Guu Toramasa — Restaurant in Vancouver

Nice lunch experience here with a big group of about 10. Needless to say we made a reservation. The design of the restaurant has plenty of Japanese touches with a few semi-private rooms. The servers were polite and came around often to refill the complimentary tea and check in. We each got our own entrees and ordered appetizers (edamame and takoyaki) and desserts to share. The edamame was good, I didn't try the takoyaki but it looked great. Although I enjoyed snacking on the edamame, appetizers were definitely not necessary because the entrees were huge. I ordered the tofu vege don which was a tasty and satisfying vegetarian option. The broccoli and cauliflower were not cooked uniformly and some pieces had a little more crunch than I would have liked, but that's the only thing I can nitpick. The donburi came with a choice of salad or miso soup and another daily side. The salad was really nice with a variety of fresh veggies. The side was a crabmeat salad which was also fresh and had a good smooth flavour. A vegetarian side was also available on request. There were pretty significant gaps between the timing of the entrees arriving which was a little unfortunate since there seemed to be an agreement that we were going to wait for everyone's food to get to them before anyone started, and my bowl, which came out in the middle, had gone from hot to warm by the time I got to dig in. With that many people it probably can't be helped, and it's more of our fault for not just eating as things came out. We ordered a few different desserts: yuzu cheesecake, strawberry daifuku, and mango mochi ice, all served with green tea ice cream. All were delicious. My favourite was the strawberry daifuku; I've only had the packaged convenience store versions of this before, so this blew those out of the water with the juicy strawberry compote. The mango flavour in the mochi ice cream was very vibrant, while the yuzu in the cheesecake was more like an accent to bring out the tang of the cream cheese. I loved the green tea ice cream; it wasn't too sweet and really tasted like tea. It's not an upscale restaurant but the environment and the quality and presentation of the food hit a middle ground that's nicer than a lot of casual restaurants but more approachable than some of the more famous izakaya restaurants. I was super impressed by the portion sizes (no one out of 10 of us were able to finish our entrees) and because of that I'd say the prices are actually pretty decent for this kind of food, since lots of similar places will charge the same but give less. Would be...

Tried a bunch of dishes for the first time, and honestly everything was pretty good. I'd come back, and maybe skip the drinks (it's not bad or anything, but nothing too special for the price).

Aburi Mackerel ($18): Honestly pretty worth it, they don't cheap out and there were more slices than I thought. It's seared on the outside, but it's mostly a sashimi. Served with a few pieces of seaweed, ginger and wasabi.

Crispy Karaage with Spicy Chili Sauce ($17): Comes with 3 large pieces of juicy chicken, deep fried in a batter. Not very spicy, has more of a sweety n' spicy sauce on it. I liked the pairing with celery, I feel like celery isn't used very often in Japanese cuisine so that was refreshing.

Yaki Udon ($15.50): Good but nothing too amazing. Comes with sliced beef and some veggies.

Smoked Salmon Onion Salad: It's literally all onion, but it isn't spicy or very onion-y, surprising one of my favourite dishes overall. Good portion of smoked salmon on top of the onion. It's on their featured menu, so I'm not sure if this is available all the time.

Grilled Squid: full squid, very tender, has that bbq grill flavour to it - reminds me of night markets/street food. Side of mayo to dip.

Got two drinks, one was yuzu and the other one was also citrus. Also good and fruity, but nothing too special.

SUPER friendly staff, very attentive they'd literally take the plate away as soon as you're done with it. Nice spacious seating, simply Japanese-style interior. They have an easy online reservation, which I did for a Friday night, but there were lots of empty seats. I'd probably just walk in next time.

Dinner for 2 people - total bill (with drinks) was about $100. Not cheap, but not super fancy. Nice dinner spot every once in a while. I'd recommend...

One Saturday afternoon, I happened to be in Downtown to visit an exhibition. Since I don't often come to Downtown, I took the opportunity to visit Guu Toramase to enjoy some delicious Japanese cuisine. Just like every other Guu location, while each branch has its own unique dishes within the izakaya concept, the quality is consistently good. Pairing the meal with a small drink made it an absolutely delightful experience.

Speaking of the food, we happened to dine during happy hour, so we were able to enjoy three delicious appetizers at a very reasonable price. Today, we ordered "Daikon & Seaweed with Plum Sauce", "Pork Tenderloin Cutlet", and "Agedashi Eggplant". The daikon had a bit of a raw taste but was quite refreshing. As for the pork cutlet and eggplant, there’s not much to say—they were classic examples of Japanese fried food, consistently delicious and needing no further description.

In addition to the appetizers, we also ordered Okonomi Yaki and Assorted Oden to fill up. The Okonomiyaki was fairly standard—tasty but nothing extraordinary. The oden, however, was my favorite dish of the day. The broth had just the right balance of saltiness, warming me up with every sip, and all the ingredients had fully absorbed the flavors, making it a very comforting dish.

Finally, no visit to a Japanese izakaya is complete without a Highball. And since it was happy hour, the drinks were also very reasonably priced!

Overall, I really like this restaurant. The service, interior decor, and atmosphere were all great. For Japanese cuisine, the prices here are already quite reasonable, and with the added bonus of happy hour, it’s even more worth it. I’d definitely come back if I...