Sushi by Yuji

We've heard and read good things about Sushi by Yuji and decided we had to give it a try. We saw that usually they're quite busy, but we decided to risk it and go at 5pm, when it opens, without a reservation. The sign on the door said "Open" so we walked in and all the tables had a reserved sign except for this one table for 2. We were lucky, I suppose. As soon as we sat down, one of the servers flipped the open sign to "Open for Reservations only". Only able to seat about 18-20 at most, I don't think they necessarily need to take reservations and still do well.

Wasabi and garlic was served separately. I suppose we could have asked for more, but I did wish they gave us more to begin with given that we ordered 18 pieces of nigiri. That being said, the wasabi was very fresh, it still has flavour despite the burn.

First up was the chopped scallop and ikura gunkan. It was smart to serve it first, so the seaweed doesn't get soggy and tough. The scallop was really cold, but creamy and delicious regardless. The Ikura was sharp and oily, just the way I like it.

Next up, I had the Tuna and Ika, B had 2 Ikas and 2 Takos. The tuna just dissolved in my mouth. It was not fishy at all, but it was a little on the cold side.

The Ika was very creamy. It wasn't hard to chew because of how small it was.

The Tako was sliced very thin, which gives it a different texture. It wasn't crunchy or chewy, but soft.

You may recall from the post on Shima-Ya and my complaint about the portion of rice and how large it was. I really enjoy the small rice portion here at Sushi by Yuji. Much smaller and more manageable.

Next is the Saba. It was really good; it was fresh and clean. Despite the saltiness, the flavour still came through well.

I ordered the Toro, B had the Hamachi, I had the Engawa, and B had the two Hokki. I thought the Toro was less creamy than the tuna, which is odd because it's supposed to be more fatty. The engawa had a nice crunch to it but very bland otherwise.

B thought the Hamachi was really good and "It melted in (his) mouth in fresh flavour." The Hokki, however, was very chewy and he got sand in one of them. It had an unpleasant texture and was very gritty.

The last nigiri was the Aji. It was very lemony, and did not have the same fishy-salty flavour as the Saba. We didn't like it as much, but it was still good.

We also ordered the Grilled Kanpachi Kama. The sauce was sweet, but not disgustingly sweet. It was enjoyable. The topping / rub was also very well developed. It had better flavour than the one we had at Sushi S, and cooked better, being more moist. However, we still prefer the salty and heavier flavour of a Saba Shioyaki.

We also saw that they had a big selection of Sake, so we ordered a bottle to be served hot. It was very smooth, too smooth, too easy to drink. We tried to portion it and make sure we had enough to last the whole meal. For some reason, the bottle couldn't keep the sake hot enough. It's weird, because when we had it in Kyoto, our sake stayed hot despite being poured out into a cup.

Overall, we had a good experience. We would recommend it, but we're not sure if we'll return because we really like our grilled mackerel, and they didn't have it.