As per tradition, my friend Ronsee takes me out to a fancy dinner every year for my birthday. This year's choice? The Wild Bluefin Tuna Omakase Menu at ATO, only available for the month of November.
Place card
Our sushi chef preparing cuts of tuna
Appetizer tray
Appetizer: Cucumber roll with shrimp and ikura
Appetizer: Tuna tartare wrapped in cucumber on rice cracker with crispy mini crab
Tuna tataki with radish and caviar
Amuse-bouche: Unagi with cucumber and seaweed salad
Bluefin tuna bone soup with seaweed and daikon
Our sushi chef preparing sashimi platters
Amuse-bouche: Tuna ceviche
Sashimi: Otoro, hamachi, chutoro, shrimp, akami, and Hokkaido scallops
Our sushi chef preparing nigiri
Chutoro nigiri
Kinmedai nigiri with sudachi and shiso
Maguro akami nigiri with yuzu
Katsuo nigiri with kabosu
Otoro nigiri with yuzu zest
Hokkaido uni nigiri
Maguro temaki
Chawanmushi with uni, shrimp, scallop, and mushroom
Sea salt grilled bluefin tuna belly
Milk mousse with grape jelly on biscuit crumb
Ibara King melon
This experience was truly spectacular. I went to an omakase at Sushi Umi for my birthday last year, and while the food was amazing, the setting was quite uncomfortable because there were 12 other people sitting side-by-side and everyone was just awkwardly looking at each other and listening into each other's conversations. (Also uncomfortable because it was still the middle of the pandemic.) At ATO, we did share a sushi bar with another pair of people, but they were seated all the way at the other end so we still had privacy and it made for a much more comfortable experience.
Ronsee and I were also lucky enough to have our own sushi chef for the evening (shout-out to Jimmy from Japan!) who prepared all of our sashimi and nigiri with the most expert hands I've ever seen, and also created two delightful amuse-bouches for us (each sushi chef here creates their own amuse-bouches, so everyone gets different ones). The otoro tuna and the uni, which was flown in from Hokkaido this morning, are particularly noteworthy, but everything was truly incredible and I literally cannot think of one negative thing about this experience. Even the slice of melon for dessert was sweeter and more juicy than any other melon I've eaten. (As it turns out, one of those melons cost over $100 here. So it's also inadvertently the most expensive piece of fruit I've ever eaten.)
Honestly, this was one of the most delicious and beautiful dinners I've ever had. Dare I say that it's my favourite birthday dinner to date?
ATO Japanese Restaurant
16 Vogell Rd.
Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3K4
(905) 237-0881
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