Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Guu Izakaya

My friends and I decided to drive up to Alliston, Ontario to explore and pick up a friend. The town is .. really tiny. There’s one main street that stretches like a 5 mins car ride. Too bad the weather was really bad and rainy.. we couldn’t walk around anywhere.
We all drove back to Toronto and went for late night KBBQ. The late night special at Korean Grill House (Miland & Finch) is only around $8.99, and a dollar extra each for all you can drink! It was our friend’s birthday so we got him a soju bottle and we all took shots. I never knew soju tastes so disgusting.. I didn’t get to take any pictures because the seating was really crowded and so I left my bag + camera in the car…


This isn’t Alliston… it was just from the drive back to Toronto. The weather was looking a little bit better ..

We took our friend around downtown the next day.. we were able to use a group day pass. $10 for all the traveling we did! It was such a rainy day again so not many pictures at all, so sad.


We stopped by Yorkville, just to show her the area and the nice cars… Of course, we went to Summer’s again. Toronto Pothole I think by far is the best flavour..

I was stupid and.. thought Chinatown was at Spadina/Bloor area. Haha, so I took the excuse to try out Fresh. I ordered a wrap:

Grilled Vegetable and Pesto Burrito
grilled red pepper, zucchini & sweet potato with pesto, vegan mayo, tomato, lettuce, cucumber, red onion & alfalfa sprouts.
The wrap was delicious! Although it probably would’ve been amazing with cheese however, to add any kind of cheese, it was $2 extra.. not very worth it to be honest. I will come back to this restaurant for sure! There are so many things I want to try on the menu..

We walked around Chinatown + Kensington Market.. Due to the weather, we weren’t able to show her around UT campus but.. we did get to our dinner destination, Guu on time! We got there right at 5pm (their opening time) and stood in line for 5 minutes! We got seated at the Bar seats.. and we got to see the bar lady make different kinds of drinks! The place was a lot smaller than I anticipated but still interesting.. our bar seats had no backs! Lol








Their menu reminded me of a little coupon book.. Although they had a lot of choices in the menu, no one suggested dishes except for me and I felt bad!! Poor girl, there was actually a lot of pork and beef in the menu.


"ABURI SALMON" Lightly seared atlantic salmon sashimi
with ponzu sauce and wasabi mayo

This dish was soo good, the salmon was lightly seasoned on the edges and the sauce was perfect! I normally don’t eat wasabi as it’s too spicy and strong tasting but the wasabi mayo used here was just perfect.


"SALMON NATTO YUKKE" Chopped salmon sashimi with seven friends(Natto, shibazuke, takuan, wonton chips, garlic chips, green onion and raw egg yolk). Mix them up and wrap it in NORI seaweed.
There was salmon in this, so I decided why not just try it?! Little did I know.. I’m honestly not very keen on eggs, let alone raw egg… The waiter mixed all the ingredients together for us and you wrap it in the nori to eat it. It was a very interesting dish with its gooey, weird textures. I didn’t enjoy it very much but I think my friends enjoyed it more than I did.


"TAKOYAKI" Deep fried puffed octopus balls served
with TONKATSU sauce and mustard mayo

This is surprisingly the first time I’ve tried takoyaki.. I really should’ve tried some street vendor ones in Japan but.. I don’t know if we ever came across one. This takoyaki dish was just perfect, the right amount of dough and octopus. The sauce was so yummy too!


"ODEN UDON" 2 kinds ODEN and boiled UDON noodle in ODEN soup
I honestly had no idea what I was ordering here but we ended up with this and it was pretty good! Nothing spectacular.. In our udon, we had taro jelly, bamboo shoot and radish. We had the hardest time and laughed about what the frig that brown thing was. We originally thought it was some kind of animal… as we didn’t get to choose the oden for our noodles. The taro jelly was .. not the greatest but my silly bf liked it, I think just because he likes jello…… lol. It was bouncy and squishy. I think I prefer normal taro better!


"YAKIUDON" Pan fried udon NOODLE with beef and vegetables
After reading countless reviews, this dish seems to be one that many have been satisfied with.. so despite the fact that there was beef in it, we ordered it anyway! The sauce and noodles were really really good! I love udon!


"HOTATE BUTTER" Pan fried scallop with soy sauce and garlic butter
The scallops were nicely seared and once again, the sauce was amazing. The green onions and sauce put together with the scallops.. yumm..

Overall, the experience was great.. not sure if I’d go back again unless I was feeling rich. I mean it’s hard to get a decently priced dinner and be completely full from it! I think this begins my search for the perfect Japanese restaurant.. in Toronto. The food I ate in Japan has spoiled my taste buds and I’m honestly so determined to find, in Toronto, that amazing ramen, curry dish, tonkatsu (their pork tasted amazing.. I had to eat it), tempura, etc…

I can’t wait till I get older so I can go back to Japan again !

2 comments:

  1. omg i never had the chance to go to guu while i was in toronto..boo! the food looks pretty authentic!! i definitely had a hard time looking for authentic japanese food while i was there...haha. i usually just MADE my own food :P

    oh, and that nailpolish is from rimmel!! pretty good quality considering its from a low price point cosmetics brand.

    i miss toronto soo much! def excited to read ur blog to see more pics of toronto :)

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  2. OMG and im just guessing but.....do you go to UTSC? (you can delete this comment later if its like too much personal info out there in the open LOL)
    i went to study abroad in toronto for a year from 08-09...aND I WENT TO UTSC! totally lived in foley and all that haha.

    wowwwww coincidence.

    ReplyDelete