Imanishi Japanese Kitchen — Restaurant in Toronto

This review will be mainly about the terrible service we received this dinner.

I had been wanting to come to Imanishi for years now after hearing how amazing everything was - the food, the vibes, the atmosphere. I was super excited and had high expectations. I booked a reservation for 7:00pm. I quickly locked into the menu and decided everything I wanted to order - drinks, food, and dessert all ready to go. Our waiter came to us, offered to let us know about the sake specials. I said you can tell us but we already know what we want - he quickly said okay and took our order. We also gave our order for the food, and I had requested the appetizers come at the same time and the mains to come at the same time (since theres limited table space). Its 7:30pm, our pickles and corn fritters come out... no cocktails in sight.... ok cool. Thankfully they came about 5 minutes later (still odd in my head, usually drinks come first). While we enjoyed our starters, a new couple sat at the table next to us (this is about 7:40pm). We waited... it was about 8:15pm at this point and no sign of any new foods coming to our table. However, the tables all around us were getting their food no problem, including the table beside us who got seated way after us and ordered similar dishes. So... why did they get theirs and we didn't get anything? I'm not one to say anything, but I had to at this point. It was around 8:25pm, we had been at the restaurant since 7:00pm and how are there still not entrees for us? When I asked our waiter for an update on our food, he claimed "its coming, dont' worry" in a condescending way. Like as if I had asked multiple times about when our food would arrive (even thought I only asked that one time). Immediately after I asked, our food started coming out. Funny I had to REMIND our waiter that we had ordered food and THEN it starts coming out. I was annoyed but hungry so we ate in silence. 10 minutes pass its about 8:40pm, the same waiter comes to the table and says "we will need the table by 9, do you want to order any more food?" EXCUSE ME??? I have to rush my dinner now because YOU forgot about our main dishes and made us wait an hour for them? We quickly finished our food and told him to bring the dessert since we only had about 10 minutes to finish. Once the bill came and I went to pay, the only tip options were 20% and 22% - absolutely not. There were no apologies given about the wait, no remorse about anything. This makes me feel like this type of service and long wait times are normal, but it was my first time here so I have no idea (I didn't read anything negative about this spot). There was no warmth from our server at all throughout the evening - not while we were eating, not when we were leaving, nothing. I left the restaurant that night feeling so bummed and disappointed. How can a restaurant with such rave reviews leave me feeling so uncomfortable? I definitely won't be back here for a long while (not to mention how expensive it is for small portions... I'm very much not used to that).

To end on a positive note, the food was really good and tasty. Quality was really fresh and good quality. I'd recommend the corn fritters, red snapper carpaccio, and the tokyo toast of course. Drinks were meh, I couldve skipped those.

I really hope this customer service issue gets resolved because I would really want to come back here but I'm afraid we will be forgotten again and receive this poor...

Reserved a spot and came here on a Tuesday night. The vibe of the restaurant would be perfect for a date night, with candle lights on each table.

My top 3: Eggplant, Curry (it was a tie between curry and tai carpaccio), and Tokyo Toast

Sashimi ($32 for 9 pieces) It came with Hamachi, Scallop, and Snapper. The pieces were tasty and fresh. It felt a bit expensive, but they were good.

Cold Served Agedashi Eggplant ($9) I love eggplant, so I made sure to order this. My friend who wasn't too keen on ordering this said it was the highlight of the dinner. lol It was well soaked in dashi broth, well cooked, and tasted quite delicate but very tasty.

Gailan Gomaae ($9) I liked how cooked the gailan was (not overly cooked with a nice crunch), but it tasted a bit too vinegar-y for a gomaae. I'm pretty sure it's because of the dressing they use, but I would probably not order it again.

Beef Tataki ($21) The beef seemed a bit too cooked, and the fried chickpea added for a nice presentation, but was very dry and crusty for it to go with the dish personally.

Tai Carpaccio ($19) This went REALLY well with the vinaigrette and salsa. I liked it much more than the tataki.

Anchovy Potato Salad & Chips ($10) Great price. The anchovy taste was quite faint, and I found the potato chunks to be too big. I liked the idea of adding the taro chips, but I would want a potato salad that's a bit more flavorful and perhaps creamy.

Corn Kakiage ($9) It was good. I love corn and I love kakiage in general, so seeing the reviews, I was definitely overly hyped about it. But it tasted like it looks. I do wish there was a bit more corn.

Tebasaki ($15) Great value and pretty solid taste. The meat was quite juicy as well.

Saba Miso-ni ($13) I was surprised by how much I got for $13. It was also very well cooked and the sauce was great.

Karashi Ribs ($16) The meat was tender, juicy, and fell off the bone with ease. While, I thought this would be my highlight, the karashi mustard overpowered the dish a bit.

Pork Belly Miso Katsu ($16) It was good. I personally liked it more than the tebasaki, but it might be because I am very used to the taste of the tebasaki since I've made similar ones at home.

Gyudon ($15) It was good but nothing special. The price was good but felt more expensive than the other dishes we ordered.

Imanishi Beef Curry ($15) Great fruity Japanese curry gravy. I loved it. I just wish they put more beef chunks as it was hard to find the chunks.

Tokyo Toast ($9) This was definitely one of my favorite. I did not expect it to be that good. The toast was a bit crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside, with a nice combination of icecream and the texture and taste of toasted soba.

I found this place to be a very affordable place for the quality of food you get as well. I'm also glad that they were transparent about how many pieces comes with each dish. And how the server was telling us it might be too much food for us when we initially ordered, and explored food menu options that might be better for the first round of ordering. They were also very prompt in changing the dirty plates...

Would not reccomend, Service was absolutely terrible.

My friend was informed that a wait would be around 1 hour, and they would call us back. They also told us that kitchen would close @ 11 PM, but our table should be ready @ 10 PM. I (a different person) actually went in to talk to the manager/waitress to confirm our spot on the waitlist, and she rudely asked me "didnt i already explain everything to you, youre on the list!"

No big deal, i was willing to wait. When we arrived around 10, we were a bit concerned that when we got a table, there would not be ample time to order food. Me and another friend wanted to simply confirm that there would be sufficient time to order and eat. The manager kept trying to dance around our question, telling us how she laid out the rules earlier in the night, such as "The wait is 1 hour, perhaps more, the kitchen closes at 11. " It seems she did not want to serve a fresh group so close to closing, but this cant possibly have been the case as she sat down 2 other groups right before mine. Finally, she told us, quite curtly, "Oh these people are paying". She did not indicate that was our table or anything of the sort. We actually stood outside for a long period of time before approaching her again.

However, we still did not get to our table. Instead, she talked to the owner /bartenderwho basically told us, he didnt want our business. We were accused of "yelling" and "swearing" at the manager during our initial conversation. He said it was necessary to keep good vibes in the restaurant, and hostile people out. Quite amusing, as during our conversations with the manager, the owner/bartender was right beside us, at the bar making drinks. When i questioned him point blank about the accusations (since he was right there) he more or less had nothing to say, cat had his tongue for some reason. Not sure why this manager was making up stores to her boss, We have never seen or met her before, but treating customers this way is totally unacceptable. We were not a loud or rambunctious group, well dressed, just wanted some good food. She didnt even take the time to make sure she was talking to the same person, me and my friend look nothing alike, wearing completely different outfits, in fact one wears glasses and the others didnt. If it wasn't an Asian establishment itself, i'd wonder if they had an issue with our race, because three other groups of waiting Caucasians were seated with no trouble and we werent even invited into the establishment.

TL;DR: after over an hour of waiting manager and owner did not want us seated. Manager made up a ridiculous story and owner tried to interrogate us before allowing us permission to approach a table. Do not recommend, absolutely...