Junz Restaurant

There's a lot to love at elegant Junz

A Sashimi entrée and lamb chops reflect the restaurant’s unique twist on the two cuisines.

...to The Denver Post's site

Post / Catherine J. Jun
A Sashimi entrée and lamb chops reflect the restaurant’s unique twist on the two cuisines.

By Kyle Wagner, Denver Post Restaurant Reviewer

Readers have steered me to some interesting places over the past 12 years, including a Mexican restaurant that proudly served Stokes Green Chili, a Chinese place that closed a

week after my visit for health-code violations, and a diner where a belching server confessed to having had "stomach issues" just before coming to work.
In all of these cases, readers said these were their favorite spots, and sometimes more than one person wanted to tell me about the same place. And here and there, readers have been responsible for steering me to some of the best hidden gems in the city.

Still, time and experience have proven that the true treasures are harder to find than a Californian who's not running for governor, and I approach unsolicited recommendations with a bit of skepticism and a healthy dose of humor.

So when a number of people contacted me to rave about a Japanese eatery called Junz, I was understandably wary. The home of some of the best sushi in the area also serves French food, and it's in Parker? No way.

There are so many things to love about this casually elegant restaurant, with its walls the color of gourmet mustard, splashes of red and black provided in the glass wall sculptures and trim, and its long sushi bar stretched from the exposed kitchen to the other end of the dining room, that it's hard to know where to start.

Maybe the way everyone starts a meal at Junz, walking in the front door to an immediate "Irrashai," the informal Japanese salutation that issues forth from every employee within greeting distance. And then there's the inevitable meeting with owner Jun Makino, an ever-smiling gentleman with twinkly dark eyes, so warm he is able to turn 40 seconds into just long enough for a person to feel welcomed by an old friend.

Makino studied his craft with the late Jean-Louis Palladin, a brilliant French chef who owned the restaurant Jean-Louis in the basement of the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., and later opened several beloved eateries before cancer took him in 2001. Palladin was most famous, though, for being the youngest chef to earn two Michelin stars for his France-based La Table des Cordeliers.

Makino's time with Palladin brings to Junz a classically focused Western sensibility you don't find in many Japanese restaurants, and here it adds such unusual and appealing items to the menu as foie gras ($13.50) floating in a pool of buttery consomme, the gentle bite of shallots and a hint of thyme offering extra sweetness to one of the largest portions of plush duck liver you're ever going to see in a restaurant. And not many Japanese eateries do a Chilean sea bass ($21.50) that's been broiled until just crispy, then set atop a mound of saffron-tinged risotto, the whole thing ladled with a "bouillabaisse"-style sauce enriched with lobster essence.

In addition, Junz offers traditional Japanese fare with a twist. Check out a soft-shell crab salad ($7.50), the crunchy-crusted crustacean lovingly arranged atop baby arugula and drizzled with a sweetened take on ponzu sauce, or Hawaiian swordfish ($18.95) - it's the Atlantic that had the ban, so no letters from fish huggers, please - seasoned with lemon pepper and nestled against a tangle of fettucine in a lobster-kissed cream sauce.

Junz is able to get away with these deviations, though, because it does the basics so impeccably. That means visitors to the sushi bar here will find generous cuts of sashimi, priced for two pieces at or below the area's standards, cut to show off each fish's attributes and combined with fresh ingredients for fetchingly flavored sushi and rolls, from yellowtail and salmon to mackerel and freshwater eel (all $3.95 for two pieces), along with a "crunch" roll ($6.50 for six pieces) that features shrimp and tempura and the Junz roll ($9.95 for six pieces), a roe-lover's delight, with sweet-slicked freshwater eel, cucumber, avocado and shredded crab, all topped with a ton of salty smelt eggs.

Other Japanese favorites had been prepared just as expertly, including soft-skinned gyoza ($4.50), shrimp and vegetable tempura ($14.50) and supple-fleshed yellowtail collar ($8.95). And the miso soup ($1.50) was spoons-down the most well-balanced I've ever tasted.

The only thing that didn't grab me at Junz was dessert, with the exception of the generous scoops of sweet lychee sherbet ($4.50). But "traditional" creme brulee ($4.95) tasted of nothing but lemon and had a consistency that was not custardy or creamy, but rather curdlike, and although the chocolate version ($4.95) had a better flavor, it sported the same too-dense texture.

The best tip readers shared about Junz, however, was the insider info that the eatery often has a stash of fresh wasabi on hand. Makino was out of it on my visits, but if he does have it, start begging. Reconstituted wasabi powder, which is what most places use, is made from horseradish, mustard and food coloring, and it is but a pale imitation of the root, which is grated and used as a palate-popping flavoring.

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Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 5 to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 5 to 9:30 p.m. Friday; 5 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday; 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday.