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.

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!

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.

Food was amazing, fun to try lots of different things. Pretty expensive for an AYCE but the food is…read moreso good so it's worth it for a special occasion. Service was insanely fast, ambience was casual and fast.

Jinzakaya and Kinka Izakaya are Waterloo staples - 5 years ago, I savoured every chance I got to…read moreeat at these restaurants! Still amazing AYCE spots, but I'm probably just not built to take full advantage of the massive menu here. We came around lunch time and ordered the dinner menu, since there are a couple cannot-be-missed dishes that aren't on the lunch menu. Their strength compared to other AYCE restaurants is definitely their non-sushi options - the carpaccio, skewers, grilled shrimp, steamed egg, and beef roll with enoki mushroom are some of my favourites. I think the only thing that gives me pause is the price tag - $40.99 is a lot, especially for a student. You would have to really stuff yourself to make that value worth it. I do wish they had a couple of the chef favourites on the lunch menu so that people trying to have a cheaper meal could also try those items. Overall, it's probably still the best AYCE sushi in Waterloo. The quality is great and the dishes are tasty. Service was also pretty good, they have you write your order on a paper. I think one or two items were missed but we had no issue with following up on them.

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!

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...

the tonkatsu is top notch. portions are generous. friendly staff. not too busy either…read more you get options for noodles and the menu is straightforward

Came to Waterloo for the first time to visit family. They reccomended this spot, and I wish they…read morehadn't. The restaurant was empty and dingy. The server had a lot of trouble taking our order, and mispronounced the names of the menu items. Also, they were out of some of the items we ordered. Chicken Karage: Surprised by how juicy the meat was. The coating was just alright, but the chicken was good. Sukiyaki Beef Don: Bad. The egg was stringy and somehow dry. The miso soup was bland. Worst of all, the sukiyaki was doused in sauce and was too salty.

Ordered the suicide ramen expecting a nice slice. Although the noodles were flavorful, they were…read morenot at all spicy and I wished they were. The restaurant was a cozy, clean space with a friendly owner. Would come back to try something else.

Amazing place, delicious food too! You must try their ramens, the broth is extreamly rich and…read moreflavourful, sweet and salty, magnifique!!! Service is wonderful, even if you are coming for the first time you feel as all the staff knows you. They treat you with care and friendliness, it makes you feel welcomed. The restaurant has a charming small family owned business, that to me makes it even more valuable. Big hearts and big plates!!

*4.5* stars This…read morerestaurant has a very unique taste and dishes that aren't really seen anywhere else in the KW region (not that I'm aware of at least!) I saw it on Ubereats and saw there was a BOGO going on so I ordered it. I was pleasantly surprised at the complexity and variety of dishes they had! If you crave Asian food, I definitely recommend this place. This place seems to primarily be for hotpot, but I can understand with covid it's harder to see that side right now. Nonetheless, they have many options outside their hotpot as well. I got the seafood with vermecilli noodles for my partner and a Mala spice with fish noodles for myself. The beef pho was a BOGO option so I got them for tomorrow's meal. (the BOGO list was quite limited). They were delicious and I found the portion sizing to be quite nice! The soup was very very flavorful and hits the spot. Again something that I haven't found in the KW area at all until now and would crave (since it can be found commonly back home in Toronto) Packaging, wait time and everything was fine. Why it's not a perfect score is because of its price point. It's a lot pricier than some other places. Their primary feature is hotpot and noodles. The hotpot options seemed fairly nice but there's also a few other hotpot places just around the corner too. With the noodles, you can get the same large portion (but different noodle type, same richness in broth though) for half the price that they set it at here. I personally see this place as somewhere I'd get ever so often, or special occasions only. For student prices, I'd probably look to go elsewhere. However, you can't deny how good their broth is, so it's not a big enough deal to knock off a star completely.

I stopped by MoMo for lunch with a coworker. They had a lot of free tables available compared to…read moreother nearby restaurants, but had many customers picking up orders to go. Once seated, you look at a tablet to browse through their menu items and place your order directly on the tablet. We ordered the Seafood Udon, Pork Chasu Ramen, and Takoyaki. I was very impressed with the ramen. It was a much tastier and thicker broth compared to some ramen chains restaurants nearby. The seafood udon had an amazing smell, and my coworker loved the noodle quality in his dish. The service was quick and timely, and I would revisit again.

Restaurant near university campus. It was clean and had a few tables with 2 larger tables that…read morecould seat up to 6 people. Many menu items were not available the day I went. We ordered their donburi and it tasted okay but had way too much sauce. Prices are a bit expensive, it was around $22 after tax and tip

Home made, fresh and spotless location…read more My friend put me on to this restaurant. I'm told the owners are very selective about the source of their seafood to ensure it is top quality and not just another sushi factory. I ordered the 12 piece + salad for lunch. The price was under $15. Also impressive was the salad. The home made dressing was really interesting. Light and fresh. A very nice couple who run this business. Will return.

I came here with a friend around 8 pm and the place was empty. But the ratings were good so we…read morewalked in. I ordered shrimp tempura and shrimp fried rice. The tempura felt like it was friend a bit too long. The shrimp in the shrimp friend rice looked uncooked on the inside (transparent color). When I complained to our server there about the transparent inside part of the shrimp, he told me it was cooked perfectly and that's how shrimp is supposed to be cooked. The rice was also a bit too oily. Overall, I did not feel very healthy eating and so left without finishing the meal.