Shoushin

I went to this restaurant for my birthday dinner. I would say this is by far the best japanese restaurant in town. The restaurant has a zen like atmosphere, and similar to sushi-​ya in Japan. The guests are welcomed to engage in conversation with the chefs, and the best part is: u can tell the chef what u like to eat and what not to eat. Haha. (Of course, the chefs can speak english). On to the food and drinks, I had lots of sushi and everyone of them are highlights for the the night, and they are served one at a time. Lots of the fish came from Japan. The drinks served by the restaurants are also one of the best ones in town too (Champagne, white wines and sake). * (By chance, if u have no idea of what the fishes are, I posted pictures for your references)
Sushi from the day
1)Ika
2)Shima Aji
3)Sayori
4)Kinmedai
5)Chutoro
6 and 7) different cuts of toro
8)Kohada
9)Kawahagi
10)Mirugai
11)Awabi
12)Japanese Uni
13)Mutsu
14)saba
15)Ika Ino
16)Aka ebi
17)Hotate Uni
18)Botan ebi
19)Anago
20 and beyond) a la carte
Drinks
1)2006 Piper-​Heidsieck Brut
2)Domaine Servin Chablis 2014
3)Japanese craft beer
4)Kubota Senju Sake

Very similar to Zen restaurant, but not as good. I got omakase B, $ 120/​pp. Zen’s appetizers and desserts are better. Sushi and sashimi are similar, but Zen gives you 4 extra sushi pieces. The value isn’t worth the price. Customer service is great though!

This place was a wonderful experience.
A small restaurant with beautiful interior design that only seats a few people. I assume that is so that they can give you a lot of individual attention. I went for an annoversary date and we were very impressed. A lovely ambiance and the food was delicious. We did omakase B version, for $ 120 each. We got soup, two appetizers, a plate of super fresh sashimi then 10 or so pieces of sushi, handed us to us by the chef one at a time. It was a three hour experience so be prayed for that. Plenty of street parking on Yonge street. Not much dessert selection. I didn’t like the dessert (green tea tiramisu) but my boyfriend quite liked it.
We absolutely will return.

Went with a bunch of friends awhile back. I agree with many of the reviews here. It is good not the best in Toronto. In fact, for their price point, I would prefer Zen and Yasu.
We tried both the $ 80 and the $ 100 menu. $ 80 does not include sashimi and the hand roll which I think the it’s completely overpriced for what you get. They should charge the $ 80 for the $ 100 menu.
Aside from price, the quality of the fish /​sashimi is not the best. The toro had some residual when I had it and the urchin was not very sweet. The sushi is decent and looks very nice but the chefs are simply not experienced enough. They look very inexperienced and was not consistent.
The dinner was way too long as we have to wait for the main chef.
I feel like they got potential, not fully ready /​perfected to be able to charge the price they charge.

After being privileged to enjoy some of the best sushi in the world, all over the world, I would like to give my review of this new Toronto restaurant.
First of all, I must say it is absolutely beautiful! The sushi bar and the entire interior of the place is gorgeous! It’s awesome and offers a wonderful experience.
The service is very kind and friendly, the experience is engaging and just overall wonderful.
The food is top-​notch. The menu doesn’t really tell you what you’re getting but you will receive a wonderful meal at every step. Everything is delicious and well thought-​out before it comes to your plate.
I would like to note that I had first thought of giving it ⁴⁄₅ stars because for the ~ $ 250 meal for one person (with Sake), I wanted something fancy. Yet when I had the meal I realized it wasn’t necessary. At that price in some of the best restaurants in the world, it was similar.
This is very hard for me. I have one absolute favourite restaurant in Toronto that I always call ⁵⁄₅ stars. Shoushin is so close to it that I have trouble judging.
All I will say is that Shoushin is amazing in every possible way, but there are others with dishes that may be better, or may be an overall less expensive experience for a similar quality, but overall, Shoushin is great.
Basically, visit them! You may never have a meal like it again in your life.
I recommend you try the best food in the world and Shoushin is one of those places.

We live in the hood. It took a couple months for me to write this review. Been eyeing this place secretively work behind that BIG GREY wall for months. I thought: Will this be our new go-​to omakase place?
We booked a reservation for Friday night the first month it was open, at one of the tables instead of the bar. I was very excited. But, ultimately, disappointed. I was hoping for so much more for that price point. I understand that the rent is expensive and there are few seats. The waitstaff are really polite. One does not speak English well and is too quiet to be heard. One is friendly, but does not know his japanese food very well. The female waitress incorrectly explained one dish. The timing of food was the worst offender. The longest wait time between two dishes was about 40 min. Since we were not at the bar, we were forgotten and did not have the entertainment of the chef. (I definitely recommend sitting at the bar ONLY.) The appetizers were all served room temperature (on purpose or by mistake, I do not know), and not memorable. The selection of tuna was great, but the rest of the sushi did not impress. I would have loved the option to order more a la carte (especially the chu-​toro). The first group of nigiri we received used a noticeably different batch of shari from the second group of nigiri we received. The first was quite hard. The second was proper texture, but fell apart. As I picked up a piece a bunch of rice bitlets were left stuck on the plate. The shari was also more salty and less sweet than my personal preference. I opted for the black sesame puff (an upgrade fee was not disclosed) and my husband ordered the jelly for dessert. The special beer we wanted to order was soldout. So we asked for the sake menu again to choose something else. The waiter never came back to ask what our decision was, so we opted to drink just the tea we had. Some of the seats require you to take off your shoes, and wear their house slippers (this can be kind of gross when you think about it). I did not wear the slippers and I was FREEZING my tootsies. The draft from the front door clears right under the tables where your feet are. The table beside us ordered the $ 250 omakase. It did not seem worth it. That is more than I paid for Alinea, where I was both stuffed and impressed by their impeccable service.
If they were priced at $ 65/100/150…it would be more appropriate.
Another note: the special wood imported from Japan has a light fragrance that permeates all the food. This can be a pro or con, depending on your preference.

Was quite excited to try this place knowing the chef from Zen moved here opening his own restaurant. I came here with my brother and we both ordered the 6 course Omakase for $ 120. The set came with 2 appetizers, a sashimi platter, soup, 9 pieces of sushi, a handroll, tamago, and dessert.
First appetizer were some veggies and a piece of black cod — seared nicely, soft and almost melts in your mouth.
I personally did not like the soup — it wasn’t the typical miso soup, and it came with a duck meat ball.
The second appetizer was a dumpling stuffed with lobster meat and scallops, served with king mushroom and green peas. I found the scallops a little too over cooked, but that’s just me being sightly picky. I think this dish lacked a little flavor.
Sashimi and Sushi were both good. The fish was really fresh and served at the right temperature. I find most of their fish had a minty taste to it — i feel like they may have marinated their fish with the mint leaf? I personally don’t like the minty taste so it wasn’t much of my liking. I didn’t like how they didn’t serve any soya sauce. The soya sauce was already brushed on the sushi, but there were some dishes where I rarely had any on it. I like how they provided a small cloth to clean your fingers after eating sushi with your hands. Eating sushi with your hands is the traditional way, so it’s nice that they encourage you to use your hands.
The toro handroll was really good. I love how the seaweed was nice and crispy.
The tamago was sweet — tasted good.
The dessert was a earl matcha green tea pudding. I like how it wasn’t sweet — the only sweetness came from the red bean sauce on top of the pudding, and there was a purée of tea powder giving it a slight taste of bitterness.
Overall I really enjoyed my meal. However, I do prefer Yasu or JaBistro’s as portions are larger and for less too. My brother wasn’t full after today’s meal.
Service was good. My cup was always filled with water — bonus points for that :)

I’m a fan of traditional, high-​quality omakase nigiri. My review is geared towards like-​minded diners.
I had omakase B: a couple of apps + sashimi + 10 pieces of nigiri + hand roll.
The nigiri is comparable in flavour and umami to Yasu and Zen, but a step below JaBistro for me. The rice broke apart easily in my mouth, but I found the texture of the rice oddly hard.
The toro hand roll was great. Seaweed that’s crispy, flavourful, and doesn’t stick.
Bonus points for providing a yubifuki (small finger-​cloth used to clean your fingers between nigiri). This is the only place in Toronto I’ve been offered one.

Exceptional, Creative, Elegant and Tasty!
I had the pleasure to dine along with my good friend at Shoushin recently and I must say we have both enjoyed our experience from the beginning to the end.
The ambiance is modern, elegant and essential.
The food is of excellent quality and speaks for itself above all.
We opted for the top of the line Omakase testing menu which I believe is the most complete experience you would want to have.
The young and talented chef Jackie has already marvellously developed his exquisite skills in creating sublime and delicious dishes. He’s very creative but always respectful of the traditional Japanese cuisine rules.
Everything was very nicely executed and even the suggested paired sake was surprisingly very good.
I personally enjoyed from the freshly grated wasabi to the incredibly tender and rich of flavour Japanes A5 Wagyu meat. All the different types of Tunas, Snow Crab and the amazing Abalone! The masterpiece Hand Roll, Sushi and Sashimi that literally melted in my mouth!
Perhaps the secrets and untold ingredients of each exquisite recipe and dishes might have been true love and passion that Jackie is ensuring to sparingly dose in his culinary art.
It was indeed an exceptional and very tasty culinary experience that I look forward to repeating very soon.
Highly recommended!

3.5 stars — Please don’t take me wrong! I do like Shoushin though I don’t love it. My husband and I both had the omakase A ($ 80) and thought it offered decent but not outstanding value for money. Everything was fresh and delicious but somehow failed to wow us.
Service is awesome! Our servers are extremely attentive and our tea cups were constantly refilled. The hinoki cypress sushi bar and platforms are so beautifully zen!
They didn’t have liquor license when we went last week. So if sipping sake with your meal is important to you, inquire when making reservations.
Dinner options:
Omakase A $ 80
Omakase B $ 120
Omakase C $ 250
For an extra $ 4, you can upgrade their standard dessert (red bean jelly with matcha sauce) to a black sesame puff. Recommended.
Honestly, I have trouble understanding their pricing structure. IMO, a resto that charges ⁸⁰⁄₁₂₀ per person is highly unlikely to be the same one charging $ 250. The latter ambitiously pushes the range of Hashimoto which offers authentic kaiseki! What you get by paying $ 250 for omakase C is that you get an additional wagyu course plus some upgraded sushi over omakase B. In Japan, a decent wagyu feast fetches $ 120 up. So paying a $ 130 increment for a single wagyu course really doesn’t make sense to me.
Upgrading from omakase A to B, the difference is $ 40 for a sashimi course. Again this is a little bizarre! I’d much prefer to go to Sushi Kaji @$ 150 per person.
In short, if my friends invite me to Shoushin, I’d be pleased to visit Jackie again. But I’ll stick with omakase A. If it’s my call, then I’ll most likely suggest Yasu or Zen. In Toronto, we’ve got plenty of good choices at the $ 80-​$ 100 and the $ 120-​$ 150 ranges!

The disclosure here is that I had dinner on the third day they were open for business.
I had dinner at ex-​sous chef from Zen, Chef Jackie Lin’s restaurant on Wednesday night as my birthday dinner. I’ve been anticipating the open of his restaurant for a long time ever since he left Zen Restaurant in pursuit to open his new establishment.
Located at Yonge and Lawrence, it’s in a swanky area. You can find street parking right at Yonge or if you want to save a couple bucks, drive into the residential areas and you can park for free.
Inside décor is beautiful. They’ve used special wood and the details are minimalistic and clean. Very bright open space. About fourteen seats at the sushi bar. Ten seats in a semi private area and about three tables for 2 that I recall.
Onto the food. The appetizer in the Omakase B was a cooked fish and it was way over cooked. I did mention it and Chef Jackie was accommodating so I appreciated that detail. Again, it was only the restaurants third day for business so the kitchen staff is not all there yet.
The sashimi part of the course was average. Unfortunately I didn’t think it was anything special which my boyfriend and I thought was a major disappointment. They use fresh real wasabi.
Miso soup with clams was great. Way better than the miso soup served at zen, that is for sure.
Onto the sushi. This was what I was really looking forward to. It’s 11 pieces and there’s a lot of emphasis on tuna. Five different ways that sushi is delivered and truly spectacular cuts. He uses premium fish and his cuts are generous. Way thicker than the other higher end Japanese restaurants in the city. The incredibly disappointing part of the evening was the rice. In a truly outstanding omakase experience, the sushi rice is just as important as the fish, if not more important. Jackie was trained in Tokyo and his style of rice was less vinegar and less sweet. He focuses on salt. I’m unsure if the city of Toronto is ready for Tokyo style sushi. It’s personally not for me but my boyfriend thought it was alright.
Towards the later part of the opening, they ran out of rice. So clearly they are still in their early days of operation and these kinks will be figured out soon.
Beyond the rice however, the tuna, medium tuna, otoro, and torched toro were memorable. The uni from Boston was fantastic. Jackie has the best sea eel in Toronto.
We had a piece of Saba mackerel with kelp on top. This wasn’t part of the omakase experience so you’ll have to order a la carte. Get this.
The tomago was a little sweeter than Zen. It wasn’t better or worse than Zen. Just a little sweeter. I love tomago and enjoyed it here thoroughly. Order the tomago as sashimi without the rice. This is the only way to enjoy this :)
For desserts, we had the red bean curd with matcha. This was okay. For an additional four dollars, on top of the omakase price, we were also able to order the black sesame pastry dessert (I forget the name). I was a little confused as to why I had to pay extra for the dessert, but I didn’t care too much. The dessert was good but not mind blowing.
Service was good. The servers were attentive and always made sure I had tea in my cup. Really enjoyed this detail so kudos to them.
I was sitting at the end of the sushi bar near the sink so I didn’t have much of a conversation with the chef which I was looking forward to. Kind of get shafted so if you make a reservation, specifically request to be in the middle so you can enjoy all the action.
Again, this restaurant review is based on its third day of operations. I believe it has the potential to be 4.5−5.0 but right now, I have to stick to my 4.0 rating. The rice was my biggest peeve of the day — rice didn’t have enough seasoning. The best part about this place was the cut of the fish on the sushi. Super thick and fresh.
Zen is still my favourite restaurant. But time will tell… Best of luck to Chef Jackie.

Able to get a seat on the first opening night. On the night, the restaurant offer 3 Omakase menus with different pricing and we picked the $ 120 and the $ 250 dollar one.
The other reviewer has already included pictures for the sushi and the menus so the pictures will speak to itself…
In short, the sushi was excellent, the fish is fresh and the choice of ingredient including seaweed, wasabi, and sushi rice are the finest; well, at least taste like the finest in my opinion! I would recommend the $ 120 menu as it includes appetizer, sashimi, sushi, soup, and dessert. I think it has the best value when comparing to the $ 250 menu.
Oh, and the dessert — black sesame cream puff is a must try in my opinion if you can only pick one of the two being offered! If you are going with your other half, then pick one of each and you both can share! :)
The first night shows there are still some minor bumps to iron out in terms of service flow but are all forgivable as being the first night. I am sure it will get better and I will definitely come back. So the 5 stars I am giving here are all for the food being served and services rating is not included because this is the first night after all. I will omit service this time. This concludes my first review in Unilocal!:)

Ex-​sous chef from Zen, Jackie opened up his own restaurant Shoushin and we were fortunate enough to make reservations on his first day of business.
The restaurant is truly one of a kind and can only be described as elegant. It is beautiful from floor to ceiling with pieces specifically imported from Japan (sushi bar — made of fine Japanese hinoki, only one of two sushi restaurants sporting this exquisite Japanese cypress in North America). There is so much attention to details from the décor to the food.
We ordered the omakase B and it was more than enough. The fish cannot be any fresher as it is imported often. We savoured each piece Jackie put in front of us. We loved every dish, from the appetizer to dessert. They do not serve the traditional miso soup but a hamagri bonito soup which was amazing. The dessert was definitely a highlight of the meal. I absolutely adore the black sesame cream puff pastry. The texture was perfect with strong black sesame flavour. Will definitely return soon!