Ten seats.
One season.
Trust the hand.
Sōra is an intimate edomae counter where the meal is not chosen but received — a quiet sequence set by the morning's catch and the turning of the season.
Reserve your seat
Photo · Unsplash
To leave it entirely to the chef.
お任せ — omakase — means to entrust. There is no printed menu at Sōra, no substitutions, no à la carte. You give the evening to the itamae, and in return receive the truest expression of what the sea offered that day.
Fish is aged, cured, and cut to order behind the counter. Rice is seasoned with red vinegar and served at the warmth of a cupped hand. Each piece is placed before you one at a time, meant to be eaten within a breath — a conversation of temperature, texture, and time.
We seat ten guests, twice a night. The room is deliberately small so that nothing comes between you and the work.
A quiet procession of seventeen courses.
The sequence shifts with each season and each morning's market. What follows is a representative summer counter — a rhythm of small plates, then nigiri, then a gentle close.
Chawanmushi
茶碗蒸しSilken egg custard, dashi drawn from Rishiri kombu, snow crab and a single bud of yuzu kosho.
Tai · Sea Bream
鯛Kombu-cured and rested overnight, the leanest and clearest note to begin the nigiri.
Aji · Horse Mackerel
鯵Line-caught, dressed with grated ginger and thin-sliced scallion, brushed with nikiri.
Akami Zuke
赤身漬けLean bluefin, marinated in a soy-and-mirin zuke bath until it turns deep and glassy.
Chū-Toro
中とろThe medium belly of the tuna — the balance point between muscle and marbled fat.
Kohada
小鰭Gizzard shad, cured in salt then vinegar — the piece by which an edomae chef is judged.
Hotate · Scallop
帆立Hokkaido scallop, sweet and cool, finished with a whisper of sea salt and sudachi.
Uni · Sea Urchin
雲丹Bafun uni over warm rice, wrapped in crisp nori pulled the moment before it is handed across.
Anago · Sea Eel
穴子Simmered until it yields to the tongue, brushed with a house tsume reduced for hours.
Tamago
玉子A dense, cake-like sweet omelette folded with prawn and yam — the traditional signature to close.
A sake and tea pairing is offered at the counter. Please share dietary needs when you reserve — the kitchen accommodates most, though the omakase is built around seafood and cannot be made fully vegetarian.
Chef Haruto Minami
Owner · Itamae
Haruto began at fourteen, sweeping the floor of a small counter in Kanazawa and, for three years, permitted to touch nothing but the rice. He trained a decade more in Tokyo's Ginza district before crossing the ocean to open a room of his own.
At Sōra he sources through a Toyosu-linked purveyor and the docks of the Atlantic, choosing each fish by hand at dawn. He speaks little during service — the work, he believes, says what needs saying.
"I do not cook to impress. I cook to disappear, so that only the fish and the season remain."
Ten seats of hinoki, and nothing more.
Reserve your seat
The counter seats ten, twice each evening. Reservations open on the first of the month for the month ahead and are held for a limited time. We ask for a card to secure the seat.
- Address
- 114 Ossington Avenue, Toronto, ON M6J 2Z5
- Telephone
- 416 · 555 · 0172
- [email protected]
- Hours
- Tuesday – Sunday · Closed Monday
- Seatings
- First · 5:30 PMSecond · 8:00 PM