Last visit in Toronto, it was in my plans to eat at Guu Izakaya, but with my bad planning, I went to their front door and noticed they weren’t open for lunch on a Sunday. Ironically or more like luckily, Montreal’s version of Guu Izakaya announced their opening back in December 2014. They must have heard my prayers!

Mr.Butter and I stepped into Kinka Izakaya on Valentine’s day without any reservation. But the staff was able to squeeze us in for 1 hour. No problemo!

I quickly glanced over the chefs and realized that at least one of the chef/owner from Guu Izakaya was here! But didn’t I say I never went to Guu Izakaya, then how could I recognize? Truth to be told, I came across Guu Izakaya when I was watching some shows or documentary of that sort on Guu Izakaya’s owners. I was ecstatic!

Neo Shoyu Ramen

This specific ramen was on their special Valentine’s menu. If I can give a word of advice, I would say “Please put this on your daily menu!” The chicken and soy sauce broth was simplistic, but bursting in flavors. More importantly, the ramen noodle itself was one of the best I have tried. They nailed perfectly the cooking time of the ramen. The BBQ pork was good, but it didn’t shine through.

Unagi Bibimbap

When I saw this on the menu, I thought it was smart play on the Unadon, which is grilled eel topped on a rice bowl. But it was disappointing that the ratio of the rice and unagi was not comparable to Unadon. In addition, the unagi was all cut into pieces. I understand this eases up the mix mix process of the Bibimbap. But I was looking forward to tearing out the unagi into pieces while mixing the rice. Regardless, the bibimbap was good, but there were so much room for improvement.

Due to limited time, we weren’t able to order the tapas, which is the concept of Kinka Izakaya. I can’t wait to bring my mom here and try their tapas!

Zuuchini