Get inside: Guu's interior mixes comfort and modernity (Photo by Renée Suen)
The year 2009 was an offal one in Toronto. The success of The Black Hoof, Buca and Local Kitchen showed that are many adventurous diners left in this city. December’s most anticipated opening shares that adventurous spirit. Tonight, doors officially open at Guu Izakaya, the first Toronto location of Vancouver’s intensely popular Japanese watering hole. Will the diners that embraced the offal trend take to Guu’s fusion of Japanese flavours?
The izakaya concept basically boils down to a Japanese version of a pub. Guu is casual and affordable, loud and infused with energy—staffers shout out greetings and orders. Expect a crowd of Ryerson campus dwellers, office workers and Vancouver expats. The charcoal-grey storefront and heavy wooden doors block out the garish strip mall surroundings, sealing in the sake bar, open kitchen and four long communal tables. Come summer, there will be patio seating on its northern exposure. Vintage signs and posters imported from Japan add colour and character.
Chopped salmon natto yukke, a “seven friends” mixture wrapped with nori seaweed (Photo by Renée Suen)
For drinks, Guu offers competitively priced beers (Sapporo on tap from $4 a mug) and an extensive selection of sakes, shochu (Japanese vodka), chu-high (Japanese vodka sodas), ume-shu (plum wine) and original cocktails featuring Japanese soft drinks. Chef Natsuhiko Sugimoto, who comes to Toronto from the original Vancouver Guus, prepares an array of hot and cold bar food; such favourites as edamame ($3) and karaage ($5.80) are listed alongside non-standards like kakimayo (oysters grilled with spinach, garlic mayo and cheese, $6.80), gyu tangue (grilled beef tongue, $6.30) and chopped salmon natto yukke ($8.30). Although yakitori finds no place on the seafood- and mayo-laden menu, palates will be stimulated by such hearty fare as oden (slow-cooked hot pot, $1.50 a piece; six for $7.50), udon noodles ($6.80–$7.80) and bi bim bap rice bowls with kimchee and pork ($8.50).
Guu Izakaya, 398 Church St. (at Gerrard St. E.), 416-977-0999, guu-izakaya.com.
Guu was pretty lame. And I say that as a fan of the original Vancouver one.
* 70+ minute wait for a table (when originally told 45 mins)
* 4 full tables (22 seats or 1/3 of the restaurants) reserved for 40 minutes when there were over 30 people waiting
* No waiting area, no getting drinks or even water while waiting
* Waiters who don’t speak enough English to communicate (Me: What kind of broth is in the oden? Waitress: Broth is soup. Me: Is it a chicken broth? Beef? Waitress: Is many things, even eggs.)
* Food that’s basically the appetizer menu off a decent Japanese restaurant (Raaw in Liberty Village, to me, is just as good if not better)
* Very pricey – one drink and tapas for 2 was $65
Some food – i.e. the salmon sashimi – was great. Beer was cheap. But I won’t be back, at least until the place works out its kinks.
December 20, 2009 at 11:15 am | by drusillaI heartily disagree.
Also a fan of all of the original Vancouver Guu, I think it was a very solid start.
- Opening night was fully booked with reservations. If you called before going, they told you so. They’re first response was to offer you a reservation on any other night and when I asked if we could come down and wait, they said you could, but that EVERY seat (including the bar) had been booked.
- We arrived at prime-time – just after 8 pm and waited 10 minutes as they cleared tables. Three tables of 2, a table of 6 and a table of 5 were seated before us (a table of 2). While our timing was probably “perfect” as the first seating left, we didn’t see any very long waits (though we saw some pretty big lines) from 8ish to just before 10 pm. We were pleasantly surprised as we expected to wait quite a bit longer.
- I suspect that drusilla arrived before us probably during the first seating around 6 pm — so expecting to walk-up and get a table on opening night of one of the most anticipated restaurant openings in town is a bit much, especially since reservations had filled up nearly a week ago. If you made a reservation a week ago, would you want them to give your table away? Heck, walking into ANY “hot” restaurant in Toronto on Friday night during prime time and expecting a table right away is foolish.
- No waiting area, but how many pubs do you know that actually have a waiting area? Or get you a beer when you’re waiting for a table on Grey Cup weekend?
- English was clearly EVERYONE’S second language, but we didn’t have any trouble ordering anything and service was quick, efficient and friendly. The problem was the question – Oden IS a soup that that is made with MANY things – kelp, fish, mushrooms, Japanese spices – it was probably hard as there is no direct translation for it in English. A better answer is it’s made with similar ingredients as miso soup, but the recipe is unique to the chef.
- I find the comments “very pricey” and the comparison to “Raaw” very biased. We had NINE dishes for around $65 for the two of us; including the most expensive item on the menu ($9 for sea urchin special) and were stuffed when we finished. At Raaw, I think that $65 would be very close to the bill for ONE person.
While the food didn’t meet the standard of the Vancouver Guu for one (maybe two) dishes, it was still solid and the rest of the food was great and an exceptional value for the price. As the only izakaya place in town (Ematei’s izakaya is more traditional Japanese style, but also very, very good) – hopefully Guu inspires some copycats and we see a second location soon.
The bottom line is that this should be on everyone’s list to try. It’s a fun environment, reasonably priced and a wonderful introduction to non-sushi Japanese cuisine.
Hopefully drusilla gives it another look soon as I suspect once the word gets out, the lines will become a regular occurrence.
December 20, 2009 at 2:40 pm | by Tony WJust two things to clarify:
- I don’t believe I went on opening night, since my friend had already eaten there and told me it was open the night before
- We arrived around 7:15; there were at least 4 others who waited an hour+ with us, because we were chatting – I would NEVER expect to get a table right away. I expect you to be honest about wait times, or apologetic if you get it wrong. If I ask for a glass of water, I don’t think I should be ignored. That’s pretty basic service.
- I 100% disagree about the prices, and don’t know how it’s biased. Guu is nearly all $7-8 per plate. Most of Raaw’s hot apps are $5, unless you’re ordering sashimi – and the sashimi portions at Raaw are much larger.
- Oden broth’s not made out of eggs. Honestly, finding out what’s in your food is a pretty basic request at any restaurant. The kids working there are not equipped to answer even basic questions (i.e. my boyfriend – what beers do you have on tap? waitress: big and small beer)
December 24, 2009 at 10:18 am | by DrusillaDrusilla, whoa Nelly! You need to tone down your expectations on someone’s English abilities. If you don’t like the food, fine. Lay off the servers who worked hard that day to get you a table, and pass up your request for a glass of water you could get yourself before you arrived! sheesh…
December 25, 2009 at 1:59 pm | by escubioSpeaking as a fan of all the GUU in Vancouver as well (except the one in Aberdeen Center), I don’t think service is ever the strong point.
It’s like all other Japanese restaurants staffed by Japanese waitstaff, you’re never going to get service as good as Japanese customers will get. At least that’s the impression i get every time i visit GUU, they always make more effort to impress the Japanese table than ours.
Last time I went I had a server who act like she was already all burned out at 6, slurred all her English words as if she’s pretending to speak English instead of actually speaking it. Of course, she instantly perked up when a group of Japanese came in. I’m not suggesting that she’s purposefully being racist, I just think culturally they feel the need to go the extra length to make a Japanese customer feel at home while us, local Chinese kids, will come back no matter what (To be honest, as long as they deliver the food to my table, I’m happy).
Furthermore, depending on the English ability of your server, if it’s poor, she would more likely try to minimize contact with you or, in Drusilla’s case, supply answers to what she THINKS you’re asking instead of trying to understand what you’re really asking for (I think that happens to all ESL students so I’m a bit more lenient about this). It may be a nuisance but it also part of the authenticity package that everyone bought into back in Vancouver (and soon will in Toronto) and hence will unlikely ever change….
December 25, 2009 at 11:52 pm | by idioticaSo let me get this straight… we walk into a Japanese resturant expecting that thier english is perfect. And by Japanese, I don’t mean Sushi resturants that are actually run by Koreans.
Look at the setup of GUU, I wouldn’t expect thier strong suit to be service anyway.
As for the price, it is pricey, but quality is good. The best on the menu is probably the black cod. I’ve gone twice already since they opened, and I’ll be back again soon.
December 31, 2009 at 3:21 pm | by OnlineWe completely love Guu and are just thrilled that they are doing so well. Line-ups every night, with people coming out looking very satisfied. The food was delicious, the atmosphere fun, and the place looks beautiful. James the owner is friendly and approachable. A very welcome addition to our neighbourhood (it was a horrible burger place when we moved in to the area attracting hookers and pimps through the middle of the night). For the negative people that want to complain, please simply just don’t come back and leave Guu for the rest of us to enjoy. No one wants you around anyways. All the best to you Guu! Welcome to Toronto!
January 2, 2010 at 7:05 am | by BrianI went with two friends a few nights ago.
Across the board we felt the food was very good; pretty close to as good as the Vancouver locations. I don’t think it was particularly expensive, or at least when compared to other similar styled restaurants. We had two pitchers of beer, a bottle of sake and nine items; our total before tip was $120. I’d say that is pretty reasonable.
There were some service kinks that need to be worked out. It was sometimes a bit tough to get our server’s attention and at one point we ordered some food and she forgot to put it in, but given that they JUST opened and they have probably been lined up for hours each night since opening I have no problem cutting them some slack for what was still a great experience.
January 2, 2010 at 3:42 pm | by MatthewDon’t understand how anyone can say that a menu that is priced under ten dollars is expensive.
January 5, 2010 at 1:18 pm | by Henryso Guu rocks. hardly a surprise. knew them from vancouver and all i can say is “god bless guu”
January 5, 2010 at 4:57 pm | by BifHave gone with friend who reps celebrity chefs and eats at the best restaurant all over. Gotta say we both were impressed with quality, taste and prices. We tried many things on the menu and was never disappointed. A few nights later she brought a couple of her celebrity chefs in for drinks and appetizers- They loved it. It is a great addition to Church St- Summer there will be amazing on the patio. I can’t wait!!!
January 5, 2010 at 6:07 pm | by Joe dLOL- just read my comment- english is my first language so sorry for the messed up tenses-
January 5, 2010 at 6:09 pm | by Joe dTo Drusilla & TonyG: the waitstaff should be able to clearly spell out the ingredients in any dish in case of allergies. So waitstaff, learn to speak English!
January 6, 2010 at 9:25 am | by jayTo echo all the comments above — food was excellent and lines were looooong.
Reading the reviews, I find it funny that Drusilla doesn’t believe that she went on opening night — yet the article is about the official opening night of the restaurant!! Guess she’s never heard of a soft opening. LOL!
As for the Oden ingredient questions, I think I fall on the lenient side — “What is in Oden?” (It can be anything – fish balls, eggs, etc. are among the items you can order on the menu) versus “What is Oden made of?” (I suspect what Drusilla’s question was like) are two pretty close questions that I think some English-as-a-first-language wait staff would have trouble with. Anyways, speaking as someone with mild allergies, the manager is pretty good about checking and explaining things when we went.
Can’t wait for a second location to open!
January 7, 2010 at 10:42 am | by JimMy companion and I waited around 40 minutes to be seated, all the while standing uncomfortably along the wall like we were waiting for a firing squad. If you can’t be seated there immediately or given a time to return, I’d suggest you don’t bother. On top of that, we had the pleasure of spending that 40 minutes watching several tables which would have accommodated us if patrons were properly managed by waitstaff. One table for four was sitting empty apart from one woman who was just sitting there waiting for her friend to arrive. No food being served, no drinks. Just waiting. The “seats” in this cramped dining room, by the way, are nothing more than uncomfortably hard, flat wooden benches and stools at undersized, basic wooden tables. If you have more than two in your party, you’d better hope only two of you have legs. And what restaurant would you go to that only gave one menu to two people? I had to wait for my companion to finish before I even got my first look. Drinks were slow, as was everything else, though the server was cheerful, even as she brought the wrong food to our table. The greetings shouted in unison by EVERY MEMBER OF THE STAFF to EVERY SINGLE PERSON THAT ARRIVES is fun when it happens to you, because it’s the first time you hear it. After the third or fourth time, you begin to pray nobody else comes for a while. There’s a fine line between atmosphere and pretense, and the shouting bit dances right over it and out of sight.
Sadly, the absurdity doesn’t stop at the menu. No sushi? Fine. But making me order off-menu for a bowl of steamed rice you should be providing with every entree? Ridiculous for a Japanese restaurant. The Tako Wasabi, which is essentially a tiny bowl of wasabi-stem-and-octopus salsa, came with four little sheets of seaweed to eat it with. Problem is, the dish is far too spicy for you to eat more than a little bit at a time, and eating it at that rate means that, if you’re sharing, the seaweed runs out immediately (two bites!) and you have to either eat the rest with the one tiny serving spoon they give you, or- get this- pay ONE DOLLAR for FOUR MORE TINY SHEETS OF DRIED SEAWEED (each about the size of a business card, and whisper-thin). I found myself surprised that the server actually said it with a straight face… I almost wanted to ask how much an additional napkin would cost.
The Chicken Karaage was more disappointing- Giant deep-fried hunks of batter with a chicken nucleus, served dry and somewhat greasy with a tiny ramekin of plain mayonnaise. You can’t really eat them with chopsticks, and there’s no knife to cut them. They’re too big to dip in the mayonnaise, not that you’d want to, since mayonnaise isn’t exactly the cure for greasiness. All of it is served on pretentious crockery the tiny tables have no room for. I began to feel sorry for the huge line of people on the firing squad along the “waiting-wall”, wanting badly to make eye contact with just one so I could silently alert them to what they were in for.
As far as value for money goes, some food was… alright, but the overall bill was not commensurate to the food served in terms of portion, speed of service or quality. An amount of ginger ale that must have been around half of what you’d get in a can, served in a tall, slim glass choking with ice, cost far too much (and with service this awful, you’d have to order about six bucks’ worth at a time just to have it last through half the meal). The kicker: At the end of the meal, with the bill, the server said “Complimentary dessert!” and set down a tiny dish just big enough to hold what it was holding, which was (NO JOKE) TWO FROZEN-SOLID GREEN GRAPES. Two frozen green grapes are “dessert” like a fart is applause. We just stared at them for a minute. It was practically an insult.
Toronto’s full of good-to-amazingly great Japanese fare. Guu is pretty to look at, but Toronto diners are used to much better food, better service and more comfortable surroundings. The one aspect you can expect to improve is the wait time, once the word gets out and people head somewhere else for their Japanese fix.
In the end, I couldn’t wait to say Guu riddance.
January 11, 2010 at 2:03 pm | by Pell Bortmundsen