Japango is a small Japanese restaurant located on Elizabeth Street. The small space has extremely narrow layout and doesn’t seat many people. All the tables are so close together that it feels cramped.

Our party of two made reservations for omakase dinner. Omakase is a Japanese phrase that means “I’ll leave it up to you”. The intriguing thing about omakase is that you don’t know exactly what you will be getting. Omakase at Japango is priced at $120 CAD per person which is a higher price point than most Japanese restaurant. I had anticipated high quality sushi and sashimi from the price.

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Appetizer started with the oyster shooter that consisted of a small oyster, uni, ikura (salmon roe), raw quail egg and scallions. The shooter is an interesting combination of slippery-ness with a bit of crunch from the ikura and some resistance from the oyster. Next came the wakame (seaweed) salad with cucumber, crab meat and cherry tomatoes served in a vinegar dressing.

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The next course was manilla clams with sake. The clams were fresh and I could taste the sake in the broth.

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Next came the blowtorched wagyu beef. The wagyu beef is thinly sliced and blowtorched for a smoky flavor. The succulent wagyu had high marbling content and melted in my mouth. It’s probably the best dish of the entire omakase.

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A sashimi platter was brought in front of us next which included salmon, o-toro (tuna), hamachi, saba (makerel), and uni from Japan. Japango went a little extra by garnishing the o-toro with edible gold leaf flakes. The sashimi was good until I tasted fish scales in my mouth from the saba. I mentioned it to the server when she cleared my plate and received an apology.  

The next course is black cod misoyaki and scallop on half shell. The black cod misoyaki was tender and soft but the flavor was a little too sweet for my liking. The scallop on half shell had shimeji mushroom cooked in a buttery soyu sauce. The scallop was overcooked, salty and rubbery. Not the quality you would expect from an expensive omakase. Both me and my friend had one bite of the scallop and couldn’t eat more of it. We suspected that one of the factors for the overcooked texture is to cover up the freshness of the scallop. We ended up asking the server to take away the dish and serve the next course as it was unedible for us.

Next came the nigiri sushi platter, the quality were decent but I’ve had better at other Japanese restaurant. The uni served this time were from Boston instead of Japan.

The restaurant brought us another dish to compensate for the scallop. Aji Furani is horse mackerel that is coated in breadcrumbs and fried to a golden brown. Served with tartar sauce and garnished with ikura, the flavor of the mackerel is quite mild and the texture is firm and dense.

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For dessert, matcha tiramisu was served. It’s a classic tiramisu dessert with Japanese twist. The tiramisu was creamy but could not taste any matcha flavor.

I’m not usually the type of person to leave a negative review seeing that I am in no way a professional food critic. I don’t believe it’s fair for me to bash on a restaurant if the food wasn’t to my taste. But my experience at Japango was less than satisfactory. Moreover, I question the value of the meal considering how I’ve eaten some fine Omakase in town. I had anticipated high quality sushi and sashimi from the price. But the price does not match quality of food served. I would not recommend coming to Japango for Omakase.

Japango
Address: 122 Elizabeth St, Toronto, ON M5G 1P5
Website: https://japango.net/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/japango122/