Yakyoto Japanese Grill and Bar

Yakyoto Japanese Grill and Bar is located at 2460 Brock Rd, Pickering, the municipality bordering Toronto to the east. It seems to be a newer place with a newish interior with some traditional design elements, though Yakyoto uses traditional gas grills instead of electric as some places do now. Thankfully, reusable chopsticks are used. AYCD pop is $3 and there is Coke Zero so we opted for that... amazingly it is canned, which is very rare. The dipping sauce at the table was fantastic with this indescribable and wonderful flavour which I haven't had anywhere else.

We both like the green salad a lot as it had a quite good house dressing and was very fresh. Mishy liked the mushroom tempura, and the dipping sauce is quite good as well, although a touch sweet but no worries... it was delicious as Mishy noted. She also loved the bibimbap presentation and said that it was the best bibimbap that she has ever had... I agree that it possibly was the best ever because there was some seasoning in it that went perfectly with it that no one else used and it was fantastic. Shrimp tempura was excellent, light and flaky and went very well with the sauce.

We both also though the miso soup was just about the best we have had in it that it had this wonderful smokey flavour reminiscent of lapsang souchong tea, and was not diluted or watery at all. Mishy also said the seaweed salad was very good. We both agreed that kimchi was delicious, although Mishy thought there was red wine in it and I disagreed. Cheesy butter corn was a fantastic flavour combination and we both loved it. Kani salad is strips of surimi crab without much else but at least it was very fresh.

As to the meats, the beef short rib was amazing and Mishy said it was also the best ever, but she does get overenthusiastic. The cut pork belly was excellent with the dipping sauce. Garlic oil shrimp were fantastic because of the garlic oil which brought a lot of flavour and made them much better than most other places’ shrimp. Mishy said she wasn't too big on the chicken thighs as when they cooked they get much smaller, but I didn't mind them at all and they were well-seasoned and went well with the dipping sauce. The included spice is also very good and has plenty of ground cumin and fennel. Adding a shaker of cinnamon with the pineapple is a very nice touch as lots of cinnamon brings out the flavour and it was excellent.

For dessert, there are the usual Melona bars and also Chapman’s sundae cups which Mishy loved the double-chocolate variety of. Weekend lunch is $29.99 and the AYCD pop wasn’t too expensive. This is even slightly cheaper than Gyubee these days and was, dare I say, even better! Some of the flavour combinations at Yakyoto were nigh-unique and clearly created by someone with experience. One of the best tabletop BBQ’s we’ve been to so far.

Rating: 9.5 – 10 / 10