Hana Don Japanese Cuisine & Bar located at 9255 Woodbine Ave, Unit B14, Markham

After a massage, my mom and I had a kid-free lunch date at Hana Don, a restaurant that I had my eye on for the longest time.  We actually have had their food here before but in takeout form, so I feel like it doesn’t count.  To enjoy fresh raw fish and their dons, you just have to eat the real thing at the restaurant personally. 

I was taken aback at how beautifully decorated it was inside.  I had been to their predecessor restaurant before Hana Don took over this space (Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant) and now it’s transformed into a very nice Japanese aesthetic space.  On a Sunday around 12:40 p.m., we got a table for two right away.  It wasn’t too busy inside.  The ceramics were beautiful too.

I also did not realize how extensive the dine-in menu was.  I thought they served only dons (sashimi on top of rice), but there were katsus and omakase choices and individual sushi and sushi rolls as well.  It took me a minute to settle in and absorb all that the menu had to offer.

Menu cover

Menu

Menu – appetizers

Menu – don

Menu – more don

Menu – katsu and per piece sushi

Menu – omakase

Menu – rolls

Winterlicious menu

Menu and place setting

Seating

Ultimately, I chose what I came here to eat which was the “Hokkaido Don” (my love for uni and raw scallop knows no bounds).  My mom got the Kyoto Don.  The Chicken Katsu Set caught my eye too, and I got it with the cheese option which was an extra $2 (so worth it).  Each set came with a miso soup.

The miso soup was hot with layers of seaweed and small soft cubes of tofu.  So delicious.  It sounds silly to say this, but I haven’t had quality miso soup in a long time.

Miso soup

Hokkiado Don $39 – uni, ikura, hokkaido scallop, shiitake on premium sushi rice

The Hokkiado Don ($39) had uni, ikura, hokkaido scallop, and shiitake on premium sushi rice.  There were loads of soft melted uni on one side, dozens of bright red ikura (fish eggs) on another side, and white fluffy scallops on the other side.  There was the signature tamago egg with the name of the restaurant printed on it as well as some unique flaky seaweed on top.  This really satisfied my desire to try it — it’s been a long time coming.  I had all the uni to eat — all to my heart’s desire!  The accompanying wasabi was just spicy enough as well.

One thing I did not like was that the sushi rice had lots of diced shiitake embedded throughout it.  This made the rice overall taste sweet and I do not like eating sweet rice.  I would have preferred the savoury uni, scallop, and ikura on plain sushi rice.  I think if I ever crave this again, I would opt for the custom don option where I can choose the type of fish and avoid getting the rice with the shiitake in it.

Kyoto Don $39 – 13 pieces of assorted premium seafood and tamago on premium sushi rice

The Kyoto Don ($39) was beautiful with 13 pieces of assorted premium seafood and tamago on premium sushi rice.  It also had the signature Hana Don sign imprinted on a piece of tamago as well as carved cucumber and the same unique seaweed that was in my don.  I spotted salmon, jellyfish, ikura, caviar, ebi (shrimp), eel, torched scallop.  Despite the menu’s description, this don also came with shiitake-infused sushi rice.  Was this a mistake?  My mom said that she didn’t appreciate the sweetness of the sushi rice either.  Otherwise, the don was very good because all the fish was very fresh.

Chicken Katsu Set $20 – deep-fried breaded chicken, house katsu sauce. +$2 for cheese

The Chicken Katsu Set ($20 +2) came as a large tray full of food!  There was a bowl of rice (topped with purple cabbage shavings?), mashed potato, a half moon stainless steel draining rack holding the deep-fried breaded chicken, a bowl for grinding up sesame seeds, house katsu sauce, and some sort of green powder that I did not recognize.  The portion was really good.

Look at that delicious cheese melting from the chicken katsu

Each slice of chicken had a good portion of gooey cheese melting from it.  It was soo delicious!  The chicken was so tender and smooth and the cheese itself was very fresh and wholesome.  If it weren’t for the don, I would have swallowed this up whole.  The chicken katsu was so good that I didn’t even think of dipping it into the katsu sauce — it was tasty on its own already.  I kind of regret it now because I didn’t get to try their “house” katsu sauce.  Oh, well.  I ground up the sesame seeds using their bowl and pestle and the sesame smelled amazing.  We didn’t finish this and packed it up to go.

It was such a delightful lunch without catering to other small mouths for once.  We left so full and satisfied!  The female servers here were very attentive and professional too.

Hana Don Markham

Specials seen in January 2024

Funny story about their daily specials board is that I noticed this easel when I entered their store but nothing on it appealed to me that day, so I didn’t order anything from it (I love raw oysters but didn’t feel like eating any that day).  When I was sitting in the seat, it gave me a view into their kitchen area which had an internal note on the wall to their staff saying, “Sell more specials”.  It’s interesting because none of the staff mentioned the daily specials to us when we arrived nor when we placed our orders.  I noticed no signs advertising their daily specials inside the store either.  If upper management wants to sell more specials to customers, they should put more effort into it.  Just my two cents. 🙂