Toronto's Best Japanese Restaurants

Chef Masaki Hashimoto's traditional kaiseki eight-course menu showcases the seasons while celebrating Japanese ingredients. It's all about focus over flash with a refined intricate style and attention to detail that borders on reverence. Shii-zakana is a signature dish comprised of fried soba noodle-wrapped shrimp, but it's the stunning radish crane that you'll remember. 

Chef Ryusuke Nakagawa presents a modern take on the history-steeped Kyō-Kaiseki menu. His cooking is deeply personal and intricate but never overwrought. Each course outdoes the last. The maguro flower, a rose made from pieces of akami and chutoro, is stunning, and kurobuta kakuni, simmered pork belly over foie gras, is dazzling. 

Even if you lived next door, omakase with Chef Masaki Saito would still feel like a faraway adventure. The foyer's marble staircase, a 200-year-old hinoki counter and traditional Japanese paneling and woodwork set the stage as he slices, scores and sauces the greatest treasures of the sea. Only here will you find shirako boldly skewered and grilled over binchotan, and only here will you eat melting slabs of chutoro buried under a blizzard of white truffles. 

Chef Daisuke Izutsu has cooked for royals, dignitaries, and you, if you're one of the lucky 15 who has secured a seat at the intimate Yukashi. Firmly rooted in seasonality, this kaiseki-style menu is highly original and personal. Some of the dishes are intricate, while others lean humble.
The otsukuri, with slices of shima aji with yuzu zest, toro with pickled turnip and hay-smoked hamachi delicately arranged atop a white marble base, is a work of art. 

This restaurant is not like other ramen-yas. For starters, none of them can bake like Chef Aoi Yoshida, who turns out trays of perfectly formed Japanese milk bread and other sweet treats. Her house-made noodles, bundled into every bowl, are also a cut above most. And whereas a typical tonkotsu ramen favors heart-stopping, porky richness, the style here is a vegetable base that is both lighter and leaner and yet equally savory. 

Shoushin makes a dramatic first impression with its facade of light stone, and the drama continues inside, where a stunning hinoki counter awaits eager guests. The seasonal sushi omakase is especially delightful. From lean bluefin tuna with mountain yam and tart kohada to excellent baby seabream with lime, it's hit after hit.