The latest addition from the people behind Guu is Yakitori Kintori, located on the second floor of the Bloor St Kinton Ramen, Kintori specializes in charcoal grilled skewers (kushi), epecially chicken (yakitori). All different parts of the chicken are served and it’s a great example of head to tail cooking.

Atmosphere: The BF and I stopped by with a friend on Sunday, right at 5pm when they opened and was lucky enough to get seats in front of the grill. I would highly recommend making reservations as there are only about 30 seats and there’s bound to be a line. The barstools are similar to the those at Kinton with a place for your bag and a coat rack is set up for jackets. The pace of the meal was slower than ramen, but still not one to linger over. I felt like Kintori’s a great spot to grab dinner at the end of a long day or before starting your night.

Service: Climbing the stairs to the second floor, we were greeted by the servers in Kinton as well as Kintori. The hostess was a super cute, friendly Japanese girl and I couldn’t understand a word she said. I felt bad but none of us could decipher her accent. Once we were seated, our server came to take our order, help explain the menu, made recommendations and was efficient and friendly. Since we sat at the grill, we saw our order getting prepped and cooked. It does take a while for the skewers to be ready, so ordering a few appetizers while you’re waiting is a good idea.

Food: My favourite way to order skewers is to start with one of everything and then double up on favourites. Each skewer usually has 3-5 pieces of meat/vegetable so depending on your group 1-2 orders of of each skewer lets everyone have a bite. Kintori’s menu maps out each cut of the chicken that is orderable. Next to some items, there’s an T/S icon indicating that you can choose between salt or tare sauce (a sweeter, thicker soy sauce) for seasoning. There is also a small selection of pork, beef and vegetable skewers along with a whole other page of tapas dishes. If the selection is overwhelming, there is a chef’s selection of 5 or 7 skewers that offers a nice variety from the menu.

We ordered a good bulk of the menu items. There are still a few items I’d like to try (neck, heart, oyster and liver) but of what we ordered, I’ve organized them into 3 groups. Overall, the chicken was really tender, I found the beef a touch dry and the pork was crispy. The okra and stuffed jalapeno were amazing and a nice break from all the meat.

1. Skewers you won’t want to share:
Aigamo (Duck Breast – Daily Special), Lamb (Daily Special), Buta Bara (Pork Belly), Okra, Jalapeno Nikuzume (Stuffed Jalapeno), Sasami with mentai mayo (Tenderloin), Cheese Tsukune (Stuffed Chicken Meatball), Eringi (Oyster Mushroom)

2. Interesting unique skewers, nice to try
Sunagimo (Gizzard), Tsukune (Chicken Meatball), Momo (Thigh), Kawa (Skin), Bonjiri (Tail), Tomato, Ton Toro (Pork Cheek), Negi Shio Gyu (Beef)

3. Skewers that could be skipped
Mekyabetsu (Brussel Sprouts), Hiza Nankotsu (Cartilage)

We ordered a Tako Wasabi while we waited for our skewers to arrive. The wasabi that day had a real kick and really cleared up the sinuses. From the Rice and Noodle section, we also tried the Yakionigiri, grilled rice ball filled with seaweed. This would be the only disappointing dish of the night. It was a lot of rice and not that much flavour.

The surprise dish of the night was the Kitsune Udon. Udon noodles are wrapped in a deep fried tofu skin and served with dashi broth. The noodles were a perfect texture, the dashi was flavourful and the skin added a nice saltiness. I was also impressed with how much udon there was. It was a great dish.

I washed everything down with a glass of Kintori White Sangria. The drink was a little light on actual fruit pieces but tasted like summer.

Update 02/26/2017: Guu Sakabar has been renamed to Kinka Izakaya

Guu is one of my favourite restaurants in Toronto. I used to be one of the people lining up at 5:00pm outside their Church St location. When their second location at Bloor and Bathurst opened I was there at least once a month. I find that I compare all of my izakaya experiences in Toronto to a benchmark of Guu. They were my first and still is my favourite.

Atmosphere: The restaurant is loud. The servers heartily greet new arrivals and departures alike in Japanese. It’s a boisterous environment and I love sitting at the bar to watch the dishes being prepared. At the Bloor location there is also a dining area to sit without shoes, zashiki style. Unlike other Japanese restaurants that offer zashiki where you sit legs folded on the floor, the room at Guu has the tables built sunken into the ground so it’s still possible to sit normally without shoes. I love this design. Your legs don’t get cramped or tired and you can sit for hours enjoying the giant mugs of sapporo and delicious food.

Service: It’s a busy place. The servers run around the restaurant and sometimes it’s hard to get someone’s attention. However every server always greets you with a smile and is happy to help when you get their attention. Most of the dishes are cooked in batches, so it might be a bit of a wait for some items. I’ve never found this to be an issue since the typical order is a large number of different items and food generally arrives quickly.

Food: Guu offers a special menu that changes daily with food and drink specials. I always order off of the daily special first and have rarely been disappointed. They do run out of ingredients though. I stopped by the Church location once at 10pm and there were only 2 special items left still available. The portions at Guu are smaller izakaya style and prices are reasonable, but if you want to try a lot of dishes I recommend going with a group of 3-4 people.That way everyone gets a good bite of plate without having to order duplicates. The bill can add up if you go hungry and are ordering drinks as well. My bill usually comes to $40-$60 / person, drinks, tax and tip included. The menu is separated into sections based on the main ingredient (ie. noodles, rice) and how the foods are cooked (ie. cold dishes, fried).

Every sashimi dish I’ve ever ordered has been super fresh, beautifully plated and cut. I include at least one sashimi item with every order. This visit it was the just the BF and I so I had to carefully choose what to order. I have a reputation of ordering too much food, always. From the special menu, we ordered the wings, scallop carpaccio and deep fried corn dog sausage stuffed with cheese. We rounded off the meal with the carbonara udon and grilled black cod from their regular menu, staples of every visit.

Wings are a new dish to Guu. They’ve started running wing nights on Monday and Tuesdays with a combo price for wings and a pitcher of sapporo. The wings were lightly battered and I liked the spicy chipotle vinegar topping. I can’t see Guu becoming my wings destination, but if it’s added to the menu I would order them again. Scallop sashimi is my favourite ever since my first visit to Japan. The dish at Guu was amazing, light, a hint of acidity on top of the natural sweetness of the scallops.  The sausage was ok. The cheese inside was melted and tasted great, again though it just wasn’t the kind of dish I would visit Guu for. The first of our two tried and true dishes, the carbonara udon, was a creamy, bacony, yolky noodle dish that was slurped up quickly. I love the poached egg and the fusion flavours. This dish is only on the menu at the Bloor location and I highly recommend it. Similarly the miso glazed black cod is another must try. The texture of the fish is like butter and the miso glaze is grilled to a perfect crispy finish.

As always, I left Guu content, satisfied and looking forward to my next visit. In the spring, Guu started offering a lunch menu at both of their locations and now takes reservations. It’s easier now than ever to get your Guu fix, and this is a most dangerous thing.