JaBistro

JaBistro

222 Richmond Street West

Toronto, ON M5V 1W4

Tel: (647) 748-0222

How were your Valentine's Day celebrations? Not to brag, but mine was pretty good. While we still had to go to work, Howard surprised me in the morning by making my TTC commute shorter. At work, our social committee left heart-shaped Tim Hortons doughnuts on each of our desks. A yummy jelly-filled addition to my breakfast! That day, I also participated in a flash mob for One Billion Rising, had a delicious prosciutto panini from Mercatto for lunch, and was whisked to JaBistro after work.

JaBistro has been on our restaurant wishlist for awhile, we had heard that the guys at Guu were behind this venture and wanted to try it out. In addition, they had been receiving great review after great review after great review.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by the friendly hostess who checked our reservation. She led us to our seat at the bar (they had asked if we had a sesating preference when they called to confirm a couple of days before), took our jackets, and placed the menus in front of us.

To my surprise, the place wasn't packed for Valentine's Day - maybe the rain kept people at home or plans were being made on the weekend. It did fill up a bit by the time we left, but I was still surprised to see empty spots at the bar!

On their drink menu, they had three virgin cocktails where I spotted the green tea mojito. It's hard for me to turn down a mojito flavour I hadn't tried before! This one was made with matcha syrup, simple syrup, lime, mint, and soda.

Do you see the amazing sushi platter he's preparing? We want to come back for that!

You can also make reservations for their Prix Fixe menu or the Fisherman's Platter (looking for four more to join us, any takers?) online.

If it's available, ask to sit at the bar, you'll get to witness some blowtorch action and some playful sound effects too.

The aburi, seven delicious blowtorched pieces.

You'll notice that they'll always place the platter in the order of consumption, you start from the left and always end with the tamago on the right.

Top: The aburicious, a sampler consisting of two atlantic salmons, two cured mackerels, two tiger shrimps, and two JaBistroll.
Bottom: The nama, seven classic pieces.

Right: Oh JaBistroll - salmon, snow crab, uni, and tobiko - you are so delicious!

Aside from the Japanese menu items, you can also order dishes under their Bistro section. The kamo (above) consists of smoked duck breast, burdock, and onsen tamago. You mix up together and eat it as a salad.

The gindara is black cod and bacon with a shrimp toast.

I was pretty full by then, but I did come here to try their matcha puff too! The puff was filled with a black sesame custard cream with matcha whipped cream and drizzled with black honey. Some garnish and a deliciously rich green tea ice cream.

Don't skip on dessert here.

To our surprise, they also had a special of the day for dessert! So Howard ordered the banana pastry - also decorated with hearts as our waitress pointed out. Too cute!

Two heart-shaped housemade calvados (soft nama chocolate) to end the amazing meal.