OMI (451 Church, at Alexander, 416-920-8991) More a casual local hangout than a severe Zen dining room, this Japanese joint is best when owner/chef John Lee does his sushi thang with the day's fresh catch. Complete omakase dinners for $75 per person (à la carte menu $35 at dinner, $25 at lunch), including all taxes, tip and a cold unfiltered sake. Open for lunch Tuesday to Friday noon to 2 pm, and for dinner Monday to Saturday 5 to 10:30 pm. Closed Sunday, holidays. Access: eight steps at door, washrooms on same floor. Rating: NNNN

I'm walking up the stairs and through a split traditional Japanese noren door curtain, worlds away from the bustle of the cruisey boulevard below. But I don't hear the expected sounds of a plucked koto and the burble of a Zen water fountain. Instead I make my entrance at Omi to Carole King's drag queen anthem You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman. Church Street, I'm yours.

Sushi chef John Lee puts on real show preparing his tasting menu at Omi. photo by JOHN SCULLY

Before Toronto sushi hero Hiro headed for King East, this famed small space was his stomping ground. He left behind the room's ugly 80s pastel colour scheme, now cluttered with beer signs, movie posters and plastic fruit. But the impressive raised oak bar complete with glass-lidded display cases for the day's catch – a raised stage for piscatorial action – remains.

Bonus: a large front window overlooks what's jokingly known as South Beach, the hot sidewalk scene that's recently sprouted in front of the coffee shop and underpants boutique across the street. It's the new Steps, darling.

Swivelling back from the eye candy, I notice Omi's previously silent baseball-hatted chef, John Lee, take a cell call. He seems excited.

"Yes-s-s! I'm doing Ozzy!" he announces, punching the air. Lee will be slicing up fish for Mr. Osbourne's post-ACC concert nosh.

The CD player shuffles through Gladys Knight's Midnight Train To Georgia, segues into Bobbie Gentry's Ode To Billie Joe, followed by Melissa Manchester's Midnight Blue, the Staple Singers' I'll Take You There and Eva Cassidy's heart-breaking cover of Judy's Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

Like most of the after-work regulars joking at the bar, I forego Omi's à la carte menu – tempura ($16.95 dinner/$8.95 lunch) – for Lee's improvised omakase parade of plates that goes for about $75, depending on how much sensational chilled unfiltered sake is drunk.

Today, tuna comes two ways: briefly seared and ruby-centered tenderloin or pale pink topped with roasted garlic brittle. A mini-wok of steaming seafood soup – chewy squid tendrils, cultured mussels, watercress and sweet red bell pepper – leads to a beautifully plated solo shrimp suspended in a frazzle of deep-fried sweet potato thread. 

Flaky whiting comes broiled in an aluminum packet alongside buttery, sake-soaked caramelized onion, while the best part of steamed freshwater pickerel has delicious yellow-flecked skin. To finish, a fabulous sextet of inside-out uramaki – deep-fried soft-shell crab lashed with lovely tamago-no-moto mayo.

Let's hope Sharon doesn't start another sushi-bar brawl.

stevend@nowtoronto.com