Location: 602 College Street (west of Bathurst), Toronto
Website: http://hapaizakaya.com/
Cuisine: Japanese izakaya (bar)
Meal: dinner
My thoughts:
I came here to celebrate my friend JA's birthday with KK. A year ago, the three of us had celebrated JA's birthday at Guu, which of course, is also an izakaya, so this was an anniversary in more than one regard!
I was an hour late due to unforeseeable circumstances, and my friends were so kind as to wait for me to order. Once I arrived, we quickly ordered and decided to each order an entrée and to share one appetizer.
We shared the EBI MAYO ($8.99), which were tempura prawns with spicy mayo sauce. This was pretty good. My favourite dish that evening.
I had the KINOKO ISHI-YAKI ($9.99), which was a rice dish with mixed mushrooms and iwanori (seaweed) served in a hot stone bowl. I like the crispy bottom of rice, but I thought the whole dish was a bit too salty and buttery. My waitress taking our order had said this is one of her favourite dishes there - whatever. She probably throws that line out there randomly with every table because this wasn't that good! Overall, I thought this wasn't bad, but my friends didn't like this because they don't like shiitake mushroom.
My friends each had the YAKI UDON ($9.49), one requested spicy and the other did not. The people sitting next to us had udon in soup, but this was not on the menu. My friends said they would have much preferred udon in soup. I, on the other hand, was quite a fan of their meal. The noodles were very chewy, and the dish was flavourful but not too salty.
Overall, my friends really didn't like the experience and food. The birthday girl, JA, said while she was waiting for KK and I, she was asked to move three times. Little things like that really ruffle her feathers. I admit it's a bit of a nuisance, but if you're just sitting around waiting for people, I wouldn't have minded. Both girls said they're never coming back.
I thought the food was all right, but it definitely is no Guu. I also thought it was weird how they would have waitresses of various backgrounds (one was even white, I think) trying to pronounce Japanese words as if it is their native tongue, when it is clearly is not. That is lame.
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