Izakaya Ju

Came here for a late lunch on a Thursday, it was quite empty so getting a table was no problem for 3. The place has large ceilings and it spacious. Their green tea is also pretty good
They have a bunch of lunch specials on the menu for a very reasonable price. I got the pork udon. The clearly broth came nice and hot, but unfortunately came with only 2 thin slices of pork but had a lot of leafy veggies. The noodles were nice and chewy, it was solid but nothing out of the ordinary, pretty mediocre.
It was very busy, so we were there for a long time more than 2.5 hours just chatting and was never rushed or asked to leave which was nice and they kept pouring the tea. I will probably come back another day though due to the price and would like to try other things on the menu.

Japanese Izakaya tucked inside the J-​Town plaza (at the end of the pedestrian street) with a strong lineup of cooked dishes. Reserved a weekend dinner with a small group of friends but there weren’t lines so walk-​ins could’ve been ok. The interiors were plain and brightly lit, more like a casual cafeteria compared to the typical lively/​visually-​rich izakaya atmosphere. Staff were attentive and helpful in recommending dishes to try.
Dishes I liked:
— Gindara Daikon: black cod and radish simmered in just the right amount of soy sauce is savoury and melts in your mouth
— Salmon Ochazuke: rice in tea broth with a good amount of salmon is light but flavourful
— Osaka Cha-​han ($ 8): THE BEST — highly recommend! If you ever wondered what takoyaki fried rice would taste like, this would be it. We ate two of these cause it was so good and affordable.
— Roasted Green Tea Pudding: strong tea flavour and smooth consistency
While lacking in «socially exciting» izakaya ambience, the upside is that the food is better value for the taste and portion — and in good company, you have all the ambience you need anyways!

Japanese Izakaya restaurants are basically pubs with much better food. Located in the J-​Town complex near Woodbine and Steeles, it’s a great place to try authentic Japanese pub food with the emphasis on grilled items and ramen.
The menu is limited to tapas style eating where you pick and choose thing from appetizers, skewers, ramen, etc. They do have some set menus but most of them seem to be for lunch menus. Going to an Izakaya restaurant, I do recommend just pick and choose off the menu, and keep ordering till you are full! Eat like they do in Japan!
The food was wonderful! Some of the stand outs were the Yakitori Combo (chef choice), Deep Fried Chicken Soft Bones, Asari (Clam) Ramen, Stuffed Chicken Wings and the Okasa Fried Rice. The only weak spot was probably the lobster roll, but then again Izakaya places are not known for their sushi. Other then that everything we had was fantastic!
For dessert, I highly recommend the custards (egg and green tea) as they are beautifully done.
The service was very friendly and the atmosphere was very nice. Not as rowdy as some other Izakaya places probably but that is probably because we are in the suburbs:)
Highly recommended and will be back!

In my opinion, the service was better and food tasted better before the expansion.
It took them 10 mins for them to seat a group of 3. We just blankly stood in the middle of the restaurant, thinking we will be seated ASAP. If I may add, there were plenty of seats.
Won’t go back but instead will go to Shiso Café next door.

Great service and great food! Good for any occasion, lunch or dinner. Lunch specials are pretty affordable and you get a decent amount of food.

Unfortunately I did not get the chance to try their famous yakitori, so I can’t say if those make this place worth a visit. The sushi here was fairly good but certainly not mind-​blowing. Prices are on the higher side, though I personally felt that the ambience and the service level balanced it out. I would highly recommend the restaurant as a meeting place, since it was relatively quiet during lunch (or at least not super hectic) and the whole experience (from calling for reservations to menu ordering to the promptness of tea refills) was quite pleasant.

Food:
Sashimi combo for 2: 4 stars ($ 25 for 12 pieces)
Tokyo Ramen: 3 stars ($ 10)
Tonkotsu Ramen: 3 stars ($ 11)
Takoyaki: 4 stars ($ 5 for 6 pieces)
The sashimi was very fresh and was at the level of melt-​in-​your-​mouth quality. I particularly enjoyed the scallop sashimi; they were big pieces and sweet. The sashimi combo included 2 pieces of each of the following: salmon, red tuna, scallop, octopus, red snapper?, and one other fish I am not familiar with but nevertheless, it was GOOD!
As for the two ramens, I thought it could use more toppings but they were still good overall. The Tokyo ramen was soy sauce-​based and the tonkotsu ramen was pork bone-​based. Both were sufficiently flavourful. I like how it’s not too salty but not too bland. There is one big circular piece of pork belly? that came with the ramen; I wasn’t a fan of it. Too fatty and not the kind that dissolves in your mouth. The fat was kind of firm… just didn’t like it. I just gave it to my boyfriend. The noodles were firm and chewy, which I like. Portions were probably on the smaller end but it is an izakaya, so not fazed by the delicate quantities.
Takoyakis were soft and gooey, and drizzled with all that yummy creamy mayo. Pretty standard fare for an izakaya and wouldn’t say it’s spectacular, but still put a smile on my face as I shoved them hurriedly in my mouth =)
Ambiance: 3 stars
Clean and brightly lit interior. It was very busy when I was there on a Friday night. Simple tables and chairs with a nice wooden bar area by the sushi chefs. Wouldn’t say the place is cozy or comfy enough to sit and chat for hours but good for a casual date or friendly dinner.
Service: 5 stars
The lady who served us was very nice and always wore a smile on her face, which I appreciate. She was very good with clearing our dishes (our table was small) before serving us the rest of our food. They even had another girl who goes around refilling tea and water throughout our meal. The food came out quickly and more or less all at once. Must say, it was service worth the tip =)

The yakitori skewers here are great. That is what they are known for, you will not be disappointed if you «stick» to it.
The grilled items are usually a hit or miss, depending on what you order. For example, the hamachi/​yellowtail I ordered was not that great. The sushi rolls are also very medicore. I’d recommend just getting the yakitoris and you will walk out a happier person!

Cute little restaurant in J-​town. It wasnt too busy on a Saturday afternoon so my friend and I got seats right away. I ordered the Osaka fried rice, fish cakes, and fried chicken. I highly recommend trying to Osaka rice, it was super tasty and probably the best thing out of the things I ordered. The fried chicken was decent, but a little too fatty and soggy for me. Because this place is mainly for fried foods, try to order those rather than sushi!
Service was great and fast. I always find the service in J-​town restaurants really fast with friendly waiters. I’d come again to try some other dishes if I’m ever in the area.

Don’t Go!
I get used to be their faithful customer, but today i visite again, i have found they have a big change. Food taste and portion are not as good as before, neither to their service…
The uni sashimi order only hv 4 tiny tiny pieces and it doesn’t worth $ 18 dollars per order. As to the skewers, they are not that salty before but it’s extremely salty tdy… not only this, it’s taste bitter also
And the older server before i prefer better as they does make sense…
i will not go anymore, as i can have better food and service with the same price

Haven’t been here in a while since they renovated. I love the expanded version of izakaya ju, don’t need to feel crammed anymore, and a lot more spacious and room for people to stand in the front and wait for a table.
Their menu has changed, they have a special menu with higher end items like Toro, uni, salmon roe, most were 30+.
Since I haven’t been here for a while, decided to try some of their popular items.
We got the Osaka fried rice. It was like a rice version of takoyaki. It was really good with all the sauce, pickled ginger, octopus pieces.
We tried the yakitori combo with 5 skewers. All were really yummy and nice aroma of charcoal BBQ. In the combo we got a skewer of chicken tail. Very interesting and fatty. It’s very small pieces like chicken hearts.
Tried a cold started of yakko (cold tofu). Pretty good and smooth. Onions and ginger adds a nice touch, and you add your own soya sauce.
Got the friend chicken soft bone, this was freshly made, and very hot inside when we got it. Add a squeeze of lemon, and it has a nice refreshing taste with texture of crunchy and softness (from the batter).
Lastly we tried the roasted green tea pudding. It was a pretty big portion good for sharing. It didn’t have a strong green tea flavour, and more grey in colour. It wasn’t bad, but I couldn’t locate the roasted green tea taste.
The service here is good and attentive. Can’t wait to come back and try other items on the menu!

Had a little teaser tasting here and can say Izakaya Ju offers a wonderful and authentic Izakaya experience.
I’ve heard good things about their yakitori grill so I decided to get the yakitori combo — 5 skewers of the chef’s choice. There was tendon, liver, teriyaki chicken, chicken legs, and chicken meatball. It was an interesting assortment and was really was grilled to perfection. While they were all tasty, I probably would stick to the chicken legs/​teriyaki though. The tendon and liver didn’t quite satisfy my palate.
The osaka cha han was one of the cheaper entrees on the menu and don’t be fooled, there’s quite a bit of of fried rice there! It was really good. There’s that sweet and tanginess from the mayo/​HP sauce. If you like fried rice and/​or takoyaki there is no doubt you will love this. There is more than enough to share. The takoyaki was piping hot and fresh. It was a tad crispier than the usual (in a good way!).
I have had the teba gyoza (the stuffed chicken wings) on my first visit here and really enjoyed it. I would highly recommend it! It is a hefty half fried chicken wing stuffed with a pork dumpling. That’s kind of a match made in heaven. It was pretty darn juicy.
Service is SUPER friendly, the people here are awesome and you will feel welcomed. The price is undoubtedly on the higher side but it is worth it! With so many interesting items on their menu there is no doubt I will return here.

Izakaya Ju was just alright. I came here with high expectations and I left a tad disappointed. While there were a few highlights to my meal here, overall the food is just okay and in some cases forgettable. We ordered the horse meat tartare, seared tuna sashimi, uni sushi, takowasa, osaka cha-​han, mixed mushroom robata, osaka omelette, karaage, assorted yakitori set and the custard pudding for dessert.
The horse tartare was one of my favourites. I’d never had horse meat before, and I must admit, was a little alarmed when it came to our table due to how red the meat was (although it is raw, lean meat, so I suppose that was to be expected). It’s a fairly simple dish, but so full of flavour. I would order it again.
The tuna sashimi was forgettable. Way over-​cooked, tasted like unseasoned canned tuna. It was supposed to come with ponzu sauce but I think they totally forgot because it was bone-​dry and flavourless.
The uni sushi was quite good. They had uni from Japan and uni from BC on the specials menu; unfortunately the Japanese uni was sold out, so I settled for the Canadian option. So creamy with that unique bitter flavour. I really enjoyed the one morsel I had. (It was $ 4 for one piece.)
Takowasa was meh. I’ve definitely had better tako wasabi elsewhere, say Kingyo’s for example.
Osaka cha-​han hit the spot but was still disappointing. Fried rice with some scrambled egg, hardly any octopus at all and topped with the traditional mayo, okonomi sauce, aonori and bonito. It was good but not worth the price seeing as there was hardly any seafood to be found in the dish.
Mixed mushroom robata was your typical cooked-​in-​foil-​with-​butter dish. It was incredibly salty and even with a huge bias for mushroom dishes, I remained unmoved by it.
The osaka omelette was also disappointing. It was mostly egg and sauce with little filling to be had, and the same toppings as the cha-​han. Again, felt like a waste.
The karaage here features some cartilage maintained with the meat, which I personally don’t like too much (I’ve never been able to get over the texture of it) but felt it gave huge flavour to the dish.
The assorted yakitori set is chef’s choice. Ours came with chicken leg which was pretty undercooked, almost alarmingly so. It also included balls, wings, hearts and sternum. I’m always willing to try off-​cut pieces of meat, but none of it was really memorable. The sternum was interesting and had good flavour, but again, that cartilage texture.
Lastly, the custard pudding was quite good (although we actually asked for the matcha flavoured custard pudding and were given the regular flavour). It has a custard consistency on the top layer and is similar to a flan at the bottom. It was nice but not really enough to save the meal in its entirety.
Service here is very good, our teas were constantly being topped up and the servers are extremely polite and friendly. Unfortunately, the food falls short. For the cost, I probably won’t go out of my way to come back.

Their lunches are great! My mother and I came for a lunch since we didn’t want to go to Shiso, and we were quite impressed. We ordered beef tongue, chicken hearts, and roast duck just to try it.
The beef was tender and flavourful with a nice, almost fatty texture, while the chicken hearts had the right amount of springiness and no bad aftertaste from cheap product. The duck was pretty good too, but the meat wasn’t quite as juicy as I wanted it to be.
My mother had a Mackerel set which came with a huge chunk of grilled fish. It was meaty and not tough at all. the portion was very large, and it was very affordable (I think it was $ 10 or $ 12).
I ordered the Sushi Set ($ 17), not expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw chutoro on my plate along with real wasabi. I go to many of the top Japanese restaurants in the city, such as Zen, Yasu, and Shoushin. While Ju isn’t quite as good as those, their fish quality seems comparable to the likes of Aoyama!
There was also a really expensive unagidon ($ 30). We were curious as to why it was so expensive, so we ordered a couple pieces of unagi sushi ($ 3.50 per piece). It turned out to be a great decision! It was obvious prepared with a lot of TLC because the sauce had this nice sticky sweetness to it, and the flesh almost melted away in your mouth. Nothing like the eel you get at all you can eat places; the meat just gives way to a grand flavour experience.
Dunno about dinner prices, but lunch is definitely worth it! Service is friendly, food comes out fairly quick (unlike Shiso) and they’re definitely putting out some quality items.

Tasty food, but a bit on the pricey side. My cousin and I came here for a thankfully small dinner.
We had the black cod, the BC uni, okra, sweet potatoes and squid in wasabi appetizer. I know we had other stuff but I don’t really remember it. It was pretty good, but not mind blowing. I might try it again when I’m in the mood to do some spending. My enjoyment of the meal may have been lessened by the price tag.

Someone told me that Izakaya Ju is related to Guu Izakaya in some way. Well nevertheless, we decided to try Izakaya Ju to see what it’s like. It’s located in a small little area behind Shiso Tree Café in JapTown on Woodbine and Steeles.
Parking space is a little tight sometimes though I’ve never had trouble with finding parking space. If you want to avoid the possibility of it being hard to find seats, go earlier for lunch and dinner.
Entering in, Izakaya Ju was a small restaurant with a limited amount of seats. Nevertheless, we were able to get seats without waiting. Like the name states, this is an izakaya, where little servings of food are served. My favourite dishes were the Takoyaki balls, sashimi lunch and unagi don. Their prices are fair priced — takoyaki balls are $ 5, sashimi lunch was $ 17 (this was a very large plate compared to the rest). Other small selections are a few dollars. Have to warn you, the bill CAN add up, so have an idea of what you order! The sashimi was very fresh, I loved the salmon. The takoyaki balls were delicious, They had two small chewy pieces of octopus in them!
I would definitely come again when I am in this area.

For a quick lunch, I thought this place off the courtyard of J-​Town was ok. Oops, read the reviews as to what to order after-​the-​fact, re: yakitori…
Ordered: Chicken Teriyaki Salad, Tokyo Ramen ($ 10), & Curry Rice ($ 10). Portions were good for price, but I couldn’t help but think, «I could’ve had this stuff at J-​Town By The Sea» or one of those other places at the food court. Truth be told was that I really needed to go to the washroom, couldn’t find one, and eating here seemed to make sense since it was a restaurant.
We also ordered a Spicy Tuna Roll ($ 7) and a Salmon Roll. I only tasted the Spicy Tuna and it was just alright.
Service was friendly/​smiley, but on the slow side. Not a very memorable place imho.

This was the first time I’ve been to Izakaya Ju after it expanded and took over the ramen place next door (which was a good idea because they seem to be busy all the time!). The bigger space definitely makes the eating experience much more comfortable.
Everything we ordered were delicious: deep fried chicken soft bones, Osaka fried rice with octopus, chicken burger, gyoza stuffed chicken wings and vinegar grilled mackerel. Although all these dishes were great, our favourite ended up being the dessert — roasted green tea pudding. So smooth and creamy!

Great place for unique and authentic Japanese cuisine. They offer a wide variety of izakaya, sushi and sashimi products. They’re cocktail and sake choices are also quite good.
Do expect your bill to be bigger than you expect, you get what you pay for; good food for higher price. They have seasonal items like horse meat tartar (picture uploaded) and other unique items. They serve dishes in small portions like tapas unless you order rice and noodles etc.
ALCOHOL: Only half of their restaurant has liquor license because they expanded afterwards when they took over the ramen place next door. SO, if you want to drink any alcohol i you can only order (for now) when you are seated on the side with the chefs (right side) until they get their license for the other side.
Overall good place for good authentic Japanese food. I’d come back. Check out the pictures I uploaded to help.

Ju Izakaya is my favourite of all the restaurants located with J-​Town. While the selection of food for an Izakaya is a bit smaller, the food itself makes up for it. The set up of the restaurant is also split into two sections, alcohol and no alcohol.
We regularly order the Takoyaki which is usually pretty good. Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside with a piece of octopus inside.
My favourite dish is their Osaka Cha-​Han which is an octopus fried rice. It’s covered in the same sauce that the Takoyaki is made of which is sweet and tangy and is absolutely delicious.
Another highlight is the Negitoro-​don which is a rice dish with diced pieces of raw tuna that you pour soy sauce and wasabi over. The tuna is fresh and the wasabi provided is real wasabi and not just paste.
Service is always friendly at this restaurant and food comes at a pretty good pace. If the restaurant is busy though, be prepared to wait a little longer for your food.
Definitely recommended and will continue visiting this place regularly.