• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

RecipeTin Japan

Authentic Japanese Home Cooking

  • Recipes
  • Everyone’s Favourites
  • Pantry Essentials
  • About
    • About Me
    • Contact
    • Privacy & Disclosure
    • Japanese Eating Etiquette
Home » Main » Yūan-style Grilled Fish (Yūan Yaki Fish)

October 14, 2025 By Yumiko 2 Comments

Yūan-style Grilled Fish (Yūan Yaki Fish)

Jump to Recipe
Print Recipe

Yūan-style Grilled Fish is an elegantly grilled dish. It is made by grilling fish fillets after marinating them in sake, mirin, and soy sauce with slices of citrus – most commonly yuzu. The characteristic of Yūan-style Grilled Fish is its refreshing flavour with a scent of citrus.

Hero shot of Yūan-style Grilled fish (Yūan Yaki fish).

It is a tsukeyaki dish, which I introduced in Baked Kingfish Head with Soy Glaze (Kingfish Tsukeyaki). In addition to marinating the fish, brush the marinade ovwe several times during grilling to enhance the flavour.

About Yūan Yaki

Yūan Yaki (幽庵焼き) is a generic cooking method that uses a specific marinade called ‘Yūanchi’ (幽庵地).

Yūanchi was originally made by mixing equal parts of sake, mirin, and soy sauce. As the cooking method evolved, slices of citrus fruit such as yuzu were added to the marinade, giving it a refreshing aroma. Instead of yuzu, other citrus fruits can also be added to the marinade. These days, miso is even added to the marinade as a variation of Yūanchi.

The origin of the name ‘Yūan’ (幽庵) is unclear. The most widespread theory is that it was named after the tea ceremony master called Yūan Kitamura, who was also known as a gourmet.

However, one food historian tends to reject this theory, because Yūan Kitamura lived in the mid Edo period and mirin was introduced in the late Edo period, more than 100 years after his death.

Another theory suggests that Yūan-style Grilled Fish was served at tea ceremonies in the past, and someone wanted to name the dish in association with the tea ceremony. Accordingly, the famous tea master’s name, Yūan, was adopted.

Snapper Yūan Yaki on a plate.

Yūan Yaki made with a snapper fillet.

Regardless of the origin, there are two key elements that define Yūan Yaki:

  • Marinating the fish or meat in equal portions of sake, mirin, and soy sauce.
  • Basting the fish or meat using the marinade while grilling.

What’s in my Yūan-style Grilled Fish (Yūan Yaki Fish)

Ingredients for Yūan-style Grilled fish (Yūan Yaki fish).

  • Blue-eye travalla fillets, skin on.
  • Salt.

I used blue-eye trevalla, but you can use other fish fillets such as snapper, Spanish mackerel, kingfish, and cod. You can also use salmon fillet, but I prefer the fish with white flesh because it shows the colour of the marinade better.

Yūan Marinade

  • Soy sauce
  • Cooking Sake
  • Mirin
  • Yuzu juice.

Traditionally, Yūan marinade includes sliced yuzu mixed in, but fresh yuzu fruit is scarce in Sydney. So, I used yuzu juice instead. You can also use sliced lemon or lime as a substitute. It makes the Yuan yaki a touch sour compared to using yuzu.

How to make Yūan-style Grilled Fish (Yūan Yaki Fish)

Step-by-step photo of making Yūan-style Grilled fish (Yūan Yaki fish).

  1. Sprinkle salt over the fish fillets and leave for 30 minutes. Pat dry.
  2. Mix the Yūan marinade ingredients together and marinate the fish fillets for 1 hour.
  3. Grill the fish fillets, basting with the marinade from time to time, turning the fillets over halfway through.
  4. Transfer the fish to serving plates, with a lemon or lime wedge on the side.

Although it is a marinated grilled fish, the flavour of Yūan Yaki Fish is quite mild. The marinade enhances the natural taste of the fish while adding umami, even with a short grilling time.

Showing the inside of the cooked Yūan Yaki Fish fillets.

The elegant citrus fragrance goes so well with the delicate flavour of white-fleshed fish. For oilier fish such as kingfish, the citrus adds a refreshing contrast to the richness.

YumikoYM_Signature

5 from 1 vote
Hero shot of Yūan-style Grilled fish (Yūan Yaki fish).
Print
Yūan-style Grilled Fish (Yūan Yaki Fish)
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
14 mins
Salting & Marinating
1 hr 30 mins
Total Time
1 hr 49 mins
 
Yūan-style Grilled Fish is made by grilling fish fillets after marinating them in sake, mirin, and soy sauce with slices of citrus – most commonly yuzu. The characteristic of Yūan-style Grilled Fish is a refreshing flavour enhanced by the scent of citrus.
Recipe Type: Main
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: crumbed fish recipes, grilled fish, yuzu recipes
Serves: 4
Author: Yumiko
Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)
  • 4 x 100g/3.5oz blue eye trevalla fillets (note 1)
  • A few pinches of salt
Yūan Marinade
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp cooking sake
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • 2 tsp yuzu juice (note 2)
Instructions
  1. Sprinkle salt over the fillets and leave for 30 minutes. Then, wipe off the moisture from the fillets.
  2. Mix the Yūan Marinade and place it in a ziplock bag or a tray with the fish fillets. Marinate for 1 hour, turning the bag or fillets in the tray a couple of times during that time.

  3. Pre-heat oven griller/broiler.
  4. Place a rack on a baking tray covered with aluminium foil.
  5. Remove the fillets from the marinade and put them on the rack, skin side down. Keep the marinade (note 3).
  6. Place the tray under the oven grill/broiler. The distance between the heat and the fish should be about 10cm/4”.
  7. Grill for about a minute, until the surface of the fish turns whitish. Baste the surface of the fillets with the marinade.
  8. Cook for an additional 3-4 minutes. During this time baste the surface of the fillets with the marinade every minute or so (note 4).

  9. Turn the fillets over and cook further 2-3 minutes, basting the fish in the same way (note 4).
  10. Remove the fillets from the grill.
  11. Place a fillet on an individual serving plate with a lime or lemon wedge (note 5) on the side.

Recipe Notes

1. Many types of fish are suitable for Yūan Yaki – snapper, Spanish mackerel, kingfish, swordfish, cod, etc.

I bought a large piece of fish fillet and sliced it diagonally, which is a typical Japanese way of cutting fillets. But you can also use standard cuts of fillets or even cutlets, as long as it is not too thick.

One side of the standard fish fillet is fully covered with skin. You may want to make cross-incisions on the skin side so that the marinade infuses into the flesh better.

2. The traditional marinade uses fresh yuzu slices. Where I live, fresh yuzu is hard to find, so I used yuzu juice as an alternative. If you can get fresh yuzu fruit, add several slices to the marinade instead of using yuzu juice.

You can buy a small bottle of yuzu juice at Japanese/Asian grocery stores.

You can also use lemon or lime slices instead of yuzu. It makes the Yūan yaki a touch sour compared to using yuzu.

3. If you marinated the fish in a bag, transfer the marinade to a bowl. It is easier to baste the fish with the marinade in a bowl.

4. The required cooking time depends on the thickness of your fillets. My fillet was about 1.5cm/⅝” thick.

5. If you use fresh yuzu fruit, serve with sliced yuzu instead.

6. Nutrition per serving.

serving: 114g calories: 99kcal fat: 0.7g (1%) saturated fat: 0.1g (1%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 0.2g monounsaturated fat: 0.1g cholesterol: 43mg (14%) sodium: 344mg (15%) carbohydrates: 2.3g (1%) dietary fibre: 0.1g (0%) sugar: 1.7g protein: 18g vitamin D: 0.9mcg (5%) calcium: 18mg (1%) iron: 0.5mg (3%) potassium: 434mg (9%)

 

Meal Ideas

A typical Japanese meal consists of a main dish, a couple of side dishes, a soup and rice. I try to come up with a combination of dishes with a variety of flavours, colours, textures and make-ahead dishes.

The flavour of Yūan-style Grilled Fish is quite light, so I paired it with a mayo-based soybean salad to add a richness to the meal. Except for cucumber in the salad, most plates are brownish, so I added colourful mini tomatoes marinated in shiro dashi for contrast.

I chose Takikomi Gohan for rice, but plain cooked rice also works well.

  • Main: Yūan-style Grilled Fish (Yūan Yaki Fish) – today’s recipe.
  • Side dish 1: Soybean Salad with Carrot and Cucumber – you can make ahead.
  • Side dish 2: Marinated Cherry Tomatoes Two Ways – make ahead, either flavour of marinade works well with the main dish.
  • Soup: Miso Soup of your choice from Miso Soup Ingredient Combinations or your favourite ingredients.
  • Rice: Rice with White Radish (Daikon Takikomi Gohan) – or plain rice.

Meal idea with Yūan-style Grilled fish (Yūan Yaki fish).

Filed Under: All Recipes, Main, Seafood

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Eha Carr says

    October 15, 2025 at 11:23 am

    So simple with just the few ingredients always used in Japanase cooking – but, have not ‘done’ it this in the way and it promises a taste delight!

    Reply
    • Yumiko says

      October 15, 2025 at 5:44 pm

      Hi Eha, please try and let me know how it went.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Hi, I’m Yumiko!

I was born and raised in Japan and migrated to Australia with my family in 1981. I got tired of my kids constantly asking me for their favourite Japanese recipes, so I decided to collate them in one place so they can help themselves - and now you can too! Read More…

LOVE JAPANESE FOOD? Join my mailing list for free!

Miso Soup Basics
How to cook rice the Japanese way
RecipeTin Eats

LOVE JAPANESE FOOD? Join my mailing list for free!

Privacy & Disclosure · Copyright © 2025 · RecipeTin Japan

  • Recipes
  • Everyone’s Favourites
  • Pantry Essentials
  • About
    • About Me
    • Contact
    • Privacy & Disclosure
    • Japanese Eating Etiquette