Check out our review of Kinka Izakaya (North York)! Review of Saba Oshizushi, Okonomiyaki, Maguro Tataki, and Salmon Potato Croqoette
Hi guys!
If you have been reading my blog, you probably noticed we love to eat and travel! As a newly wed, we have been cooking at home more often (testing new recipes here and there, see here on our latest creation, Tacoshi Cat), but we noticed we haven’t been going out for dinner dates as much! So we decided we should go out at least once a month to try new food and review them on our blog (just an excuse to go out more often!)
This is the second entry our food review series – Best Japanese Food in Toronto.See here for our first review, Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ
Kinka Izakaya
Address: 4775 Yonge St #114, North York, ON M2N 5M5
Website: http://www.kinkaizakaya.com/
Reservation Needed? I would definitely recommend you to reserve a table ahead of time as they are pretty busy. We booked our table around 6:30pm on Saturday and it was packed already, there are customers who didn’t reserve a table and it was quite a wait for them (at least 1 hour).
Setting and atmosphere: It’s a really cozy restaurant, and we get to sit at the bar table, which is my favourite place to be in an Izakaya store, since you can see all the delicious food the chiefs are making.
Of course, you get the famous atmosphere that they inherited from Guu Izakaya. It is a very noisy and lively place, with the staff yelling out random Japanese phases whenever someone enters (irrashaimase!), ordering food, and leaving the restaurant (arigatou gozaimashita!)
Menu / Price: Here’s the menu at Kinka Izakaya, I got to say the selection was a little less than regular other izakaya places. However, they have an option call the tasting menu featuring the days chef special, which I do not recall seeing from another izakaya yet.
Price is reasonable, averaging $6-10 per dish. The portion is decent and is good to share between two adults.
Here are what we had for dinner:
I really liked the texture of this tuna sashimi, a little cooked on the outside and the soft sashimi from the inside to pair up with these crunchy garlic chips! I feel it’s a perfect match
2. Salmon Potato Croqoette ($6)- Deep fried salmon potato croqoette with tohkatsu sauce
These potato balls are very hot from the inside! Caution when you are eating them! Delicious combination. I have tried the beef version of this croqoette in Japan, very yummy too!
3. Sukiyaki ($8.8) – Slow cooked beef, nappa, onion taro jelly, tofu, mushroom
Hmm… I would only order this if you are really craving for sukiyaki, which is the Japanese beef hotpot. The ingredients are fairly easy to get from a grocery store and you can make it at home, with a combination of dashi, soy sauce, and mirin!
4. Saba Oshizushi ($12.9)- Blowtorched cured mackerel pressed sushi
My number one pick from the store! This one is the Kansai style sushi, Oshizushi, meaning that the sushi rice and fish are in a neat square shape. I had a bad experience with blowtorched sushi before, and since then I haven’t try other. However this time hubby insisted to try this so I did, and it changed how I feel about blowtorched sushi. Now there’s another addiction to my foodie list!
5. Okonomiyaki ($7.8) – Deep fried japanese pancake with squid, tonkatsu sauce and mayo
Delicious as always, we were craving for this little pancake so we ordered! It is good that it was served already cut into pieces (instead of a full round pancake), making it much easier to share!
Overall Review: Kinka Izakaya It was a great dinner, loved the atmosphere, it was very happy and lively inside the restaurant even tho I had no idea what the chief and the waiters were talking about. Yet, their energy and passion was great!
When we came out, I realized Kinka Izakaya is the same chain as Kintori Yakitori, Jabistro, and Kinton Ramen. Never knew, but they are all great restaurant! We would definitely come back, hungry for more!
RATING: 4 STARS
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