Issai Japanese Eatery — Restaurant in Toronto

Brand new kyoto style Japanese restaurant. They are located close by the sheppard Ikea. It's interesting that they serve kyoto curry ramen. It was very flavourful and the curry doesn't overpower the rest of the noodles. I find the pressed spinach very unique. It was like a roll of dense spinach roll. The nori is placed in a packaging on the side of your tray so when you are ready you can add it into your ramen without getting soggy. The issai tonkotsu ramen was on the lighter flavour side and the noodles were not the wavy ramen in the curry ramen. I personally preferred the wavy ramen and the curry broth.

On the menu, you will see a choice of single and teishoku. The Teishoku is $5 more expensive. Teishoku (定食) is a type of restaurant meal that is composed of a pre-selected list of dishes. It comes with a daily suonomo, which is a salad, today they served a seaweed and cucumber salad, daily Inari and the ramen. If you order single, it's just the ramen.

The Housemade shumai was made in house, it was nice and big topped with tobiko. As a side note, this restaurant is more for take out as there is only two seats available for dine in.

Now there is a cash special of 10% off when you pay cash. Free takoyaki with in store purchase of $35 or more (before tax). Interesting experience and nice addition to the...

The good: overall food quality, flavour, appearance, quantity, service speed, staff friendliness. If you don’t want to speak to anyone, you can order from a kiosk. Looks new and is very clean inside.

Less good: no alcohol! Therefore no beer, sake, wine, etc. 😭 My partner was really craving a beer to accompany the ramen after a stressful day at work and it was almost a dealbreaker except we were starving and too tired to venture elsewhere. There was miscommunication (slight language barrier) about which appetizers we wanted, but eventually got it sorted out. The takoyaki was a bit too soft for our liking. While the barstool seating was comfortable enough, the countertop was kind of at an odd height that felt too high when seated and too low for standing (at least for me at 6’3”). Parking might be a challenge. We got lucky and snagged free on-street parking, but have no idea where else one could park. IKEA down the street?? 🤣

As other reviews note, this is a very small restaurant with only 5 seats for dining in, all of which are bar-style split between 3 seats along a wall and 2 at the window. We didn’t check reviews beyond the overall rating and missed this detail, but were lucky they had no other guests when we arrived for dinner on a...

One of the favourite hidden gems for Japanese good eats in North York, near IKEA. Issai Japanese Eatery is a takeout spot for ramen, donburi, snacks, and drinks. There are only 3+2 bar seating available for dine-in, but mainly for takeouts.

We have been back a couple times, and we really enjoyed the experience. The food presentation looks amazing, and the friendly lady who works there spoke Cantonese :) Can't wait to visit again to try more items ^^

Tomato Curry Ramen w/ Teishoku Set // Spicy good, ramen was delicious, the set comes with pickled radish and 2pcs of inari sushi

Housemade Gyoza // It was beautifully pan-seared, nice and plump, perfectly wrapped, and delicious!

Issai Sesame Abura Soba // Served dry with a light sauce on the bottom mix well before you eat... don't be like me, I waited too long to eat it bc I kept taking pictures, and the noodle dried up lol.

Housemade Siumai // Good portion and good flavour, though l'm not a huge fan of fatty pork, but to some people, the siumai may taste soft and juicy!

Niku Udon // Loved the broth, comes with thinnly sliced beef, and the udon was nice and chewy :)

Kitsune Udon // The broth was a little sweeter because of the sweet tofu skin,...