Kanda Izakaya

For a standard non-all-you-can-eat japanese restaurant, I expected a higher quality. I've been here a couple of times out of convenience whenever I've been craving cheap japanese food in the yonge-eglinton area, but I'm not sure if i'll come back again.

SERVICE: It's difficult to think of anything good or bad to say about their service. They don't really go out of their way to make sure you have the best dining experience yet there's nothing horribly wrong with their service although I do remember this one time where my friend and I were the only customers dining in the restaurant and it took quite a long time to get our bill as our server was too busy putting takeaway orders together. Maybe they're understaffed, I don't know.

FOOD: I'd like to say I've tried a good variety of their dishes, from tempura and takoyaki to their chirashi and maki rolls, and even their ramen. If I had to describe all of their food in one word, it would be mediocre. The sushi wasn't that fresh (the imitation crab wasn't even that good for imitation good standards) and the maki rolls were small. Their better quality foods ended up being their hot foods. The ramen was decent although salty, but their tempura and takoyaki were great minus the price.

Overall, while I can't say I'll be back for sure, it's likely that I'll give them one more shot to take advantage of their 15% off takeaway check-in order.

Saw lots of 4* and 5* reviews on Google (when I was searching for their location) and went with that as a good endorsement. Big mistake, I should have checked Yelp where more realistic 2* and 3* reviews were lurking.

What I liked....friendly service, good hot tea, nice dining room, and wide variety of menu items including interesting sushi/sashimi options, ramen as well as izakaya.

What I didn't like....warning, this is going to be a long list.

Spider hand roll was only $4, but it wasn't a good a deal as I was expecting. When it arrived I saw it was about half the size of a typical hand roll. Taste was OK though.

Dining room was chilly due to lots of Skip the Dishes etc. dudes running in and out; they need a better way to keep the cold air out.

Sashimi platter was outrageously priced -- 15 to 18 pieces (thinly sliced, and including egg -- c'mon man, that doesn't count as sashimi) for $26. Some pieces tasted bland, like they'd been on ice for too long.

Gyozas tasted OK but again, very very small. I'd say they would be good value at half the price.

Ramen was inexplicably lukewarm as soon as it hit the table (you do have a stovetop in your kitchen, right?), had only a few thin slices of pork (with a bit too much fat) and they basically gave us a smallish bowl that was then only about 3/4 full. I'd say you get about half the quantity compared to what you'd get at the "big" ramen places around town. Other ingredients were also lacking -- for example, a sprinkling of corn kernels only. The stinginess was glaringly obvious when even something as cheap as corn from a can is skimped on. Again, taste was OK and I wolfed it down before it giving it a chance to progress from lukewarm to straight-up cold.

Total bill was $90 including tax and tip for three people (no drinks, just tea), which was about $20 too much. I didn't feel full despite a bowl of ramen, a handroll and 4 pieces of sashimi and two gyozas.

Small wonder the place was empty on a Friday night.

There isn't much to this place as a dining experience. If you treat it as entertainment, it might be a bit better for what you're paying.

We saw this place when it was advertising a grand opening promotion. The reviews on yelp were fairly high (despite there being 10 reviews that were filtered out as possible spam), so we figured why not let's give it a shot.

It's a pretty small restaurant. Cramped even. Some tables were so close that it was pretty difficult to even move around.

We decided to try several different items on the menu. Salmon tataki, beef tataki, tuna tataki, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, karaage, sashimi platter, kanda rolls, grilled saba, and oden. Each dish came up one or two at a time at 3-5 minute intervals. Since we were sharing, it was alright, but if each person's dishes came at this kind of rate where the last dish arrived 30 minutes after the first, imagine how terrible it must be for the last person (actually, we did have one person order their own dishes, and his did come at the very end).

Flavors were what I would expect from an AYCE place, though I think I would have preferred an AYCE place. The mackeral was just charred, the oden came with some pieces of fish cakes, there wasn't much chicken in the karaage, tataki was overpowered by the garnishing.

We had to ask for the waitress to check on the sashimi platter. I guess the kitchen must've forgot about it, cause it would be served up in "2 minutes". And indeed, it came in minutes. For $16 or so, you're getting 3 small pieces of salmon, 3 small pieces of tuna, one shrimp, 4 scallops, and a crab stick cut in half. What's up with the crab stick?

At the end of the meal, we had 8 empty dishes piled up on the table because everytime another dish came, the old ones (which were empty by the time the new ones arrived) were just left there and we had to pile them up so there was room to set the new ones down.

There are many other izakaya's in town. And plenty of generic japanese sushi places as well.

We came here on opening week. They were having a special price just to entice people to come in. Well, I was disappointed. We ordered a few izakaya to start us off. The portions were small and I wouldn't pay full price for them. This place is actually opened by chinese people but they hired japanese waiters.

We started off with the raw squid. it was meh... nothing special. Then we got the 8 piece sushi roll and was disappointed. The pieces are so small and tiny. Then we got the taco yaki. A disappointment as well. I think they were frozen and not fresh. Maybe bought from the local chinese grocery store? The beef pieces were good. but it was pricy at full price. The seared fish alright as well. Then came the pizza with japanese mayo. It was alright. The worst one was the fish pieces on a bowl of water. LOL! wth was that? 10 little pieces of cooked fish pieces on hot water. what a joke. The chicken karaage was alright.

Then the last izakaya dish was three tuna slices and three salmon slices on a dish. full price was like $16 for it. that's crazy! there was someone across from us who got the same dish and they were pissed off. She quickly told the chef they didn't want it and the chef got pissed off and said it was "Chef Special!" LOL!!

I was still not full so I decided to get their tonkotsu ramen. What a disappointment. The soup was clearly not homemade and it was purchased somewhere else. It kind of looked like manufactured tonkotsu broth from a package. It was a joke.

I ended up complaining to the head manager and she ended up giving us a further discount.

I am not sure if they have improved or not but until they prove otherwise, my wallet is safe with me.

2.5/5
Was craving sushi so wanted to try this place out as it's relatively new. After we picked up our sushi and was like 10 steps out the door, a guy chased after us and realized he got our order wrong and forgot to give us something. Sushi was all pretty meh... was pleasantly surprised it came with salad and miso soup though. Havent tried any of their other food so cant say if those are good or not... but for sushi, I'd stick with lola sushi or sushi supreme which are both nearby.

I enjoyed their ramen. It was creamy and filling, with thick slices of pork. I haven't tried anything else on the menu, so I can't really comment on how good they are overall. The photos on Yelp look really good though. I will be back to sample other items on the menu in the near future. The service was exceptional. Friendly and courteous.

They had an opening special so decided to come here with a few friends to check it out. The place is small with a seating capacity of about 25. I ordered the Chicken Teriyaki dinner. The chicken tasted a bit burnt and dry and did not have much flavor. Also ordered a bowl of Vegetable Ramen, and it tasted was average. Ambience was ok. Service was attentive with the waiter and waitress filling my cup of tea before it became empty.

My recommendation for the owner: Service was good. Need to improve quality of food and portion size. The teriyaki chicken was terrible.

Came here on the grand opening day (40% Off) and the experience was HORRIFYING.

Clearly they did not anticipate or have experience with a full house. Customers around looked pissed off about the poor service. Waiters were very apologetic and trying very hard. Fine, this part is understandable as they haven't seen so many people dining at their restaurant before.

The UGLY:
Sashimi platter ($16.99) for that we got 3 pieces of salmon, 3 pieces of tuna, 3 pieces of frozen shrimp and 1 piece of squid wrapped up, where inside there is another 2 strands of squid only millimetres in width. If you do the math, that sure adds up to 12 pieces except it is not worth $17. I called the waitress over to which she returned it back to the kitchen, next thing i know is i got additional strands of imitation crab sticks. I have not seen a restaurant that serves floury crab sticks as sashimi, this one is a first. The chef stormed out of the kitchen and emphasized in an angry tone: "You get Chef's selection, it's not up to you". Okay... I guess the chef here is not so generous at all.

Baked oysters ($8.75?)
Was served two large shells stuffed with mushrooms, mushrooms, cheese, more mushrooms, greasy oil, and about two tiny parts of the oyster. I know for fact that we didn't get the entire oyster. Where did the rest go?

Having bad service is one thing (understandable if you are busy), but thinking of ways to cheap out on customers is unethical. Even with the 40% off, I feel like both the quantity and quality was not worth it. I feel sorry for the customers that will pay for the full price. After this experience, i will most certainly not come back again, i'm sure many others feel the same.

My recent visit to Kanda Izakaya was far below average, and it's a shame because the visits before that were great. My experience today lacked and it showed in their service and food.

My colleagues and I sat down after a table of 11 and we waited until they were finished ordering. Understandable. By the time they were done, we called on the server because we already knew what we wanted. The server never responded, brought in the next group of guests and proceeded to take their order a minute later.

It wasn't until food started coming out to the table until the server finally took our order...

Now, the food.

Soup was fine. Noodles were fine. The first thing I noticed right off the bat was the portion size of the pork belly. It looked like they tore off the meaty portion and left us with fatty leftovers. I rarely complain about the fat (because fat is flavour) but it was really chewy. It wasn't rendered properly.

And the egg was pretty alcoholic. Not what I was expecting. I can understand using a little bit, but I think it was heavy-handed.

I may consider revisiting, but that ask really comes down to if my colleagues are feeling it again.

This is my first time trying this restaurant, i Will share my experience with Shio ramen:
- the soup was not as creamy as it should be, but the pork taste was clear, which I didn't enjoy. the temperature wasn't appropriate, colder than it should be, very thin slices of pork belly-chashu, half an egg, and no other topping.
- the noodles were a bit under cooked, probably it should have continued to cook in the soup but it didn't due to cold soup.
- the chashu tasted fine, but it was so thin that you cannot really enjoy the taste of it.
- the service was very good, the restaurant is clean, and the order took 10 minutes to prepare though it was empty.
I will not be hitting this place for ramen, but I might give it a try for other items on the menu.