@movernie
The wait is finally over as the new restaurant, “Blue Bovine” is now open for business inside the historic Union Station. Blue Bovine is a steak and sushi house, one of the latest restaurants being added to the Liberty Entertainment Group that has opened award winning restaurants like Don Alfonso 1890 and Blue Blood at Casa Loma.
Blue Bovine Steak + Sushi House is a fine dining restaurant offering top quality steak, seafood, sushi and Omakase dining experience.
This restaurant is led by Executive Chef Sean Blomeley who came with tons of culinary experience. He came from London, UK working at a number of prestige restaurants before calling Toronto, Canada his home. Sean works as the Executive Chef at Blue Blood Steakhouse located at Casa Loma (part of Liberty Entertainment Group), so he is now making his transition to manage this new Blue Bovine restaurant.
As for the sushi side, it is led by Executive Sushi Chef Yi Joo Na (Eugene), who also brings many years of experience with him to Blue Bovine.
Many restaurants in Toronto usually does surf and turf, perhaps the classic steaks with lobster tails or pan seared scallops. Some restos offer up steak with sushi platter. Although these food options are available on the menu at Blue Bovine, what impresses me and MoKenny is that….they also offer a very exclusive 4-seater Omakase sushi experience. This is definitely a game-changer and elevated Blue Bovine from other restaurants.
For an Omakase experience to go well, you need a chef who understands the character of each fish and how to best utlize its taste and texture and we could definitely felt the passion and knowledge by Chef Eugene during our Omakease experience at the VIP Party.
MoVernie FUN FACT: Omakase is “Chef’s Choice” who decides the freshest fishes and ingredients while making fresh sushi piece-by-piece for the guests.
During our Cocktail VIP Party, Chef Eugene gave me and MoKenny a taste of what it’s like to experience his Omakase sushi experience sitting at the counter while we watched him surprised us with every fresh sushi, prepared each sushi piece-by-piece and served to us over the counter. Let me tell you, it was an unbelievable experience and Chef Eugene surely knows what he is doing. Fresh seafood are imported straight from Japan daily. He prepares the fresh seafood with his amazing sushi making skillz and added unique garnish, herbs and unique ingredients to elevate the dining experience.
Click here to check our Omakase dining experience with Executive Sushi Chef Eugene.
This restaurant has a very nice gate entrance, first thing I noticed was a beautiful long bar counter along the right side of the wall. The DJ booth is located right beside the entrance. On the left side, there are many different comfy sofas, chairs, booths, tables that can accommodate a number of different party sizes.
There are a nice glass wall of wines. And along the wall, there are a few big elevated booth tables. Overall, this place is inviting, chic, elegant and stylish.
There is a private dining room that can sit at least a good 14 people in a long dining table. It also features a TV screen that you and your guests can watch a sports game.
The setup in this restaurant is that….they will have some TV screens at different sections of the restaurants offering guests to watch the game.
The kitchen is at the back as well as the gender neutral washroom is also located at the back as well.
After our incredible Exclusive Omakase experience with Executive Sushi Chef Eugene, MoKenny and I were somewhat full, so we decided to grab some drinks to mix and mingle with other guests. We bumped into some familiar faces, it’s always good catching up. We also met new people.
We chatted with Mr. Wonderful himself, Kevin O’Leary, one of the investors for his Blue Bovine as he was making his rounds meet & greet his old friends and new faces. He was in a joyful mood. My bro luvs watches so Kevin and him were chatting about various watches.
Meanwhile, I saw Maple Leafs Mitch Marner, who is also one of the investors for this restaurant. I chatted with him a bit and took a pic with him. Every time I see him, he is a super nice guy! He still looks like a kid to me, but happy he is diversifying his money into being an entrepreneur into other businesses.
During this VIP party, food were kept pumping out from the kitchen for many hours, which was impressive. Hors d’oeuvre items included beef sliders, mac n cheese, gnocchi, pan seared scallops, steak tartare, steak with fungi mushrooms, jumbo shrimp cocktails, fried tofu and more.
As for beverages, to keep the waiting time short for its VIP guests, they were only serving red wine, white wine, beer, gin and tonic, rum and coke and any other bar rail beverages, which does the job for the evening. And it’s understandable that they want to make beverages that are both tasty and time efficient. They also were serving a specialty drink called “Blue Bovine” which was very colourful.
Chef Sean gave us a special VIP tour of the dry aging fridge that stored the top quality meat from around the world including wagyu from Australia and Japan.
The top gold trophy is a “Kobe Certified” trophy that certifies the meat are from Kobe, Japan as well as it’s meeting all the Japanese requirements to be labelled as top notch Kobe beef.
We see this trophy often at high end restaurants in Japan but it’s extremely rare and precious for restaurants outside of Japan to get this prestige Kobe beef certification.
Truly special to see Blue Bovine got this trophy so when you dine here, you can be assured you are paying for the top Kobe Wagyu steak quality at Blue Bovine.
All-in-all, we really like the location of this restaurant, it’s at a Prime location, it attracts a large variety of clientele as it’s located close to the Financial District, it will also attract tourists, attracts the locals who live in downtown. Moreover, you have Leafs and Raptors fans who will eat and drink before the game and just walk over to Scotiabank Arena. Or people can just stay and watch the game entirely at the restaurant. Or people can come here after the game.
The food are on point and provide a wonderful dining experience. You pay what you pay for but knowing the ingredients are top notch with good culinary quality.
I would definitely come back when the restaurant is open to the public just to try other food items and cocktail items. I want to try its signature Sushi Tower and tomahawk steak.
Blue Bovine Steak + Sushi House opens for business on February 20, 2024.
If you see the bull statue outside Union Station, walk up the stairs, open the door and you will see Blue Bovine.
Blue Bovine Steak + Sushi House (Inside Union Station) – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Website
Located in: Union Station Toronto
Address: 65 Front St W Unit 108, Toronto, ON M5J 1E3
Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/bBAsmcFdgdhRTzeeA
(Photo Credit: Google Maps)
