My BF is an alum of UWaterloo and said this was his favorite spot while he was there, so it was a…read moremust-stop on our trip. And I can see why it was his favorite. Love the vibes, very casual, and the server was really friendly too. She was super enthusiastic when our group requested sake bombs. This was my first time going to an AYCE izakaya, and it made me wish there was one where I live. The highlight was definitely the beef teriyaki - comes out sizzling hot. The chicken teriyaki felt sad in comparison lol. Sushi was pretty good quality as well. Melona bars to top off the night! Would come back here always if I was in the area.

Let me state up front that the food is great. It's fresh and there's a good selection…read more My reason for giving 3 stars is the choice of seating and the service. We went as a group of 7 with a reservation. For some reason, instead of seating a larger group at the stand alone (but combinable tables) at the front of the restaurant, they decided to sit us at a booth that holds six with the +1 in a chair in the pathway to the bathroom. Ordering food is done on 2 pieces of paper - one for sushi and one for all the other food. Unlike many other AYCE restaurants, there is no description of the food and there's no iPad to see a photo of what you might be ordering. It makes it very difficult to select, and the waiters are really not around to ask questions. They wanted all 7 of us to use the single paper. I explained to the waiter that I wasn't at a restaurant to do math and add up all the pieces and orders and go person by person. Could we possibly get a second set of papers so we could split the table into 2 groups? Yes, but with great difficulty. The food started to come. Overall, very fast from paper to food. So, where did they put the food? Right in front of me as one if the people sitting at the end. They would place plate after plate in front of me. Often with no explanation of what food it was. Apparently, it is the person at the end of the table's job to announce the food and identify the person(s) who it belongs to. So, with the number of dishes ordered, there was little opportunity for me to eat. There was also no place for me to place my food on the table in front of me. It was beyond frustrating. Along the way, they began forgetting to deliver food that was ordered and they began delivering food we did not order. I believe the restaurant should have placed us at the tables at the front of the restaurant. All large groups would benefit front this and all would be able to enjoy the food.

Such a nice place!!! The owners were honestly so sweet and welcoming, which made the whole…read moreexperience even better. The ramen was absolutely delicious (definitely up there in the top spots in the GTA for sure). The broth was rich and flavorful, and the noodles had the perfect texture. My friends and I also tried the dumplings, and they were just as good. So fresh, juicy, and satisfying. The vibe of the restaurant is small and cozy, which makes it feel really warm and inviting, but it does get busy (a sign of how good the food is). Even with the rush, it still felt fun and lively inside. The decor is simple but cute.

Four of us came by here as one of the kids goes to Guelph U. The service here is prompt even tho…read morethey have just one server. I appreciated that they accommodated my request of no extra sauce on my dish. The rest got ramen. We also added dumplings and tofu to share. We were all very happy with the food. It was delish and clearly prepared with care. The place is clean, it was noisy when we first got there as it was 75% full, so keep that in mind if you are noise-sensitive.

I've only ordered this home but it has always been a hit. The fish is fresh, the rice is well made,…read moreand it always looks presentable. It's not an all you can eat so you know you're getting solid quality for price.

Great sushi and fair prices! For Guelph, this is a great spot when you're craving Japanese. Rolls…read morehave good amount of fish and staff are really friendly. Keep in mind it's takeout only :)

We came here for lunch on a Tuesday and ordered the salmon lover bento ($22) which also came with…read moremiso soup, the watami on king roll ($18) and the rice paper roll ($12). The salmon was fresh and we loved the uniqueness of the rice paper rolls, however I was a bit disappointed at it only coming with 4 pieces. The service was quick and friendly and we loved the atmosphere and ambiance of the restaurant. Definitely a great spot to check out in Uptown, though a bit more pricey than some other sushi spots.

Went with a Japanese co-worker to try this place. I felt like I was stepping into a restaurant in…read moreNagoya or Tokyo. Very authentic experience. They even greeted my co-worker in Japanese. But fear not, their English is perfect as well! The menu itself is very straight-forward. Appetizers and sushi rolls, some nigiri, and a modest selection of entrees. We started with appetizers - chicken karaage and gindara (grilled miso black cod). Both were delicious! First time I had tried gindara - would absolutely get that again. For my entree, I ordered their katsu don, which is a deep fried pork cutlet served over mixed rice with veggies and fried egg with a dashi sauce. Very good! We split a couple of pots of green tea for drinks. The tea had a wonderful subtle flavor. For dessert, we tried red bean pancakes with vanilla ice cream. So good! The service was very good, and I found the price very reasonable. Would absolutely try this one again!

I believe Izna replaced Kenzo Ramen (there's also an Izna Donburi in town.)…read more The Tonkotsu ramen is $13.95 and...it's not the greatest. The noodles are super skinny, but chewy. Broth is creamy--not bad, but not great. Both the egg and the meat were pretty cold when the bowl arrived at my table. Thankfully, I dipped both in the broth to warm it up. Staff are friendly, but I'd rather try the newly-opened Asakusa in the same plaza next time...

I remember going to this place when it was still called Izna. The menu looked the same so I decided…read moreto get my go to order. It tasted a bit different this time around but still pretty good. Unfortunately, they didn't give as much pork in the Tonkotsu Ramen as I liked for $14.95. The wait was also pretty long when I went around 6:30pm (had to wait around 30-40mins) so definitely recommend calling them ahead of time to order. The staff were nice though so definitely will come back and try some of their other stuff!

Nothing about this place was good... we came in, didn't have a reservation, but the front desk…read moreattendant said it would only be a 5-10 minute wait. The manager, Emily, for whatever reason, refused to seat us. She was only interesting in seating large groups of people. We ended up waiting closer to 30 minutes. The show wasn't bad but the food was not good. The fried rice tasted strange, the chicken had 0 seasoning, the veggies had no seasoning. The only thing that tasted decent was the shrimp. The drinks were also not good. I definitely won't be recommending this place to anyone.

The Restaurant was very nice., The Ambiance was inviting and fun . The customer service was…read moreexcellent, staff were very attentive and helpful .. The food was delicious and prepared with an experienced chef that made the whole experience fun for everyone! ..

The food here is so good! You need to try this place if you like good East Asian good! There is…read morequite a selection and the owner is amazing!

The food was so amazing and the staff? Even better! Also the anime stickers on the wall really add…read moreto the vibe! They made a mistake saying 2 adults 2 seniors but it was supposed to be 1 adult and 2 seniors but they fixed it even before we complained! And we couldn't finish and they said " don't worry about it have a happy new year" then talked about how they liked a certain dessert and those staff were so nice and was a great experience! Would definitely come back when in town!

Good experience overall. My son & I stumbled upon this place while driving around looking for…read moresomewhere to eat with decent ratings (I would give it a mid four... 4.5 to be exact... we need some intermediate marking options Yelp!). Here's why: PROS: Location - off a main road, easy to find, parking is free Menu options - Good selection of items Taste & Presentation of food - Very good... food was tasty (with the exception of the Pad Thai in my opinion) and the seafood was fresh. Portions were good too. Service - Very attentive, quick and professional staff; conversation toward the end made them even better! Value - Price for all you can eat was very reasonable, worth it if you ask me! CONS: Ambiance - Floor was slippery (literally the entire floor surface, as though it had buildup of substance, it was odd.). Also the seating and general look of the place is quite old & outdated. IN SUMMARY: Overall ambiance is a factor in deciding on a restaurant, but is more important to me for a special occasion or on date night. When I dine out, taste, service and value are what mean the most to me. As for this restaurant, I would for sure go back! It's a great little local spot. As I upload the pics I'm also getting hungry again and that's always a good sign!!!

We were excited to try the Waterloo location since we love going to Gyubee in Toronto. However, we…read morewere quite disappointed after our experience this past week eating here. It wasn't a full house but there were a decent amount of customers dining in for lunch service. All the other locations I've been to in Toronto, their service is quick and efficient and we would receive everything we ordered in a timely manner. The Waterloo location - the service is slow, we are constantly trying to get servers attention to order, our items would either be missing or delayed for a while before coming, and some of our orders would come out in very small portions. For example, we would order 5 orders of a miso marinated beef plate but only 1 order would come out. Or we would order sushi but it would not come out until after we placed a few more orders ~30-40 minutes. We would ask and follow up about it but our server would say the chef probably forgot and then re-order for us. We would end up getting both the first and second order, so double the sushi when we only wanted 1. This not only happened once, but twice and we had to eat more sushi than we wanted. For the small meat portions, we asked why the portion is so small for 5 orders, the servers would respond that the kitchen only gives out one order at a time and we need to keep flagging our server to enter more later. But this was not how other Gyubee locations do it, we would receive all 5 orders at once. Also, it is a hassle for us customers having to call our servers constantly to order more - one at a time. Very inefficient for the servers. Our other servers didn't even inform us about this when we would say 5 orders of the item. Until we confronted a different server, they told us that's how the system works at their location. Our group was thinking maybe this location does it so that customers would end up eating less because they are waiting around for their order to come out more than cooking their meats. When changing the grills, they looked inexperienced as they were struggling to hold the old dirty one. Oils would drip down into our waters and food during the change. The food was decent but we did notice the quality went down - less sauce on the meats and the thicker cut beef was a bit tough. After our poor experience here, I'm not sure if we would go back to this location. Hoping they can improve on their service to provide customers and servers a better experience.

Lots of options for their lunch menu and pretty quick turn around on providing the meats and side…read moredishes. Service was pretty poor, we had placed 4 orders of their black deluxe sushi which not a single one came, though we saw them bring to other tables. Near the end, the meat cuts were half the size and had too much fat for my liking.