned into a wonderful 8 course sashimi omakase dinner for two. Aoyama Sushi is home to fresh seafood and veteran talent from Chef owner Masa Endo. As we sat by the bar, we couldn’t help but notice the chef’s intense dedication to his craft – delivering the same level of concentration to each dish as he did 13 years ago, when Joseph first met him. Back then Chef Endo was the head chef at Katsura Restaurant at the Westin Prince Toronto Hotel, which also happened to be one of the forefronts in Japanese cuisine (prior to the present day sushi scene explosion). Today he is the owner of one of the best authentic Japanese restaurants in town.
An omakase dinner is one entirely dependent on the chef’s choice and what he chooses to serve his patrons. So essentially an omakase menu can vary upon each visit, or more often upon what’s in season. Ours started with a king crab seaweed salad appetizer with crunchy pieces of potatoes. Please note that there are duplicates of each dish per pair- each person gets their own serving.
Hirame Usuzukuri: thinly sliced fluke paired with a light ponzu sauce (citrus based soy sauce) that stimulated our appetites.
Sashimi platter with gold flakes (the fish was so fresh!)
Butter fried lobster presented in a lobster tail “bowl”
Tempura: light and crispy fried pieces of shrimp, eggplant, and zucchini.
Course Special Soup: a flavourful seafood broth made from fish, shrimp, and mushrooms. Each person received their own serving of soup in a tea pot intended to be poured out into teacups.
Chef’s selection of sushi
Our omakase meal allowed us each to select a dessert of our choice. We chose the banana tempura with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce…
Our other dessert was the black sesame ice cream with red bean paste.
We would definitely recommend this restaurant! It is a rare treat to find something so authentic and fresh in Toronto, let alone uptown in North York. They have different types of omakase dinners; ours included sashimi and cost $60 per person, but you can also order from the menu instead. Consider calling ahead for reservations as the space is intimate and seating is limited.
Aoyama Sushi
2766 Victoria Park Ave
North York, ON, M1W 1C2
(416) 494-7373
