Koo Izakaya — Restaurant in Ajax

After eating a few bites, it immediately reminded me of my time in Japan. The problem with this restaurant is that it decided to open up in Durham where it is not known for amazing Japanese food. People generally lump all Japanese food from Durham as 'Eastern food catered to the Western Masses'. I strongly regret making this mistake about Koo Izakaya.

We have a newborn and were heading down to downtown to eat 'authentic' Japanese food. But after the baby started wailing 5 minutes into our drive, we decided to check out this place after hearing about it over a year ago. We were greeted with friendly individuals who sat us in a more spacious area to accommodate the stroller. They took our order, and we had their food. From the chewiness of the udon to the rice quality of their sushi, we were very impressed. The torched sushi was better in taste and priced exceptionally lower than Miku Downtown Toronto.

I really don't want to write this review because I selfishly want this place to be a local secret, but I also feel that this place deserves to be busier with line ups.

Kinka & Guu has nothing on Koo Izakaya. Look forward in coming in the near...

Picked up some lunch at the newly opened KOO IZAKAYA (located inside of the Courtyard in Pickering Village). Hubby ordered the Bulgogi Kimchi Poutine*. It’s a generous serving of crispy fries topped with shaved beef, cheese curds, kimchi, and drizzled with a slightly sweet sauce on top. Flavour combo is awesome and he highly recommends it. *The poutine is on their Tapas menu which is typically a dine-in only menu, but this week they are allowing customers to place takeout orders from this menu.

We also got the small Salmon Lover plate. There is nothing small about it. The pieces of salmon are massive and melt in your mouth. Lots of wasabi and ginger on the side if that’s your thing. Spicy salmon roll has a yummy spicy mayo on top with crunchy pieces of tempura on the inside, and the salmon maki was fresh and tasty as well.

Yam roll is filled to the max with tempura yams and drizzled with a unagi sauce. It was very good.

Everything was well packed with lots of condiments, napkins, and utensils...

Coming from Markham, admittedly I am spoiled by the abundance of solid sushi options in that area.

We decided to try this out for a Father's Day meal since we were in the east end of Pickering during the day.

The restaurant isn't very big but even then, it wasn't nearly packed on a Saturday evening.

The service here is mediocre at best and that includes the back kitchen. It's VERY clear they prioritize their take out order over dine-in as it took well over an hour for our food to arrive while people just kept coming in to pick up their food. The service staff is non-existent unless you call for them. But then, they're expecting a 20% tip. No thanks.

And when the food arrived, the easiest way to describe it is shrinkflation. Razor thin slices of fish on their pressed sushi that is 95% rice. Cold rice for the rolls. Small portions.

Dine at your own risk but if you're willing to come out to Markham/Richmond Hill, you'll get a much better sushi dining experience at...