This was a spur of the moment visit. My friends were already feeling happy after a tour of the Ontario Sake Company and wanted to continue the party and what better way to do that than visit a Japanese pub. So after meddling with two choices of Izakayas we settled on this spot. The place was packed (it was Saturday night so expected). We were put on a communal table with a limited time frame as there was big group coming over with reservations.
I have been to their Vancouver location and other tried a couple of dishes there so was expecting a similar setup. However this place is more like Guu and is quite loud.
Never mind as I do enjoy a good energy level.
We started out with Nama Nama (un-pasteurized version) and then ordered a combo of items to share. Meanwhile as we waited we munched on some edamame and discussed the benefits of Sake (from what my friends were told :)
On to main
Tako Wasabi. Very good.
Ebi Mayo: Good. Nicely fried with thin batter. The mayo was seasoned well. A benchmark dish for Izakayas done well.
Red Tuna & Black Tiger Prawn Avocado Tartar: Poor. The taste of tuna was completely lost here. No seasoning at all and shrimp were wasted as well the avocado overpowered everything else here. The toasts that are provided were not enough and we had to wait quite a bit for an extra helping to mop it up.
Spicy Chopped Tuna Battera and Salmon Oyako Battera: Average iteration of sushi here. Presentation is nice but a very mundane take on sushi.
I might drop by again to try other dishes as I think our experience would have been better if we had ordered some other dishes.
For now 3.5 stars.