Sunday night we were treated to a night on the town to JA
Bistro Modern Japanese Restaurant which is an upscale Japanese restaurant
served in the most stylish way possible.
The place was not overly busy when we first entered the restaurant around
6:30pm but by 9:00pm, the place was lined
up all the way out the door.
Reservations were a must if you didn’t want to stand and wait for a
table. We made reservations to this
place earlier in the evening and we were promptly led to our tables. The hostess took our jackets and we were
given a nice seat right by the chef’s station. They also had a nice bar at the front where one could sit and just chat if
they so wish.
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| Appetizer from Tasting Menu |
I will first describe the tasting menu items. The $55.00 tasting menu
basically consisted of a platter made out of chef’s choice for sashimi, a deep
fried soft shell crab, fried chicken, seared black cod and lobster miso
soup. On this evening, they apparently
had run out of beef tartare so the menu was changed upon our arrival however we
did notice it being served at the table next to us so we don’t really know
whether it was true or not that they had run out or that they did not have
enough for all three of us.
.JPG) |
| Chef's Choice |
The sashimi served for the appetizer was quite
good. The squid, the lobster, the
octopus, the salmon, and the yellowtail fish were all very fresh. It had its fishy taste to it but the fish was nice and tender and extremely tasty. The black cod was seared to perfection. I noticed that they had blow torched a lot of
their foods however I am not too sure if this was the case for the black cod or if it was pan
seared. Either way the cod was amazing. It was a little oily however when the fish was placed in one's mouth, it felt as if it had melted in one’s mouth. It
was quite delicious to say the least.
The fried chicken was also quite good.
Served underneath some red and green onions, the chicken was lightly battered and held true to its own. The meat was not chewy and despite a lack of ingredients, it was still acceptable. It did not seem
too fattening and the onions provided a good compliment to the meat. The lobster miso soup was different but again
it too was still tasty. One could actually
taste the lobster in the miso soup. The
only thing I wished for was that this soup be served hot. The soup for the most part was lukewarm. I think that if the soup was hotter, it certainly would have been even
better tasting. Last on the appetizer plate was the fried soft
shell crab and again this dish was served at best lukewarm. I would have preferred it if the crab was
hotter especially with all the batter surrounding it. My crab unfortunately also had a slight
bitter taste to it. I wasn’t too sure if
this was the case because the crab had gotten colder or whether it was just the
crab itself. Despite the soft shell, the entire crab was consumable however just like the soup, a hotter crab would have been much preferred.
.JPG) |
| Chef's Choice from Tasting Menu |
The sushi platter from the tasting menu looked really amazing and consisted of 7
pieces of sushi and a piece of fried spotted prawn head. The sushi platter included a
piece of tuna loin, hamachi, blowtorched pieces of salmon, sea bass, ebi
and their signature Ja Bistro cucumber sushi. Every piece of sushi presented and eaten were fantastic however my personal favorite was the blowtorched salmon sushi. They had taken a fat piece of salmon and
blowtorched the top of it. The fish was
placed on top of the sushi rice and embedded inside the rice was a small piece
of jalapeno. The combination of the fish,
the oil and the jalapeno really knocked my socks off. It was delicious and spicy but the entire
piece literally just melted in one’s mouth.
I was concerned that blowtorching the fish would give it that
burnt propane smell and taste to it, but one could only get a very minute
trace of it. Their signature JA Bistro
sushi was also quite good but if I had to rank them one two and three, I would
have probably gone with all three of the blowtorched pieces of fish.
Dessert was pretty good too with what I believe was home
made vanilla ice cream and two pieces of cheesecake. The cheesecake felt as if it had just come
out of the oven. It smelled very good and the taste was amazing. It was not
very cheesy yet it was very refreshing. Mixed with an alcoholic blueberry jam, these two pieces of cheesecakes were probably two of the best pieces I have
ever had. The vanilla ice cream was
pretty good as well. Even though it was
not of the sorbet type, it was pretty darn close to it. It was very exhilarating and it tingled when placed in
one’s mouth. Yes, for a guy who doesn’t
eat a whole lot of dessert, even I have to admit dessert was quite
amazing for that evening.
 |
| Vanilla Ice Cream and Cheesecake |
My friend went with a ($45.00) sushi platter and one could
not feel but slightly jealous as it contained pieces of kobe beef, mackarel,
lobster and lumberjack fish. He said the
lumberjack was his favorite however I could tell every single one of the pieces
of his dish were delicious, made to perfection and with good workmanship. Although the price seemed high, when you
factor in the quality of the fish and the kobe beef I think it was well
worth the price.
Everything other than the crab I thought was amazing that evening. We watched them bring out the lobster sashimi
and some of the beef and tuna tartares for the tables around us and all of them looked so beautifully
done. I
would certainly try this restaurant again when I’m down in that area and give some of
their other foods a try. There was
plenty of parking at the front and in the back alley way and if you are into
live entertainment, the place is located right beside Yuk Yuk’s on Richmond
Street. It was certainly a beautiful
night to remember and the food that night was exceptional. As we left at 9:00pm, as mentioned from
above, there was still a line up to get into the restaurant and this was a
Sunday night!! So yes give it a go!! I guarantee you won’t be
disappointed. Overall I give it a 4.75
out of 5, losing 0.25 on the lukewarm soft shell crab.
JaBistro Modern Japanese Restaurant
222 Richmond Street West
Toronto Ontario
M5V 1W4
647-748-0222
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