Date: Saturday May 28, 2005 3:00pm
Group: 2
Reservations: None taken – just walked in from the streets
My order: Chicken Katsu-curry ($10.50), Gingerale ($2.50)

Location: 69 Front Street East, Toronto ON. 416-703-8658 – Located right next to the C’est What lounge.

I went back to Izakaya the other day for my second try. This time, almost two months after it opened. As I wrote in my last review, I wanted to try their chicken katsu-curry out and so that is just what I did.

The Food:
Chicken Katsu-Curry: $10.50. At first glance it looks fairly decent. Following the style as any other dish that I ordered there before, the portion was pretty small for the price. Another thing of note was the little drizzle of curry that was offered in the dish. I say drizzle because that’s essentially what it was. More accustomed to the fully loaded Japanese styled curry rice dishes, I was slightly disappointed with this part. Taking my first bite out of the chicken-katsu, this was indeed the flavour of katsu that I am accustomed to. Of course, using Panko breadcrumbs makes a world of difference, which Izakaya does.

The curry sauce – or what I had of it – tasted authentically Japanese with a hint of spice in it. There were no vegetables in it; only a few lumps of who knows what was accompanied in the sauce. The spice that I tasted may have had a hint of Indian curry in there but I can’t be too sure. Regardless, the curry flavouring I enjoyed. It was nice to know that the curry sauce was in fact made by a seasoned Japanese chef.

The katsu-curry came with a small side order of pickled daikon/radishes, which always makes for a good curry meal.

Notices: Since it was pretty dead when we got there, we had a fairly involved conversation with Christian, the General Manager of the restaurant, and John, one of the owners. This was great as I got to pick their brains a little more in trying to see what exactly their goal was in opening up a Japanese restaurant that clearly wasn’t your typical Japanese restaurant.

Here are a few things of interest:

• Pricewise they wanted to be above average signalling a better than average restaurant.
• Not wanting to be another sushi-house or a typical Japanese style restuarant, they changed their decor to have a large significant Canadian twist to it.
• The owner tries to use only the best ingredients possible as he is strict in what they use to cook their foods.
• Their duck dumplings are their specialty dumplings as the owner cooks them himself. The other dumplings are actually store-bought, hence was slightly different (thicker shell, overly deep-fried).
• The udon noodle dish is supposedly more authentically Japanese flavoured so have that if you want something more to the liking of a Japanese palette.

I also noticed that they completely changed their soup-base for their Izakaya Ramen, which I had the first time I came. No longer a milky based bland soup, it is now a clearer, pork broth based soup that actually has some kind of flavouring to it. A vast improvement I would say.

John mentioned that he did always get mixed reviews of the place. Japanese people would go in their and say that things are not authentically Japanese flavoured, while some things on the menu are more to their likings. He welcomes those comments and tries to use them to further advance his menu.

He said soon, he will add more to the menu and that hopefully he will open up new stores elsewhere in Canada, such as in Montreal. And yes, he did get some influence from Wagamama chain of stores in Europe, however, he improved upon their menu since they apparantly don’t have very good food (I can’t say this for sure as I have never gone to Wagamama before).

Overall: Overall, I would have to look at this place from two different point of views. If you’re expecting authentic Japanese food at Izakaya, then you may be slightly disappointed as a large part of their menu is in fact altered to John’s likings. With a name like Izakaya – which is then name they use in Japan to denote a restaurant that serves small plates of food and drinks – though, it’s easy for people to mistaken this place as a truly authentic Japanese restuarant.

Going in there knowing that you will be eating Japanese food with a slight twist to it (I don’t want to say fusion as I don’t think the changes is large enough to consider it fusion) , then you may have a better experience at the restaurant.

John’s goal was to provide the latter experience for his customers so I would say he is going in the right direction. He also says he now offers tea in his resatuarant, which he didn’t have before. He claimed he couldn’t get the equipment on time beforehand. The restaurant offers no desserts because that’s not what his restuarant specializes in. If you want dessert, there are plenty of other places around the area that offers decent dessert, so he says.

As for the little drizzle of curry on my dish? All he had to say was, during the busier times, he is more strict on the portions that is offered to his customers. I say, busy or not busy, the portions should always be the same! I am a valuable customer to them as any other person walking in the restaurant. Why should I be treated any differently because I chose to come in at an off-peak hour?

I still think the restaurant is very pricey for what it offers though. But seeing as he likes to use quality ingredients, that’s how he will justify his price category.

Overall Rating:
3/5 going there expecting authentic Japanese food
3.75/5 going there expecting Japanese food with a twist