Best New Restaurants 2015: #13, Yunaghi

By Mark Pupo | Photography by Dave Gillespie

When J. P. Challet moved Ici Bistro to the Windsor Arms, Yurika Ara and Yasuko Miyata took over the premises and opened Yunaghi. They hired Tetsuya Shimizu—who studied kaiseki in Japan and worked as a sous-chef at Yours Truly, the Ossington molecular gastronomy outfit that closed last year—and let him loose to experiment within the framework of a traditional kaiseki menu. The standouts are raw hamachi steeped in a dashi tea, chawanmushi divided between squid ink custard and a sweet corn purée, and a zany and surprisingly delicious plate of white asparagus spears with bacon-flavoured powder and tofu creamed with grana padano, plus shards of an almond gelatin “glass.” The room is as serene as a remote mountain temple, everyone in a reverent blissed-out hush.