Do you ever discover a restaurant that’s so good you just want to keep it to yourself? As much as I wanted to keep this hidden gem a secret – I couldn’t. I really want to share with everyone one of the best meals I have had in my entire life. From start to finish it had me speechless with how amazing and delicious it was. Am I building up the hype a lot? Yes. Is this spot deserving of it? Absolutely yes. Yugafu Japanese Bistro is tiny little restaurant in Surrey offering a $70 Omakase. $70. That is practically unheard of pricing for omakase in Vancouver. Keep on reading to see why the Yugafu Japanese Bistro Omakase dinner is one of the top 3 meals of my life.
UPDATE: The Omakase price has increased to $88 as of January 2024.
Yugafu Japanese Bistro – $70 Omakase Dinner Overview
The Yugafu Japanese Bistro $70 Omakase dinner includes:
- 5 small appetizers
- 9 pieces chef’s choice nigiri
- Miso soup
- Dessert
When you arrive you are given a hot steaming towel (oshibori). It was a nice touch. The pacing of the meal is good, but not if you are in a hurry. Our meal was about 2 hours long.
In a nutshell, each dish and nigiri was prepared with such attention and care. Looking at their Google reviews, it seems that the appetizers and dessert don’t vary much, but the nigiri is dependent on what is fresh the day you go.
Yugafu Japanese Bistro – $70 Omakase Dinner Appetizers
To start the appetizers came in quick succession:
- Chawanmushi (Steamed egg custard)
- Monkfish liver with torched spot prawn and uni
- Gindara Sablefish with spinach gomae
- Assorted Tempura
- Kinuta-maki
The Chawanmushi came steaming hot. It was so jiggly and eggy and just a lovely way to start dinner. There was plenty of shiitake mushroom, anago, and prawn in the custard.
The Monkfish Liver was such a flavour explosion in my month. The liver was creamy, the spot prawn had a nice bounce to it and the uni just ties it all together.
The Gindara Sablefish was melt in your mouth. It was so luscious with just a touch of sweetness. The gomae was beautifully prepared with a mixture of toasted sesame seeds on top.
I’m usually not a tempura fan, but the Assorted Tempura here was on point. The set includes prawn, eggplant stuffed shrimp and shiso and anago (eel). Each piece was fried perfectly. It is served with a pink sea salt and tempura sauce on the side. The stand out for me has to be the eggplant. The eggplant had a nice bite and the shrimp and shiso were just so refreshing.
This was my first time trying Kinuta-maki. This was bluefin tuna wrapped with a thin sheet of daikon and egg. It was light and refreshing and a great last bite before we went to the nigiri course.
Yugafu Japanese Bistro – $70 Omakase Dinner Nigiri
As part of the omakase dinner there is a 9 piece chef’s choice nigiri. If you sit at the sushi bar, it is prepared in front of you and served piece by piece. If you are at a table, all 9 pieces will be served to you at once.
On my visit we had:
- Bluefin Tuna
- Hirame (Flounder)
- Madai (Sea Bream)
- Hamachi (Amberjack)
- Amaebi (Spot Prawn)
- Chutoro (Fatty Blue Fin Tuna)
- Hokkaido Hotate (Scallop)
- Bafun Uni (Sea Urchin)
- Unagi (Freshwater Eel)
Each piece was made with such precision. You can taste and see each grain of rice in the nigiri. The fish really shines here.
My favourites of the night are: Hamachi, Hokkaido Hotate, Bafun Uni, and Unagi. However, they were all amazing.
Yugafu Japanese Bistro – $70 Omakase Dinner Ending
To finish off dinner there is a hot bowl of miso soup with the prawn head from the Amaebi nigiri. Following that you are given the opportunity to order more items off the menu. In all fairness, the $70 Omakase is definitely filling enough to keep you satisfied. However, we couldn’t turn up the opportunity to revisit our favourite nigiris and to try some others as well!
The a la carte nigiris are very reasonable at $6-10 per piece. All of them were repeats of our favourites from dinner, but the one additional nigiri I had to get was Katsuo (the piece in the back row with green onions). Katsuo is Skipjack Tuna is a very popular kind of tuna in Japan, and I love it. However, I rarely see it here in Vancouver.
Chef Toshiharu also kindly sent out two complimentary pieces of sushi with otoro and bafun uni.
To end the night we have some cute little mochi ice creams. There are four flavours: matcha, royal milk tea, mango and vanilla. A nice sweet ending to an amazing dinner.
Worth a Try?
ABSOLUTELY YES. I cannot stress how much this dinner blew my mind. I actually already made another reservation to come back. Chef Toshiharu is so personable and friendly and he makes omakase very approachable. In my Omakase experiences in Vancouver, the chefs are usually very quiet or in the case of Sushi Bar Maumi incredibly stern and a little intimidating. However, the vibe at Yugafu is so welcoming!
Yugafu Japanse Bistro is reservation only. They are currently booked until July, so I would get your reservation in ASAP! It is a very small operation, so please be kind and patient – it will be worth it.
Yugafu Japanese Bistro
Address: 18818 68 Ave #103, Surrey, BC
Telephone: 778-575-5323
Website: https://www.yugafujapanesebistro.ca/