Guu Izakaya — Restaurant in Toronto

Near perfect... this is a great place for amazing food and excellent service. The online menu looks limiting but there's a whole page of daily specials and we ordered most of our dinner from there. After reading some of the bi-polar reviews on terrible service or tiny sizes, I was a bit hesitant. None of these happened in my experience and I was quite surprised on the great flavours and execution coming out of this place.

The restaurants has a fair bit of seating as it smartly uses the shared bar or communal table. I love the atmosphere... dim cool hanging lights just gives a bit of shine off the dark shining woods of the bar. I love the tree trunks that double as table seating. It's a minimalist cool looking bar with more of a zen low key vibe than other Japanese places. There's no cheesy Asian fans or silk screens here. The steady play list of the amazing old school hip hop keeps you smiling (and possibly drumming on the bar) and it's not too loud that you cant hear your friends talk. The best part... the constant cheering from all the staff members when you walk in, order, and leave.. it just adds to the experience.

They recommend at least 2 to 3 dishes per person. Depending on the particular dish, I would say 3 is a good number. Seeing how most dishes are $10 or less, the price point for the flavours and quality are excellent. They are not meant to be entree sized dishes but small shared plates. I could have eaten 4 perhaps because they were so good!

Hotate Scallop Sashimi - The scallop is from Hokkaido. I've had them while in Asia and they're normally much more denser and meatier flavour to our wild scallops we get in Eastern Canada. This one was a fairly generous portion for only $10 and the floral presentation was a nice touch. 3.5/5

Spicy Yakko - This is perfect for any vegetarian and its very refreshing for the summer nights. A creamy, smooth, and chilled silken tofu with a generous topping of spicy vibrant bold red seaweed. It's a nice light change of texture and flavour to all the other heavier crunchy deep fried items. 3.5/5

Aigamo Duck - sous vide duck and then it looks seared on the skin with ponzu and yuzu pepper sauce. Honestly this was amazing. Duck was tender and cooked to a perfect medium rare. The sauce was vibrant with a touch of sweetness that went so well with the duck 5/5

Cauliflower Karaage - This was the first deep fried item we got and if you see this on the menu, order. Perfectly crispy exterior ... not overly greasy or heavy either. Just so well executed. The garlic mayo is a rich dipping sauce that adds a bit more flavour to already great bite. 5/5

Chicken Karaage - Classic izakaya dish and this was very good. Great crispy exterior and just perfect deep frying. Chicken pieces were good sized thigh pieces. 4/5

Ikapiri - Calamari battered deep fried and then sauced with their hot sauce. It wasn't very spicy so for most people, I would say this is a mild heat. Great presentation as it has many different crunchy and crispy parts. I liked the flavour but it would have been nice the deep fried exterior stayed crispy ... it didnt when it got the sauce poured on it. 4/5

Okonomiyaki - Another classic izakaya dish and this one is excellent. It is a must order! Crispy exterior with a tender interior and just the right amount of sauce to make every bite delicious. I like how they werent crazy with the mayo but the okonomiyaki sauce and bonito flakes were just added to the overall dish. I'm definitely ordering this again when I come back. Best one I've had in Toronto 5+/5

Annin Almond Tofu - Dont let the name fool you... this is a light and yet creamy delicious sweet almond dessert. Its like panna cotta but better. I really love this for a simple and yet delicious end to the meal. 5/5

There are so many dishes on their daily special menu that I barely even ordered a bit of what I wanted from their regular menu! I definitely need to come back and try more. One of my new favourite casual...

please avoid this place if you want to enjoy your evening. I went to the Queen west location with my friends. When we got there at 6:30 pm, they told us we have to leave by 8 pm.

We assumed that they were fully booked. So we ordered 5 different types of food with drink right away. The first food came around 7 pm. We wanted to have more food, so we ordered two more dishes around 7:20 pm and they came around 7:30 pm. Then, what happened? One of the staffs came to us around 7:45 for the last call. We couldn’t even start one of the dishes that we ordered. We asked them we would move our table to the other empty table if our table is reserved. They refused and told us that we still have to leave by 8 pm. Again, it wasn’t even full and there was no lineup. We still had a decent amount of food and drink to finish. Finally, around 7:55 pm, they told us we have 5 minutes to empty our table. So we asked for a bill and paid because we thought paying them early might help them. Then, they asked us if they can clean up our table although we still had food and drinks left.

That was a terrible experience and not worth to waste over $100 in 1.5 hours. Food wasn’t terrible, but nothing special. We didn’t expect any special treatment, but how they treated us didn’t make sense at all. It is a place for food and drink, they should know that their customers expect to relax and enjoy their time there rather than being rushed to empty the table. I think they should know the basics of how they should treat their customers.

I understand that weekends are normally busy. So we were aware not to stay too long if it was busy or there was a lineup. However, it was 1/2 empty, but they still asked us to leave because it is Friday.

I wish there was an option to choose “DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME” for this review. I’ve been to different Japanese Izakaya before, but I’ve never experienced this type of terrible customer service. I would never go back to this place. Please don’t even bother to try out. You will waste your time and money and walk out with...

Excellent place! Went there with a group of 8 last night. The food was outstanding, we enjoyed both shochu and sake (with some members of our group trying the cocktails... or just Sapporo), and the ambience was fantastic.

Drink recommendation: Shochu is a must, but I'd say the best drink was the nigori sake. That was smooth.

Food recommendations: the gyozas and fried oysters were excellent. Anything with octopus. A friend ordered a bowl of ramen that smelled amazing. Not a single thing was below 9/10 though. Also: OREO TEMPURA. Save room.

The service was a bit slow at first, but we did seem to be there at peak time and it was only at first. And apparently that's not an issue most of the time (one of my group's been there numerous times before, and says they were a bit short-staffed). The service was great in general.

Note: portion sizes could be a bit small. Everything was reasonably priced and it wasn't an issue, but it's good to emphasize that this a small shared plates place. We probably ordered about 20 items to share between us not counting dessert. And no one left unfilled.

Other note: wasabi's in a lot of dishes, if that's not your thing. However, when it's cooked into something, it loses that sharp, pinch-your-nose aspect that would be the issue for a lot of people, so... hey, try new things? Can't kill you more than once.

Give it a try. Seriously. ...