Yoko Japanese Restaurant

The other night we went to Yoko Japanese Restaurant to have some Japanese sushi.  This restaurant was recommended by our company lawyers as they had been there recently and said it was pretty good.  We decided to make reservations just in case it was busy.  There were 6 of us and upon entering the restaurant  we were given one of the private booths on the side.

We decided to order a large size sushi and sashimi boat, grilled mackerel  a seafood udon, shrimp tempura, spider maki and a dolsot bibimbap for the evening.  The boat and sashimi boat arrived first and at first glance of this huge boat, it was like a sea of orange.  If you love salmon, there was certainly plenty of it on this boat.  The majority of it was salmon.  Although there were some pieces of red and white tuna in it, I personally think that there should have been a few more variety of fish.

Shrimp Tempura

The seafood udon was good however the dish itself was small.  It was done on one of those teriyaki grills rather than in a bowl.  Appearance wise it looked pretty good however I think I would prefer it in a bowl where the portions could have been bigger. The noodles were big and there were pieces of squid and vegetables in it as well.  It was tasty despite a lack of a real soup base. 

The shrimp tempura was okay.  Nothing remarkable about this dish compared to all the other sushi places where we had the shrimp tempura.  The shrimp was fresh and was not mushy at all which was good.  

Sushi and Sashimi Boat

The dolsot bibimbap arrived next which is really assorted beef and vegetables cooked in a traditional Korean stone bowl mixed with rice, spicy sauce and topped with a fried egg.  The picture shot was actually a picture of the whole dish after we had mixed all the ingredients together.  Personally it was my favorite dish of the night as it was hot, tasty, and all the ingredients mixed really well together.  The spicy sauce gave it that extra bit of zing to it but not to the point where it was too spicy to eat.  For $10.95 it was a great dish for a great price. 

Seafood Udon

The spider maki arrived next which contained fried crab, cucumber, avocado and sweet potato or yam in it.  This was probably the best sushi or maki that we had all night.  It was crunchy and definitely quite filling as each pieces were quite big.  There were like 10 or 11 big pieces of maki which certainly made this dish worthwhile.  This dish was like $15 bucks but the size of each piece certainly made it a dish worth having.

Dolsot Bibimbap

The mackerel arrived last however this was not the fault of the kitchen.  We made an extra order after all the other food had arrived.  The mackerel was a little salty but was quite delicious.  It was perfectly grilled but not charred.  There were small pieces of bone left and although the mackerel was like $9.99 it was worth the price.  If you do order the mackerel, I would recommend that you get it with some rice because this fish is quite salty and does require some extra side to go with it. 

Fried Mackerel

Spider Maki

Overall it was a decent night.  My only complaint was that there were just way too many pieces of salmon on the boat.  As my fellow readers know, I go to a lot of sushi restaurants in and around the city and when we order a medium or large size boat we expect variety.  Service was good and the staff was nice.  Overall I give this place a 3.5 out of 5.

Yoko Japanese Restaurant

490 McNicoll Avenue
North York, ON M2H 2E1

(416) 502-9750