Dining Out: Jfuse Aburi & Bar's sleek, sophisticated take on sushi (2024)

Jfuse Aburi & Bar

175 Main St., Unit 4, 613-239-0112, instagram.com/jfuse.ottawa
Open: Monday and Thursday 5 to 9:30 p.m., Friday to Sunday 4 to 10 p.m.
Prices: most sushi items in the $20-$30 range, a la carte sushi $6 to $15
Access: no steps to front door or bathroom.

When it comes to sushi, I’m not that concerned about whether it’s great. More significant to me is whether I feel like I’ve gotten value for what I paid.

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After all, sushi can be the cheap, pre-made stuff at the supermarket, or all-you-can-eat fare that treats raw fish like a glutton’s reward, or even exquisitely crafted, uber-expensive delicacies that should deliver revelatory culinary thrills. Given that range, sushi may well vary in quality and price more than any other foodstuff.

In Ottawa, we don’t have anything approaching a super-high-end sushi experience, which can, for example, set you back $680 a person, as it does at the two-Michelin-starred Sushi Masaki Saito in Toronto. Sushi in Ottawa skews toward the more affordable end of the scale, and over the years I’ve had satisfying, if much more ordinary, rolls in the $10-$20 range.

But now there’s Jfuse, which opened in late April. This Main Street eatery dials up the sophistication of its sushi and serves its raw fish creations in a sleek, woody, attractive room that seats about 70 people and thrums to a groovy soundtrack.

Four of us went there late last month and were pleased by a dinner that cost about $80 a person, which is to say more than sushi elsewhere in Ottawa, but not a stratospheric amount either.

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My well-travelled companions said Jfuse brought to mind the food and vibe of the Miku restaurants in Vancouver and Toronto, which also specialize in “aburi” or flame-seared sushi, and “oshi,” or pressed sushi.

Jfuse, though, is the baby sibling restaurant of J:unique Kitchen on Cooper Street, which opened in 2019 and serves sushi that also leans into “Vancouver-style” trendiness. J:unique, however, is a little easier on the wallet than Jfuse, and while J:unique serves some elaborate “more-is-more” creations, Jfuse’s culinary aesthetic is more streamlined.

The minimalism here extends to Jfuse’s menu. It separates dishes under headings — appetizers, crudo, moriwase (combination platters), aburi/oshi, temakizushi (hand rolls), signature rolls, and noodles and rice. Under some of these headings, the menu descriptions were more like single-word clues (hamachi, hotate, maguro) than descriptions. Good thing our very knowledgeable server helped us navigate the menu, imparted some crucial details and even offered worthwhile recommendations.

We began with one of six appetizers, the Brussels salad ($11), because we thought the rest of our dinner might be light on vegetables and because our server touted it. Her enthusiasm was well-placed, and that warm salad combining sprouts with a creamy sauce and crispy topping was quickly devoured.

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Crudo, which used to be a stunningly simple Italian rendition of raw fish simply dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and salt, tends to be more elaborate and composed nowadays. At Jfuse, Asian-tinged crudos were stripped way back so that quality fish or scallops shone through.

Madai ($28), as the Japanese call sea bream, came with sesame paste dressing, some onion flakes for crunch, lemon juice and garnishes. Succulent salmon ($26) was paired with house-made ponzu sauce, while sweet Hokkaido scallops ($26), a.k.a hotate, came with house-made yuzu dressing. All were enjoyable and lovely to look at, although they didn’t have the slick richness of olive oil-based crudos.

We followed up with two examples of Jfuse’s seared, pressed sushi, and were impressed with our hamachi- and scallop-based creations ($21 each). The yellowtail and scallops were pristine, kissed with a slight char and well-garnished, and they sat upon well-made beds of rice, lightly vinegared and body-temperature warm.

More involved was the signature roll we chose that combined tidbits of wagyu beef with “real crab,” cucumber and fried shallots ($39).

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The deliciously unctuous beef was one of the menu’s flex signifiers, along with “real crab” (not the imitation stuff unapologetically offered in budget sushi rolls), two grades of premium fatty tuna, sea urchin, and sturgeon caviar on the fatty tuna handroll. Indeed, Jfuse’s motto could well be luxury, but in small, more affordable portions.

The menu offers several pasta and rice dishes, perhaps meant to satiate carbs-lovers. We tried two items that fell a little short. Uni cream pasta ($38) was good but not the wow it should have been, as the sea urchin needed to be more present and impressive, both visually and taste-wise. While the eggplant on rice ($24) featured well-cooked and -sauced eggplant, its rice seemed like warm, vinegared sushi rice and we would have preferred simple, hot, steamed rice.

For dessert, we split the hotteok (a dense, sweet Korean pancake) with ice cream and salted caramel ($15). It was better than the store-bought Asian ice cream that can end sushi dinners in Ottawa, but it seemed a touch pricey, too.

It struck us as odd that Jfuse didn’t serve Japanese tea. But its large, prominent bar does dispense more than a dozen kinds of sake, in flights, by the glass or by the bottle, as well as some fruit-flavoured sakes, four kinds of Japanese whisky, a limited selection of wines and on-tap and bottled beers, and some Asian-tinged co*cktails.

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Although it’s early days for Jfuse, I liked its setting and concept, which both seem tailor-made for date nights, as well as most of the food that it executed. Here’s hoping it irons out some small kinks and concocts more refined raw-fish treats worth the wee splurge.

phum@postmedia.com

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