Yuki Sushi

Yuki Sushi
554 Main St
Winnipeg, MB
Tel: (204) 956-2849
Fax: (204) 956-2841



The McLaren Hotel in downtown Winnipeg had a reputation as one of the roughest-toughest bars in the city. Winnipeg has made concerted efforts to clean up the core and targeted the McLaren watering hole. Although a pub continues to keep its visitors moist, Yuki Sushi stands at the Main Street frontage and dominates the building’s façade. If you look at the restaurant objectively, you see remnants of the joint that used to be here. The bar stools definitely remind you of a diner and the booths are not as cozy as most restaurant booths.

A respected friend of mine, knowledgeable and savvy about sushi, always referred to this place as “Yucky Sushi,” with which I didn’t agree. Having dined at Yuki several times, I find the service always friendly, attentive and eager to please. About the sushi, I normally use the California roll as a benchmark. If the roll uses pollock, there’s no need to come back. If they have some canned crab meat, they’re in the majority. The few that use genuine lump crab meat will have me back and drooling for more every time; you very rarely see this (in Winnipeg anyway). Every time I ordered the California roll, Yuki served the roll with canned crab meat; unfortunately today, the roll comes with pollock. I forgive grocery sushi for using pollock but for a sit-down sushi house to use fake crab is a sham and shameful.

Yuki’s version of a dynamite roll includes shrimp tempura, avocado, cucumber, masago and mayo. Of the listed, the most prominent ingredient is the cucumber. This shows an imbalance of ingredients as the subtle cucumber should provide little more than texture. By contrast, the chopped scallop roll should taste entirely subtle as scallops are not pungent shellfishes. Yuki over-salts the roll so that the delicate taste of the scallops lies buried.

As a sushi novice, I could not get over the fishiness of the nori (seaweed wrap). My first dip into the sushi pool found me coming out with one of the most Western-friendly nigiris, the tamago, which is a piece of sweet egg omelette tied to the rice by a little string of nori. The fishiness of the nori string turned me off the dish. Since, I’ve grown to love nori where I can eat sheets of it on its own. Alas, there’s something about Yuki’s nori which reminds me of why I didn’t like nori over two decades ago.

Of Yuki’s nigiris, the hokkigai (surf clam) tastes hard, tough and a tinge fishy, making this one of the worst clams I ever tried. The unagi (barbecued eel) does little better than the clam. The extremely small portion of fish sits on a monstrous mound of rice and what little eel is here has very little taste.

Whereas most sushi houses charge a fair premium for a considerable amount of sashimi (raw fish), Yuki charges small price for small portions of fish. I like this option as it gives you more opportunity to sample more fishes. The sake (salmon) tastes wonderfully rich and oily but the toro (fatty tuna belly) tastes bland and empty. Good toro melts in your mouth leaving the essence of the sea but this toro leaves nothing.

I understand that restaurants have off days and sometimes things don’t turn out as they hope. However, using sub-par ingredients isn’t a product of chance; it’s a choice. Yuki started off as a wonderful restaurant with very good food and excellent service. While the service remains superior, the food has gone downhill. I hope that Yuki picks it back up in the future because it has great potential and has built a large following.

** /5

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