Guu Izakaya

Date: November 8, 2014
Location: 398 Church Street (north of Gerrard), downtown Toronto
Website: http://guu-izakaya.com/
Cuisine: Japanese
Meal: dinner

My thoughts:
Ah Guu. How I've missed you so! I've by no means deliberately avoiding you, because I really do love your animated, loud, thundering staff and delicious food (and everything about your establishment). I've just been waaay too busy.

Anyway, I finally paid a long overdue visit here with my sisters. My youngest sis hadn't been here before and had heard how amazing this place is from just about everyone in her circle of friends, so my other sister and I took the liberty to order our personal tried and true favourites:

So of course, this included the KINOKO BIBIMBAP ($8.80), a rice dish with mushrooms and cheese topped with a seaweed sauce served in a sizzling stone bowl. As good as I remembered it to be. Definitely one of my faves here!

Also the UNAGI DORIA ($9.30) - another rice dish topped with BBQ water eel, mixed mushrooms and cheese. This certainly gives the bibimbap a run for its money, but if if you wanted to order only one rice dish, I would recommend bibimbap because the crunchy rice base is a unique texture.

We also got the KAKIMAYO ($7.80), baked B.C. oysters with mushrooms, spinach & garlic mayo topped with cheese. This was suggested by my sister - who doesn't even like oysters! That's how good it is.

We also got a STEAK ($7.80) of some sort, the type of meat now which escapes me. But based on the photo, it looks like pork. I believe we ordered this off their specials menu.

Ah, another one of my faves. The OKONOMIYAKI ($7.50), a deep-fried Japanese-style pancake with squid, tonkatsu sauce and karashi mayo. I love all the sauces on this, and the texture of the nagaimo yam is really worth trying if you've never had this.

We also got the TAKOYAKI ($5.00), deep-fried octopus balls with tonkatsu sauce and karashi mayo. This tastes very similar to the okonomiyakis primarily because the pancake and the balls themselves don't have much flavour and are dominated by the flavour of the sauces. Still, the texture is slightly different - this is more doughy and fluffy while the other is more moist. I would recommend trying both to see which one you like better.

We ordered this towards the end of our meal. As you can see, all the portions are pretty small (true to traditional izakayas), and we weren't yet completely full. My sister suggested the ODEN (3 items, $4.00), which is a Japanese-style slow-cooked hot pot (i.e. items come in a soup). We chose the bamboo shoot, deep fried tofu, and fish cake. I wasn't a huge fan of the flavour, but my sisters enjoyed this.

To finish off the meal, we got the ALMOND TOFU ($3.50) and the KUROGAMA (BLACK SESAME) ($5.00), both of which are puddings. We LOVED these! The textures were light and silky smooth, and despite being desserts, they weren't too sweet. The black sesame was on their specials menu, so if it's still offered when you go, just order it!

Also, in true Guu fashion, complimentary frozen grapes were given (one per patron lol.) Still, a nice touch.

Guu, you never fail to impress me (and make my tummy very, very happy.) I promise you that I won't allow as much time to pass as last time for my next visit!