Honjin Izakaya — Restaurant in Calgary

Honjin is on the second level of the new Tokyo street market. Made a reservation online for 2 on a Tuesday evening. Parking is a little rough, not enough spots if the place is busy. Ambience: The tables are a little odd to sit in, you're not quite sure how to place your legs and I kept hitting the table with my legs through the whole meal. Music was very very loud, me and my friend had to yell over each other to converse. It seems like all the other guests were also yelling so it contributed to a very noisy environment. Bonus they were definitely playing the early 2000 hits(cough lose yourself by Eminem).

Food/pricing: We ordered the eggplant(7 dollars?) beef tongue stew(12), unagi don meal set(22 or 26 dollars I don't remember anymore),2 mocktails(8 dollars each), the honjin special oishi sushi(20 dollars), jumbo karaage (11)and 2 chicken gizzard skewers(3 dollars each?) and the cheese tofu (11 dollars) for dessert.

The eggplant was good, pretty standard Izakaya dish

Beef tongue stew was tender and delicious, came with a random piece of tripe mixed in, and one large,tender piece of daikon which has been stewed in the beefy sauce for ages.

Honjin oishii sushi was good, taste wise. Thin slice of raw Wagyu, ikura ,and a little bit of uni. I personally think to would've been better without the truffle. Comparing to what I see on instagram I feel ripped off, I got maybe 1/3 the amount of uni the influencer got. They got a full piece of uni, I got some liquified mushy, not even whole bits of uni as you can see.

Karaage was not really jumbo. Pretty standard, same with the gizzard skewers. Nothing note worthy.

Unagi don, the unagi was good. However the rice part was just plain, steamed rice. Growing up in Asia I was accustomed to the rice having some of the unagi sauce to season it.

The cheese tofu was the unique dessert they have. We were told it would be panna cotta topped with honey, a side of strawberry puree and served on thin baguette slices. We were instructed to mix the Panna cotta and honey vigorously and spread on the bread. The baguette was, cold,not toasted, not crispy. The mixture of panna cotta and honey was liquid, dripping off the bread and even more drippey after adding the also, very watery strawberry puree. Tasted like condensed milk on toast but not as good. 11 dollars for this felt very not worth it.

Mocktails I had the yuzu "old fashioned" and my friend had the mango green tea one. They were okay, nothing earth shattering. Little one dimensional for a 8 dollar non-alcoholic drink. The alcoholic cocktails I saw was 20+ dollars each.

Honestly I was quite disappointed, it feels that when the place paid for promotions on intsa they serve up much better quality items. I don't care for the ambience , it's just loud. So loud you can barely hear your friends and the wait staff. Izakayas are essentially the equivalent of a pub, but Japanese. Meant to be small plates, drinks , and affordable. We spent 100+ dollars (60+/person after tips and taxes). We didn't leave very full nor satisfied and we are two not very big females. At the price point there's vast room for...

I know a lot have not come to the 2nd floor of Tokyo Street Market. Honjin Izakaya opened on March 31 of this year. The atmosphere was very nice and someone on here said it was like walking into a small eatery in the ally of Japan. That is so true. It's very unique with their decor and nostalgic artifacts. You feel you stepped into a different place. When they seat you they first bring you ice water then they come with a tray of condiments to enhance that glass of water. (3 types of citrus and cukes)which was a really nice touch. I happened to have gone here with 2 people that does not eat seafood, which sucked for me! 😕. Nonetheless I tried a few dishes that sounded good. We also had 3 mock tails 2 (Lychee, Calamansi) mojitos and a cha cha. (Mango) Honjin is in the same family as Ke, Ikusa, Monsoon and Tokyo Street Food. I know Kinjo has a partnership with Tokyo Street food but not the others ones.

Goma-ae - spinach with sesame dressing...delicious

Age Bitashi - Eggplant in dashi broth (served cold) which I normally had this served hot in other places.

Age Gyoza - Eggplant wrapped around seasoned ground beef and deep fried. Seriously tasted like a dumpling.

Beef Tataki - This was interesting due to that it's served with basil and mint. There was a little dab of Truffle mayo. That took over the taste of basil and mint.

Chicken breast with garlic soy sauce. (I felt the chicken was not braised cause it was white)

Angus Steak and Mushroom - my friend downed that meal so quick so, it was good.

Yakitori - chicken skin, Shiitake mushroom and chicken thighs.

Honjin Trinity Oshi Zushi - japanese wagu, ebi, sea urchin, Ikura, gold flakes. The rice is seasoned with soy so you do not need soya sauce for this sushi. This was...

New izakaya upstairs has mostly tasty food (4/5) at high prices (3/5) and still has some operational kinks (2/5) to work out. Giving them them the benefit of the doubt since this place is new and the service was very friendly with a overall rating (4/5) but will come back next time to see if things have improved. Tokyo Street Market downstairs sells food at more affordable prices and presumably with more speed, though we didn’t get a chance to try it.

We tried several items from the Honjin Trinity to the roasted onigiri. The more expensive items definitely tasted better so you get what you pay for. The Trinity was definitely one of the stars and the roasted salmon belly was great too. The roasted onigiri was a bit bland. Water at the beginning with your choice of garnish was a nice touch. Favorites all mostly came from the oshi sushi section of the menu. Speaking of the menu, I appreciated the attempt to make them look like izakaya menus - it was a little tricky to read at first but we got used to it quickly.

Some of the kinks: drinks menu was missing a page for non-alcoholic beverages and the waitress couldn’t find it either; the oshi sushi took a very long time to come out - maybe 30 to 50 minutes depending on the item; skewers came out first even though we added the order afterwards; receipt was asked for but forgotten near the end until we got up to leave; total spend, including some tea, drinks and lots of water, was around $30-$35 per person (tips and tax included) but we left maybe half full.

Overall will come back to this place or any of their related restaurants, but would like to see some operational improvements for this new location and maybe even some specials (with special pricing) next time. 4...