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Drinking and Eating at Vancouver Izakayas
A raucous crawl through Japanese small-plates-and-beer joints
It seems like everybody in Vancouver’s Guu with Garlic restaurant is yelling. Patron to patron, over beer and fried shrimp. Server to patron, as people walk in the door. Servers to chefs, and chefs to servers. It feels like we’re on-board a careening watercraft in a 90-knot storm. Only instead of being blasted with salt water, we are being showered with free plates of marinated shark’s fin and octopus with wasabi because of a few messed-up reservations.
Guu with Garlic is one of the most popular restaurants in this Canadian city serving what’s become the hottest dining trend here: izakaya (pronounced “ee-zah-kai-ah”). That is, Japanese small plates in a publike atmosphere. Izakayas started in Tokyo years ago as holes in the wall where office workers could chug beer and sake before they went home to dinner with their families. The seafood salads, hot fried things, soups, and noodle dishes that served to tide patrons over might be cooked by a guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Then newer, fancier izakayas opened with more inventive dishes. But raucous drinking was still the game. In Japan, it isn’t uncommon for office workers to hit several izakayas, a practice called hashigo sake (literally “ladder drinking,” or barhopping), before catching the train home.
Recently, American food critics began heralding the arrival of the izakaya to the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and New York. But to experience a true izakaya scene outside Japan, Vancouver is the place to go. Why the trend has taken off there is a matter of speculation. Some argue that the city’s enormous population of Japanese students provided a ready-made customer base as the restaurants began opening in the mid-1990s. Others say that the comparative ease of getting a Canadian work visa guarantees an influx of talented young Japanese chefs eager to make something beyond sushi. Japanese and Korean students are still heavily represented among the patrons, but you’ll see all kinds of people dining at izakayas.
Here are our four favorite Vancouver izakayas, conveniently located near one another downtown, should you opt for a crawl. (If you’re eating dinner at only one, you might tell your server you’d like to order omakase style, which literally means “in your hands” but in this context is more along the lines of “chef’s choice”: The chef picks a variety of dishes for you for a fixed, reasonable price. Many Japanese chefs consider such a request an honor, and will treat you to the best food they can make.) Nearly all the izakayas offer full cocktail bars, as well as beer and sake. A few offer wine. But if you’re planning a crawl, stick to beer: You’ll feel better the next day. And don’t forget to wear your fashion socks (see sidebar), because you might be asked to take off your shoes in certain areas of some restaurants.
Photographs by Chris Rochelle
Vancouver Izakayas
Izakaya Map
Check out Chowhound fmed’s great and thorough map of Vancouver izakayas.
Fashion Socks
Some izakayas have tatami-mat seating areas where you’ll be asked to remove your shoes. Shop online for fashion socks before you go.
Does anyone know of any Izakayas (or similar) places in Montreal. I really need to get out to Vancouver one of these days...
Thanks so much for promoting the needless slaughter of sharks!! "Marinated shark fin" - what a joke, you know why it's marinated? It's tasteless cartilage. So glad ocean ecosystem loses it's necessary predators so ignorant people can have their placebo "aphrodisiacs".
>> Thanks so much for promoting the needless slaughter of sharks!!
I suspect that the dish they had was actually made of dogfish fin (which technically is a type of shark).
>> Does anyone know of any Izakayas (or similar) places in Montreal. I really need to get out to Vancouver one of these days...
It may be cheaper for you to go to NYC and crawl around St Mark's Place in East Village.
I don't know of any true izakaya in Montreal. I recall seeing a restaurant with "izakaya" in the name - but when I went in - it found that it was just a sushi/teri place.
Love Kingyo. Hapa's quality has really declined.
I'm surprised Shiru Bay in Yaletown isn't covered. It's pricier because of its trendy location but the food is great.
p.s. What's Izakaya without yelling?
Thanks for a fascinating insight into izakaya culture, Chow; snappy writing and absolutely FAB photos. I’d like to try the kabucha korokke (or Japanese Scotch egg) and the ebi-mayo with some of the Vancouver Sake, yum!
Hapa's quality has indeed gone downhill. Luckily though, their new location on W. 4th picks up the slack. The new location is very discreetly tucked away between 2 small neighborhood sushi joints (near Malone's), below ground. Atmosphere there is more nightclub-y than the downtown one.
Any real Izakayas in Toronto? I know there's one on Front, but that's more like a ramen place then Izakaya when it first opened. Then recently their menu was too small for me to consider it an izakaya.
I saw one in Little Italy, but when I looked at the menu, it was all sushi and sashimi, argh.
I don't know of any izakaya in Toronto. Perplexing. If you find one, please report.
Re: Toronto. Do you mean Sushi Haru? It's got lots of sushi but the last time I went (in the spring), they were really pushing the izakaya idea with a placemat menu featuring its small plates. I just ate the sushi though...
I am originally from Vancouver, and I LOVE gyoza king. It really is my favorite izakyaya restaurant. Everything on the menu is pretty good, and when all five of us girls go, we spend about $80. We share everything, from the beer to the food.
The dried squid with mayo is good, the gyoza's are the best.
Kimchi fried rice, the noodles, even the salmon sashimi is delicious and fresh.
gyoza king has a cozy atmosphere, tables are very close together. If you have a bunch of friends, you can wait for a table where you take your shoes off, and sit on the floor. I like Guu in Gastown, as well, the japanese pancakes, spinach salad, chicken karagee..Guu in Gastown is a little more modern, with delicious drinks. I recommend anything with lychee in it.
Can't wait to go back, I definitely love stopping by the Gyoza King.
I just noticed that this article bumped back up on Chow's front page. The link to my Google Map in the first forum post that Lessley Anderssen provided is no longer valid. I had to delete that original map due to some sort of Google error which corrupted the original map.
The new map (minus all my original reviews and ratings) is now kept here...
The Vancouver Izakaya Crawl
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF...
Thanks fmed! We updated the original Chowhound post with the correct URL.
Thanks Davina!
"Recently, American food critics began heralding the arrival of the izakaya to the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and New York. But to experience a true izakaya scene outside Japan, Vancouver is the place to go."
I know a few hundred thousand Japanese people in California that would beg to differ...
IOW, another example of Chow.com writers at work.
Thumbs up on Gyoza King, it was very good the two times I've been there.
Tried out Kingyo once the food was good but our server reeked so badly of cigarette smoke every time he came to our table it made me cough. Ruined the whole evening
A small plug for Times Square condos, right at the corner of Denman and Robson, within stumbling distance of most of the places on the crawl.