Guu with Otokomae

Amazing cuisine. Great décor and environs. Always packed. Better than other Guu locations, IMO.

I came to Guu to celebrate my sister-in-law’s birthday with family. I will try to ignore the fact that we were seated beside a large party of early 20 somethings who for some reason thought it was appropriate to yell their conversations to each other. It was like they thought they were in a club with really loud music. The tables were close so we were literally sitting right behind them and it was extremely irritable because I could barely hear my own party of 6.
Personally for me I think the food could have been better. The most memorable thing was the chicken karage which I really enjoyed. It had perfect breading and the chicken was moist and tender. Unfortunately I have had better ebi mayo pretty much everywhere else. Usually the breading is a light tempura or panko mix but the batter reminded me of the breaded frozen fish (think the blue box with the old fisherman on the box) you get at the grocery store. We had a stone rice bowl which is supposed to get crispy, hence the stone bowl but never did. We even waited more than a few minutes but nope, nothing. We had an udon dish which was standard and nothing special. Also an oyster seafood motoyaki on a special menu which looks like it was meant to be a spread or dip for some bread. Unfortunately it came with three slices of bread from a baguette and when we asked for more they wanted to charge $ 3 for three more pieces.
Overall I have been to better izakayas in town. I probably sound like an old man but with the table right behind us yelling in our ears the whole night, I was just left with a headache.

It was my first night in Vancouver, and I was told that Guu was a must-​try while in the city. This place was packed on a Friday night around 7 p.m. which I expected. The host sat me at the bar, and I was greeted by the bartender. He was very kind, attentive and proper. As far as service goes, Guu was great!
Guu serves $ 4 Jack Daniels or Jameson drinks on Fridays, which I thought was a good deal. As far as food, I ordered their «famous» chicken kara-​age per my co-worker’s suggestion. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but I would not order it again. Some pieces of chicken were tough while other pieces were (literally) fried chicken fat. The meaty pieces were good though; they were lightly breaded with just enough crunch!
Overall, I enjoyed my time at Guu. The atmosphere is fabulous, and the service was great.

As I entered the restaurant I was surprised to find the restaurant established in brick loft-​style building with a lot of character. It was beautiful, clean and there was a subtle, almost teppanyakki scent wafting in the air, but not nearly enough to get it on your clothes. The service was excellent and the service was professional, although the server had some trouble understanding what «sesame seeds» were.
I ordered yam fries, «Japanese poutine» (I can’t remember the exact name, but «poutine» was part of it) without cheese, and an order of Ebi Mayo (shrimp). It was a very underwhelming experience.
Let’s start with the «poutine.» I pictured crispy cuts of fried/​deep fried yams with a light tempura batter, if even, with a careful drizzle of teriyaki sauce. Sounds delicious to me and I don’t like the idea of cheese mixed in with classic Asian flavours. Instead, I received giant cuts of yams, slightly crispy in some parts, but soggy for the most part. They were way to thick and served in a cast iron bowl. While arriving sizzling hot, much of the teriyaki sauce and subsequent grease from the fries collected at the bottom. The bowl also did not allow for as much surface area and ventilation to minimize the increasingly soggy chunks of fries. To me, this is hardly a traditional Japanese dish, but even for a fun west coast Japanese creation, it was disappointing and I couldn’t finish even half of it; the flavours were promising, but the texture and «fun» simply didn’t come through.
Onto the Ebi Mayo, the fried shrimp dish I have ordered before in other Guu locations, was too much and the batter was too thick. You may wonder why I ordered two fried dishes together and perhaps you’re right. My judgment could’ve been off, however, I was expecting light tempura batter, or no batter at all for any of my dishes. With the Ebi Mayo, it looked, and tasted like battered prawns in a cheap greasy spoon Chinese restaurant that you would dip in sweet n’ sour sauce… Literally. The batter was not light, crisp and full of air as is typical with tempura that I expected. To top it off, my friend order one for himself as well, so we both received two orders of Ebi Mayo, one with not enough mayo, and the other one so drenched, the thick batter quickly became soggy.
I’m still giving it a generous «3 stars» because the other dishes my friends orders, a beef «Carpaccio» type dish, and a tuna sashimi salad, was fresh, balanced in texture and flavor, and in general — good.

Fun izakaya place with a variety of interesting drinks. I’m a fan. A bit on the pricier side, so I don’t come here regularly, but the times I’ve been I’ve enjoyed it a lot. The best way to order here is come with a group (more than two people at least) and get a bunch of small dishes to share. Think tapas, if you’ve never had izakaya before.
I had the guu’d yaki udon, which was quite good. I’ve also had the chicken karaage and the takoyaki, as well as a few other dishes. Everything was good and worth trying. I’d come back here again.

When here last night with my family party of 4. Place is hipe and nice, we came here before 5 pretty much we are at the front of the line. I was so excited since some friend recommend this place with high regard.
We ordered sake flight (3 sake chef selections), chicken karaage, black cod, uni and crab rice, lobster deep fried, smoke duck breast and yaki soba. (I know lots of food for 2 adult and 2 kids)
Here is what I think.
Sake — ok — one of the is junmai ginjo = nice and clean. Next time just gonna order this instead of mix with 2 other junmai.
Chicken karaage — good soft and chewy.
Black cod — great, perfect cut and deep fried.
Uni, tobiko and crab rice — only for the adventurous (very strong)
Deep fried lobster — nothing special — nothing can go wrong with deep fried and lobster. Best seafood ingredient and best method of cooking.
Smoke duct — I am a duck lover and love smoked food (bbq) BUT hate this one. What a bad combination, smoke duct breath is ok but with sauce (I think balsamic vinegrete reduction) it just taste awful.
Yaki soba — Japanese fried noodle. It just a fried noodle.
Disappointed and nothing really special. Maybe I ordered a wrong thing or didn’t go to the right GUU.
Sorry, but not that GUUD.

This is by far my favorite of the Guu locations in the lower mainland. Staff are usually super friendly even if it’s busy and the food is absolutely amazing.
Last night, we (4 females) shared the following;
Negitoro with garlic bread
Salmon with 7 friends
Grilled squid
Mushroom cheese bibimbap
Yakiudon
It was a good portion for us. None of us were stuffed but we were comfortably full. I was pleased with the food as per usual, but unfortunately their service last night was awful.
We had been seated upstairs in the back corner and because of this, we were easily forgotten. Our waters were rarely refilled and our server hadn’t checked in on us at all. We also couldn’t get anybody’s attention when it was time for the bill. Same struggles with trying to pay and getting them to bring over the machine.
Last but not least, the negitoro that we had ordered came 15 – 20 minutes later AFTER we had already finished eating our food. We were pretty confused at that point, but of course, ate it anyway.
Too bad the service was so poor during this visit! They’re usually pretty good. –2 stars for service.

Like many others, I am a total fan of Guu. Though on this particular night, it seemed that Guu just wasn’t up to the challenge of handling large groups. We had a group of approximately 8 people (not the only large table mind you), and were there on a Saturday night — aka tequila night.
So the good news — if you ordered tequila you got it in 10 seconds flat and side note, the spicy calamari was excellent.
The bad news — order anything else there’s a chance you may never get it. One of our dishes in particular arrived at least 20 minutes after everyone got their orders. When it finally came, it was the wrong order.
However, I still love Guu, they have great food, and I love sharing, so I’ll still be back.

I went to GUU a week ago for my Birthday based on WOM and highly rated Unilocal reviews.
We were a party of 9 people and I made a reservation online. There are various GUU locations in Vancouver and the reservation procedures vary from location to location, which I found rather interesting and shows a lack of customer service/​brand consistency. Some were made specifically online and some were call-​in reservations. I made the mistake of calling in a reservation to the Robson (which only accepts online reservation location), as at the time, it was going to be easier for me to make a call then make a reservation online. The lady on the other side did not speak or understand English very well, which was frustrating because we were trying to communicate with each other but we both didn’t understand each other. It got to the point where she just directed me to make the reservation online, BUT what if I called for something other than making a reservation?
I changed the location and decided to go to the Gastown location, as it was going to be easier for me to get it.
When we got there, the hostess was not there to greet us right away. They were extremely busy and were running around. We got seated at the corner table upstairs, which I personally do not like sitting in the corner, as this table usually always get ignored by the serving staff, which happened…
One of my girlfriends changed her order as she did not want a raw egg on her salad, around 60 mins later after we all ate — her meal still did not come! It does say «half-​boiled» on the menu, but the egg looked more on the raw side. There was no serving staff who came by to check up on our meal. My other girlfriend ordered a side of rice and that never came either. Also, one of my friends came later and ordered a soda and it took about 15 – 20 mins for her drink to come as well.
The food was OK, my boyfriend and I ordered the Chicken Kara-​age, which was not crispy and warm. Maybe it was plated and was sitting under the heat lamp? The Sashimi Salad was nothing special, kind of flavourless and there was hardly any sashimi. Rajio’s Sashimi Salad is more flavourful and fresh tasting with an array of sashimi. Then we ordered the Grilled Otokomae (Miso Cod) with Miso dressing was very small and not again there was nothing spectacular about this dish. For $ 12.80, it wasn’t worth it, I could eat this whole thing in 2 bites. I understand that it’s Japanese style tapas, but for that price, I think the delivery of the dish could have been a bit more… even if that meant, just more flavour!
They told us the bill could not be split, so when we went to pay, everyone had to add up their portion — tax and tip. Why exactly we have to do this is obscure to me, as it’s very easy for the waiter to just put a name or line below each order to separate it all.
My girlfriends and my boyfriend made the experience very delightful, but in my opinion this is one of the most overrated dining experience in Vancouver.
Based on this experience, I hesitate to step foot into another GUU establishment because it was more like EWW to me.

Came with a gigantic group once and it great Japanese izakaya! The atmosphere is very lively and I ordered the bibimbap which was quite filling, spicy and delicious! Also got an order of beef croquette which i didn’t love because the meat didn’t have much flavour.

I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this place yet!
Guu with Otokomae is my go to Guu (despite the 3 stars).
It’s super close to the sky train station and is more spacious than the other Guus.
The atmosphere is also pretty different. This one is a little more upscale loungey than the other ones.
This location is a solid 3 stars. The 3 stars come from the nice vibe, the excellent service, and the decent food and drinks. The food here is just OK. Nothing too special. I’ve tried almost everything on their menu and nothing has really made me go WOW! I always get the yaki udon because it is pretty good (especially compared to some of the other menu items). They recently vamped their menu and cut a lot of the plates I liked :(
The drinks here are good. I believe this Guu is the only Guu with daily drink specials but I could be wrong. Sunday and Monday are my favourite nights to drink. Sunday is beer specials and Monday is $ 2 off cocktails! I actually LOVE the cocktails here. Sake mojito is a must everyone!
Good place to come with small or larger group of friends for a fun atmosphere and some drinks. I don’t find the food particularly fantastic but I always end up coming back to this one.

Always packed in the evenings so be sure to call-​in advance or go in early!
This Guu is my favourite out of all of the ones I’ve been to so far in Vancouver. I love their fresh sheets as well as the staples on their main menu. I was slightly surprised at the fact that they’ve updated the menu here into a clipboard. Inconvenient, but not a total deal-​breaker. Now on to the food!
My friend and I started off with a simple beer each. I absolutely love it when a place has Sapporo on tap, so refreshing and never fails to brighten up my day! We ordered the Maguro Tataki and the Salmon with Seven Friends. The tataki was very similiar to the one I had once at Guu Garden, with the ponzu sauce and awesome crispy garlic chips. The salmon was what surprised me! The dish is served cold as a dip and had an assortment of pickled vegetabls, fried garlic and wonton chips, and natto! Initially we were unsure about the natto, but it definitely proved us wrong and the dish was absolutely delightful. Totally wished they had more roasted seaweed for the dip though!
We decided to end of our night with some more drinks and I had the Rose & Tonic from the fresh sheets menu. It was a spinoff on the traditional Gin & Tonic by adding 1 part Rose into the mixture. Man, it was perfect way to end off a light meal at Guu!
I should definitely come here more often!

Definitely an interesting restaurant to try out in Gastown!
I thought I knew Japanese cuisine really well, but everything on the menu was foreign to me but nonetheless intriguing. As an izakaya (Japanese pub), Guu has some cool tapas choices like grilled stingray fins. If you are having a hard time to decide though, you should definitely go for the salmon with seven friends, which is a dish of salmon sashimi cubes mixed with various «condiments» like natto. Think of this as a Japanese fusion cuisine!
While I do not suggest eating a full meal here since each entrée is a bit pricy for its small portion, I do recommend swinging either as a snack stop or a friends hangout to taste some of the most unique Japanese dishes.

Definitely experienced better Japanese joints then this place! I came here on a recent trip to Vancouver with my boyfriend and his brother. I was recommended this place by one of my friends, and boy was I disappointed…
I do not recall what we ordered off the menu, it was eatable, but i’ve definitely had better. In addition, there was a relatively long wait, and the place seemed to be popular. Bottom Line — I will probably not make it back here in the future.

We decided to go in on a Saturday night for a girls night out, and it didn’t turn so great. We called to make reservations no one could understand our request on the phone and put 3 people to then tell us they didn’t do reservations.
When we went in we noticed the menu had changed but as Guu fans we decided to try what was on there. They told us there was a one time charge of $ 2 for tea but it ended up being that every time they refilled our glass– which we didn’t ask for they kept charging.
The food was mediocre and rather cold. I had a chicken teriyaki salad but I wish the chicken would have been fresh, it seemed as though it was sitting there for a bit before they put it on the plate.
We were 5 people which all ordered at the same time, and as supposed to the food arriving all together so we could all eat, each plate arrived individually with more than a 5 minute gap. By the time we could all eat together everyone’s plates was cold.
They refuse to split the bill and asked us to take out our calculator and individually figure out our bills although it was evident from the beginning that everyone would be paying separately.
Not to mention the atmosphere was not as it used to be, the servers will yell really hard which makes it hard to maintain conversation.
We had to ask for the waiter a few times, no one came to check on us although we were a mid size group.

Their chopsticks are printed with «Guu is guuu’d» and boy is that 100% true. Our experience at Guu was top notch from the food to the drinks to the service. We sat at the bar, which turned out to be a great choice since we got to see the bartenders and chefs at work putting finishing touches on some dishes. The drinks are delicious and incorporate Japanese beverages like ramune and calpico as ingredients, which I thought was really cool! The diva, which I had, blended cassis and guava to make an awesome drink, and my dinner buddy really liked the vansky sour that he got.
We wanted to order everything on the menu, but settled on about five things between the two of us, which turned out to be the perfect amount. Our server, who was super nice, explained some of the more unusual dishes to us, which definitely enhanced the experience. One of the plates we got, the «Salmon and Seven Friends,» had a bunch of different ingredients that we mixed together and wrapped in seaweed, so his explanation of how to eat it was really helpful. That dish was also my first time having natto, which I actually loved! Everything we got was incredible, but our favorites were the salmon and seven friends, the prime beef tataki, and the miso-​roasted pork cheek. The slow-​roasted duck breast with tokyo scallion was also delicious, and I’d highly recommend spreading on the pepper paste they provide for a little kick.
Overall, 10/​10, would Guu again.

Guu is one of my favorite restaurant to dine at doesn’t matter which Guu.
As a tip you gotta order the Okonomiyaki, the waiter told us that will be taken off the menu end of June 2015.
I love the décor here it almost like a bar feel but not yet there. As well, The food is fabulous. I have been here many times and not once have they disappointed me. My favorite dishes: the scallop wasabi carpaccio and negitoro pâté with garlic toast. Yummy! As well their dessert are good too. Had the fried banana with coconut ice cream. Its interesting how its separated. But on the positive side at least it slows down the melting process of ice cream.
Love coming here. Will be back

A friend had rave reviews about Guu, so we definitely had to check out this Izakaya while in Gastown! There was a pretty long wait for a table (we didn’t have reservations), but luckily, we were able to get seats at the bar. A server took our coats and umbrella and hung them up in a closet as soon as we were seated. He returned our items to us at the end of our meal. Service was good, but the food was excellent!
Food:
— Sashimi Salad — Assorted sashimi (salmon, yellowtail, etc.) on greens dressed with «guuud» dressing and wasabi mayo. Sashimi was very fresh! I usually don’t like the flavor of wasabi, but the dressing was not overpowering at all.
— Chicken Karaage — Deep-​fried chicken with garlic mayo. Crispy on the outside, and the meat is tender and juicy on the inside.
— Guu Yakiudon — Pan-​fried udon with beef, green onions, and mushrooms, topped with dried bonito flakes and dried seaweed. This dish was very tasty, and I enjoyed the combination of ingredients.
— Hot Stone Bowl Sweets — French baguette, custard sauce, coconut ice cream, blueberry sauce, and chocolate sauce in a hot stone bowl. So yummy! I’ve never had anything like it before, and I can’t wait to eat this dessert again.
Overall, everything we ordered was delicious! I will definitely stop by here again if I happen to be in Vancouver!

Do you want guu’d Japanese food (yes, I know lame)?! Then Guu is the place for you! We came right after it opened on a Saturday night, we figured with all the awesome reviews this place would be packed later in the evening. We chose to sit at the bar since it was wide open, there was only one other couple there.
Now if you’re not accustomed to Izakayas, there’s quite a bit of chatter between the kitchen and the wait staff, so expect it. Guu’s food menu has 7 sections: Sashimi bar, pan fried or grilled, deep fried, carbohydrate, salad, sweet and little dish, plus there is a separate handwritten menu that has their nightly specials (make sure to take a look at it). We ordered the grilled black cod, enoki scallop, spicy agedashi tofu, kimchee udon, the sashimi special, and the banana tempura. I have to say all the dishes were delectable. But the stand out was the grilled black cod (thanks to the bartender around the corner who recommended it), it was melt in the mouth good! And the sashimi special, you have a choice of 3 fish, so we chose scallops, hamachi and UNI for around $ 15 CAD, you can’t beat that deal!
There were so many choices for dishes that we knew we were going to have come back here and not soon enough!

Before our trip to Vancouver, one of my aunts told me I should check out Guu. The roommate and I decided on this location since I thought it would be nice to check out the area after dinner. We got a table by the window with a nice view of Water street.
February 2012
*Beef tataki
*Salmon with seven friends
*Spicy ika
*Sashimi salad
*Chicken karaage
I thought all the food was good. I especially liked the beef tataki and chicken karaage. The tataki was seared nicely and the daikon, ponzu, garlic and green onions balanced each other well. The karaage was perfectly fried and crunchy. If you have anyone in your party that has an aversion to natto, I’d say don’t order the salmon with seven friends. The roommate couldn’t really eat much after that dish arrived due to the smell of the natto.
Great place to go for small plates and to enjoy a view of Gastown.

Great place. Love the food and staff is very friendly. Surprising for a restaurant in a tourist location, but it is true. Go and sample their sashimis.