Guu Thurlow use to be my favorite but last couple times the food has dropped off. Sashimi hasn't been as fresh. Subtle differences/changes in a few of my other favorites has made Guu Thurlow not what it use to be.Then we tried Toramasa last night. It was fantastic. Sashimi came out fresh tasting. All the other small plates came out as I remembered other Guu places use to serve. This location will become our go to Guu from this point forward.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Oana Hyatt
Cheapest place for snacks and pitchers of beer
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
James Steele
Wow, awesome.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Sheena PS
Very nice authentic Japanese food. Not so much variety but everything we ordered were all delicious!
Having dined at other Guu locations, I am happy to say that this location lived up to my expectations based off the others. Everything was delicious, especially the Squid and the Sashimi. Service was also top notch and friendly. Would certainly return to this location, especially considering there was much more availability reservation wise.
JY
Really enjoyed our lunch here. We walked in on a Sunday afternoon and it wasn’t busy. Lunch sets are available. Grilled Salmon was absolutely delicious!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Bobbie W.
I love this place. I went a few times when it first opened and it was a bit hit and miss compared to the original guu on Thurlow but I think now they have found their stride The food at Guu restaurants are always innovative and add a bit of fusion and they're offering in this place maintains that same standard fresh seafood, awesome and big portioned kimchi fried rice, nicely fried chicken karaage and creative appies so full with a few pints of sapporo beers and snow white. super service and exuberant staff
J Y
They made a good impression on me. One of my pet peeves is when restaurants post closing hours and you go there 15 to 30 minutes before the closing hours and they won't serve you. Why put closing hours, making it seem like you will receive guests when they are already closed??? Anyways, arrive here at 1030pm almost confident they won't let us in since they close at 11pm. To our surprised they let us in warning us that last call is at 11pm, the way it should be! And they were friendly and helpful and didn't act like we prevented them from closing.Food was delicious too. Nice to know there a late night or semi late night place that served food.Salmon Yukke with prawn chips. The salmon is good but didn't go well with the prawn chips. Ended up eating the salmon alone. Assorted oden was really good. Really enjoyed having the hot broth. Okonomi Yaki which is a Japanese pancake. I liked it very much. Sauce wasn't too sweet. Shrimp Yakisoba was ok. It was fried in probably a hot wok or pan so that's good but to me nothing special. Lastly karaage. Can't remember if it was good or not. But generally hard to mess up karaage so must have been ok.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
tinny tso
The food was delicious, but we were so thirsty afterward. (Enough said)I did make a reservation, so I was disappointed to know that we were being seated at the sushi bar and not a regular table.Service was fast, and we were able to finish everything within an hour. The place was very warm, I saw that most people were in their tees.
#3On our third visit, we were there for a quick bite to eat, so these are the things that we ordered: miso soup, fish cake tempura, smokey sausage with carrot sauce, and an appetizer with tofu. I must say, I enjoyed every dish.I'm not sure if it was happy hour or just a special deal for that specific day, but they had an offer of three appetizers for $15, so we took advantage of it and ordered these dishes.#2During our second visit, we ordered chicken karage, Japanese pickles, deep-fried assorted skewers (pork, quail egg, asparagus, lotus root), and beef carpaccio. What we noticed was that the food didn't all come out at the same time.It seemed like they were really busy, so there was a bit of a wait between each dish.But I have to say, the chicken karage and Japanese pickles were really good; I totally enjoyed them. However, the deep-fried asparagus skewer was kind of tough and chewy.The beef carpaccio came last, so we didn't have anything else to eat it with.Overall, the timing of the food delivery was a bit of an issue for us.#1Our experience at Guu Toramasa was really nice. Even though we didn't book ahead, we got a table right away. We ordered the Tan Ramen with spicy pork and soy milk, along with some kimchi rice. Both dishes were really tasty. The service was friendly and quick. I also tried the melon soda for the first time, and it was surprisingly good.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 3
Louis Seki
This new edition of the successful Guu Izakaya Japanese restaurant chain in Vancouver has my thumbs up all over? Seriously, how many places in town serving great food and drinks at a reasonable prices are open till 11pm on a Monday? Need I say more?
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Smoky Sausage with Carrot Sauce, Pork Intestine
Liam Crozier
It took an hour for the food to arrive and one of my colleagues found a piece of plastic in his food (he was refunded for this). I've had excellent meals at Guu Garlic and the original Guu Izakaya, but this was a very disappointing experience.I'm giving two stars instead of one because it seemed like a recently opened spot and maybe the team was undertrained. I'm hoping that they can improve over time.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
Lynn Chen
Great authentic Japanese restaurant! Love it!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Chirashi Don
Lauren Young
Super friendly staff. Lively, high energy atmosphere without being too noisy. Seafood Yakisoba noodles were amazing! Gomae beans were absolutely delicious. I would highly recommend the Grilled Squid.
Guu Thurlow use to be my favorite but last couple times the food has dropped off. Sashimi hasn't been as fresh. Subtle differences/changes in a few of my other favorites has made Guu Thurlow not what it use to be.Then we tried Toramasa last night. It was fantastic. Sashimi came out fresh tasting. All the other small plates came out as I remembered other Guu places use to serve. This location will become our go to Guu from this point forward.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Cheapest place for snacks and pitchers of beer
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Wow, awesome.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Very nice authentic Japanese food. Not so much variety but everything we ordered were all delicious!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Smashing Takoyaki, Chicken Karaage
Having dined at other Guu locations, I am happy to say that this location lived up to my expectations based off the others. Everything was delicious, especially the Squid and the Sashimi. Service was also top notch and friendly. Would certainly return to this location, especially considering there was much more availability reservation wise.
Really enjoyed our lunch here. We walked in on a Sunday afternoon and it wasn’t busy. Lunch sets are available. Grilled Salmon was absolutely delicious!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I love this place. I went a few times when it first opened and it was a bit hit and miss compared to the original guu on Thurlow but I think now they have found their stride The food at Guu restaurants are always innovative and add a bit of fusion and they're offering in this place maintains that same standard fresh seafood, awesome and big portioned kimchi fried rice, nicely fried chicken karaage and creative appies so full with a few pints of sapporo beers and snow white. super service and exuberant staff
They made a good impression on me. One of my pet peeves is when restaurants post closing hours and you go there 15 to 30 minutes before the closing hours and they won't serve you. Why put closing hours, making it seem like you will receive guests when they are already closed??? Anyways, arrive here at 1030pm almost confident they won't let us in since they close at 11pm. To our surprised they let us in warning us that last call is at 11pm, the way it should be! And they were friendly and helpful and didn't act like we prevented them from closing.Food was delicious too. Nice to know there a late night or semi late night place that served food.Salmon Yukke with prawn chips. The salmon is good but didn't go well with the prawn chips. Ended up eating the salmon alone. Assorted oden was really good. Really enjoyed having the hot broth. Okonomi Yaki which is a Japanese pancake. I liked it very much. Sauce wasn't too sweet. Shrimp Yakisoba was ok. It was fried in probably a hot wok or pan so that's good but to me nothing special. Lastly karaage. Can't remember if it was good or not. But generally hard to mess up karaage so must have been ok.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
The food was delicious, but we were so thirsty afterward. (Enough said)I did make a reservation, so I was disappointed to know that we were being seated at the sushi bar and not a regular table.Service was fast, and we were able to finish everything within an hour. The place was very warm, I saw that most people were in their tees.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Grilled Squid, Chicken Karaage
Excellent food, good service, busy restaurant... make a reservation.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Takoyaki, Chicken Karaage
Restaurantji Recommends
#3On our third visit, we were there for a quick bite to eat, so these are the things that we ordered: miso soup, fish cake tempura, smokey sausage with carrot sauce, and an appetizer with tofu. I must say, I enjoyed every dish.I'm not sure if it was happy hour or just a special deal for that specific day, but they had an offer of three appetizers for $15, so we took advantage of it and ordered these dishes.#2During our second visit, we ordered chicken karage, Japanese pickles, deep-fried assorted skewers (pork, quail egg, asparagus, lotus root), and beef carpaccio. What we noticed was that the food didn't all come out at the same time.It seemed like they were really busy, so there was a bit of a wait between each dish.But I have to say, the chicken karage and Japanese pickles were really good; I totally enjoyed them. However, the deep-fried asparagus skewer was kind of tough and chewy.The beef carpaccio came last, so we didn't have anything else to eat it with.Overall, the timing of the food delivery was a bit of an issue for us.#1Our experience at Guu Toramasa was really nice. Even though we didn't book ahead, we got a table right away. We ordered the Tan Ramen with spicy pork and soy milk, along with some kimchi rice. Both dishes were really tasty. The service was friendly and quick. I also tried the melon soda for the first time, and it was surprisingly good.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 3
This new edition of the successful Guu Izakaya Japanese restaurant chain in Vancouver has my thumbs up all over? Seriously, how many places in town serving great food and drinks at a reasonable prices are open till 11pm on a Monday? Need I say more?
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Smoky Sausage with Carrot Sauce, Pork Intestine
It took an hour for the food to arrive and one of my colleagues found a piece of plastic in his food (he was refunded for this). I've had excellent meals at Guu Garlic and the original Guu Izakaya, but this was a very disappointing experience.I'm giving two stars instead of one because it seemed like a recently opened spot and maybe the team was undertrained. I'm hoping that they can improve over time.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
Great authentic Japanese restaurant! Love it!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Chirashi Don
Super friendly staff. Lively, high energy atmosphere without being too noisy. Seafood Yakisoba noodles were amazing! Gomae beans were absolutely delicious. I would highly recommend the Grilled Squid.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Takoyaki