Arisu

Will never eat here again. BBQ burned too fast with food sticking to grill pan. Food just ok. Service also just ok. Will not return.

The Good:
— Extensive menu of Korean and Japanese cuisine
— Combos
— Service
— Daily specials
— Quality of meat
The Bad:
— Grill got burnt too fast — changed grills at least 5 – 6 times
— Kimchi tasted watered down
— No ventilation
— Quantity of meat
It was quiet here on a Sunday night at 6pm when we first arrived. My first thought was — wow, there’s too much food to choose from. But we went with the Better Together — BBQ & Sushi Combo For 2.
At the price of $ 79.99, it came with: Arisu Beef Short Ribs Galbi + Boneless Ribs + Bulgogi + Assorted Tempura + 6pcs assorted sushi + 4 pcs assorted sashimi + your choice of dragon maki roll (black/​green/​red) + ssam (veggie wrap) + dessert drink + miso soup + rice + banchans.
I started off with a red ginseng tea, which was very interesting and very different from Chinese ginseng. The salmon sashimi’s cut was too thick, but all the other sushi and the black dragon roll was good (they had red tuna). And then the table cooking! For $ 79.99 you would have thought that the meat portion would be a lot bigger. Anyways, the meat were all perfectly cut. Nice and thin. Yes, some of you would be like. the thicker the better! It’s so small! Well. no. It actually tastes a lot better thin. The quality of the meat was really good. Especially the bulgogi. Marinated to perfection — not too salty and not too bland. If you’re looking to stuff your mouth full of meat, you’re better off going to an AYCE Korean bbq restaurant. But I guarantee the meat texture and taste will not be the same. The only thing I want to complain about is that the grill got burnt TOO fast! We cooked 4 pieces of meat and the center got all burnt within a few seconds. We had to change our grill 5 – 6 times. Luckily, the servers were amazingly nice and attentive every time and offered to change the grill before we even asked them to. Service ⁵⁄₅ right there! There were quite a bit of banchans — peanut, cucumber, kimchi, tofu, and bean sprouts. I was kinda disappointed at the kimchi. It tasted very watered down, which made me question — are authentic Korean kimchi supposed to taste watered down?! I’m assuming not. Finally, the dessert drinks — cinnamon punch. O_​O… It wasn’t disgusting. but it wasn’t amazing. It literally was just …[dot dot dot]. An eye opener drink. A taste I’ve never had. Apparently cinnamon punch is a traditional Korean fruit punch. Hm, interesting. Well, I certainly don’t know how to drink it but I’m sure a lot of other people would love it.
Overall, we had a good time. The food was good, but unfortunately it didn’t wow me enough to make me want to drive the distance to come back again. Perhaps if I happen to be in the area then yes, I would go back.

Arisu is definitely one of my favorite restaurants out there.
They truly embrace the exquisite, authentic Korean cuisine and try to share their culture with their customers. The waitstaff are extremely kind and patient and are willing to teach you new things about Korean culture. For example, one of the waitstaff taught me about the «bomb» soju.
Some of the other reviews complain about the price. But I strongly feel that Arisu is 100% worth the investment. The food and waitstaff are much better than any other restaurant I’ve been to. I highly recommend this restaurant to everybody out there.

Service was phenomenal, our waitress was very patient and informative with the menu.
I was excited to try the Bibimbap Salad with Spicy Sashimi. It was a plate of veggies with a handful of diced fish and sliced crab with a bottle of «spicy sauce». Not really worth $ 16.99 but it was surprisingly filling.
The bento boxes were also very good! The bulgogi was delicious.
The food is quite expensive, but it’s worth the quality. They have an extensive menu and I am looking forward to come back to try something new.

Arisu is absolutely my favorite Korean restaurant.
As a Korean myself, it’s really disappointing to see there are only few «real» Korean bbq places in Toronto, You will be surprised to know how many «Fake» Korean restaurants in the city; mostly owned or cooked by non-​koreans. Arisu is one of those only few authentic Korean place.
My favorite is Arisu combo, comes with about 5 different kinds of meats, rice, many different side dishes and stew. I have been to this place with Canadian friends many times and everyone loved it.
I see some bad reviews left here complaining about the food price. DON’T LISTEN TO THEM!
Yes, the food price is about 10 to 15% more expensive than other tiny korean places; not sure if I can even consider those restaurants. Bill comes about $ 15 – 20 if you are having individual meals for dinner, $ 25 – 35 per person if you are having bbq.
YES, it is slightly more expensive but it’s not fair to compare them.
It’s like complaining about price of top sirloin or angus burger at a fine restaurant comparing with fastfood. It’s just like saying «Why is this burger $ 15? I can get big mac meal for 10 at McDonalds». This is not a place if you are looking for a $ 8 lunch and expect to finish your meal in 15 min and leave. It’s rather a place you want to go to have a fine Korean food, and definitely one of the places I go with a date.
In my opinion, every penny is worth. Only slightly more expensive but the food quaility and friendly service, the atmosphere are so much better it is not even fare to compare with other restaurants in town.
Myscore
Food 4.5÷5
service ⁵⁄₅
Atmosphere ⁵⁄₅

I got the Summerlicious set menu, was incredibly mediocre especially considering the price. The dessert was pretty but haphazard with too many flavours and textures that didn’t go together.

This restaurant is incredibly pricey compared to other restaurants in the area. The portions are also a lot smaller for the same food menu. My boyfriend got the spicy chicken sizzling pot which came with a bit of rice on the side and some sides. We also got the kimchi potato pancake which was also small, looked like 6 small sushi rolls, and didn’t have that same crispy texture as other restaurants do. I ordered a citrus tea and two small (rather tiny) fruit platters. Our bill came to about $ 50.00 which was crazy!
The service in the beginning was good, but we had to wait a while to get their attention. The servers are constantly speed walking around the restaurant, rarely checking back with customers if they need anything else, which feels like I’m eating in the middle of a cross walk.

I don’t know what some of bad reviews were all about. This place freakin’ rocks.
The place looks pretty damn cool from the outside, and on the inside it’s clean though the layout is a bit awkward as it wasn’t as spacious as I thought it was going to be. The restaurant seems to be divided into two sections, and we were seated at the back, which I would recommend as it was slightly roomier than the front. Regardless, I was hooked the moment I was informed that this is a smoke-​free Korean BBQ. You read that right, that means I could wear non-​grubby clothing and actually be half-​presentable when dining with friends here, because I don’t have to be afraid that of that smoke smell that would ruin my clothing. That earns one full star just from that.
Service was very nice and polite. Informative too! Everytime we didn’t understand something, they provided a succinct explanation on what to do/​what a certain item was. We ordered many dishes, but the most memorable was actually a dish called ssam bap, which is essentially like a lettuce wrap, filled with purple rice (delicious!) and grilled pork (stupidly delicious!) with some soybean-​based sauce. Try it, I’ve personally never had this anywhere else and I really liked it. The wife had more than she would care to admit, proof that it was awesome.
The Korean BBQ itself was very good. I actually am one of those who thought that the meat in KBBQ is always marinated. While the marinated ribs we ordered were actually super good, I would highly recommend the unseasoned beef. Cook it until it’s JUST ready, and dip into the restaurant’s sesame oil dip (mixed with black pepper and salt). The taste was so good that I crave it even now. It’s not the heavy, overseasoned flavour one normally expects (which I actually love too), but more of a pure, meaty flavour that wasn’t overpowering. Enveloped with the smoothness of the sesame oil, it was out of this world. I PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE HAD MORE.
Finally, we also ordered sushi, which was fresh and tasty, but I feel like we should’ve gotten the Arisu-​style ones because, as we ordered the regular ones, they were just like the sushi you’d find at any decent Japanese place. Nothing unique, though certainly nothing wrong with them at all.
They apparently also participate in Winterlicious and Summerlicious, so that’s some highfalootin’ pedigree right there. I am definitely coming back to this place. As the autographed photo of PSY (yes, he did come here with his entourage) says in the back «This time, it’s ARISU STYLE!»
Freakin’ loved it. You have to come here for the Korean BBQ.

I decided to take my friends here since one of them from Japanese food, and the others want Korean food.
From my past experiences, Arisu’s food are usually over salted or too saucy, same as this time. But all of us enjoyed our food. The miso soup was so salty none of us finish ours, it also tasted different from other miso soups. The only con of the night was the family with kids sitting beside us. Their kids were loud. I understand they are kids, but would be nice if the parents try to quiet them down.
I like arisu, but the food is a bit on the pricy side comparing to other restaurants that offer the same dishes. Arisu makes better Korean dishes than Japanese dishes, they have very nice menu for stone pot, lots of options. Good food but not stunning.
3.5 for the food.
4 for service
4 for environment

Was probably a 3.5 stars. Mackerel wasn’t a whole fish and was oversalted. They had nice seats and tableware for kids so that was great.
They didn’t let us order a noodle dish that came with raw fish because they said they were out. yet they had a sushi cooler full of fish, so that didn’t make sense.
They have the button on the table for service, so that’s always nice. Overall service was great.

I almost forgot to write reviews of this restaurant. My friend and I came there for summerlicious and all choices come from lunch menu. To be honest, it was not bad but such price can have more delicious and greater portion of Korean food in other places nearby.
The arisu sushi was the best of all dishes, it looked really beautiful and tasted yummy too. But other dishes were a little disappointed. Cold noodle was ok, pancake was only two small pieces, dessert was tasteless and seaweed salad just like package food in supermarket.
The service was not bad because there were few tables of customers in lunchtime. I would not come back, more better choices in Korean town.

[UPDATED REVIEW!!!] So I recently wrote a review for this place and rated it 3 stars but my recent experience has made me so angry that I just had to write an update.
I came here with a bunch of friends for the bison & kobe platter. Since it was recommended for 2 people only, we decided to order 2 platters so there would be enough for everyone. We were given tiny (like half the size of the palm of your hand) pieces of beef which were FROZEN, unmarinated, unseasoned. There was not enough meat for the 5 of us, I don’t even think this would’ve been suitable for 2 people. If I wanted this trash I would’ve just cooked my own frozen meat for a fraction of the price.
The platter was also supposed to come with a miso soup, rice, and veggie wraps. The waiter «forgot» to bring all of these items. I put forgot in quotation marks because on my last visit he also forgot a lot of our items. We had to call the waiter back twice before we were given the miso soup and rice. However, we were only given 1 miso soup and 2 bowls of rice which is incorrect. We SHOULD’VE received 2 miso soups and 4 bowls of rice since we ordered TWO platters instead of just one. As for the veggie wraps, we found 2 shrivelled up pieces of lettuce on the plate (covered in beef blood)… do I need to say more?
After we were done cooking the meat but still cooking the onions, the waiter came and turned off our grill… even though we were still cooking. We later tried to call again for the veggie wraps (seeing as they only gave us 2 pieces of lettuce instead of 4) but we were ignored.
Finally when another waitress came to give us the bill she had the audacity to ask us for a tip and then mutter to her coworkers in a less than friendly tone when we politely refused and explained the situation to her.
TLDR: Spent $ 130 a tiny platter of frozen unmarinated meat. Served dried up leaves covered in blood. Waitor forgot dishes that came with the order. Left hungry and disappointed. DONT GO HERE FOR KBBQ.

If you ever want kbbq DO NOT COME TO ARISU!!!
My friends and I were looking for a place where we could enjoy some nice korean barbeque and we thought arisu would be a very nice place where we could satisfy our cravings. But spoiler alert it did not. I dont remember the exact platter name we ordered but we ordered 2 rounds of it since it was only meant to be for 2 people. Well when our meat finally came, it was frozen. yeah thats right FROZEN. with no marinade or anything. There wasn’t even that much meat, i mean for the price that they were charging us we we’re expecting a lot more, & we deserved a lot more for paying 100+ $$ for basically 2 pieces of beef.
Another thing that was just what the fuck was, in our little platter thing that we ordered it said that it came with veggie wraps yeah veggie wraps my ass they were 2 limp pieces of lettuce covered in the blood of the frozen beef that was slowly defrosting. smfh Oh and guess what they forgot our fricking rice, like what kind of service is that even. The only thing that we actually enjoyed was this spicy soup that they brought us but even that came in like a font size 0.1 bowl. ((I may have exaggerated that but for everything else I swear to you I am not.)
Oh when we had to pay the bill, the fricking waitress wanted a tip, uHM HELLO i do not think so, i get ur tryna make the mula but i aint wasting even more of my money tipping people who didnt even give me good service. bYE
Do not make the mistake by coming here for bbq, im sure there are many places that serve delicious bbq for under 100 $. We left with a lot of regrets. Im sure they have other great food but i honestly dont recommend the platters for the bbq. TRUST ME OK esp if ur ballin on a budget.

Great choices for Korean AND Japanese food. Make sure to have reservation if you want to do Korean BBQ though.
Best deal is the $ 0.99 per oyster on Mondays and Tuesdays. Max 6 per person but good quality oysters. So good for an after work bite if you are in the area.

If you are open minded like me and always look for something different, go to this place. I have dined at Arisu many times and have always been very satisfied. Not like other typical Korean restaurants that only have limited choices, there are surprising amount of selections at Arisu.
The food is fresh and the presentation is beyond expectation. Everything is delicious and the portion is just decent. Servers are very friendly. Overall this place is a delightful experience. Its my must go place whenever I am in the area.
My favorite is the spicy sashimi bibimbap. It just tastes so good and looks very healthy. Their seafood lover combo is also pretty good but you might not be able to finish all of them yourself.

There are a ton of choices for Korean food on Bloor street, Arisu stands out with its snazzy façade. They prepared a delicious veggie bibimbap, and I found the staff to be particularly friendly and knowledgable.
Good food, excellent service.

I had been here last year and wasn’t too impressed but came back again for my birthday this year and was pleasantly surprised. The staff was really friendly, the waitress my friends and I had was so adorable. We were taking a group photo and she just popped in the background! Best photo! haha
They had a special for birthdays which was sparkling wine and sushi pizza. I had never had sushi pizza so I was really excited to try this. SO. DAMN. GOOD. Definitely order this if you like raw salmon and crispy rice! The sparkling wine was really tasty as well. I couldn’t pinpoint the flavour but it was a mixture of some fruit sparkling wines.
I had ordered the sashimi bibimbap which came with a surprising amount of lettuce. The sashimi was really good, it was cut up into smaller pieces than I’m used to and I think I prefer larger slices. I also ordered a kimchi pancake and this place has one of the best Korean pancakes I’ve tried. Korean is one of my favourite cuisines and kimchi pancakes are one of my favourite dishes, so I’ve tried a lot of them. My other friends enjoyed their food as well.
For my dish+appetizer and a bottle of soju, it cost me ~$ 50
For dessert we got the FBI (delicious) and the Bingsu, I was really excited to try this because I had been lusting after it for quite a while and it did not disappoint. It is now one of my favourite dessert dishes (TRY IT!). Shaved ice topped with sweet red beans, candied fruit swimming in condensed milk. Are you salivating yet?
It’s a little more pricey than the mom and pop shops you’ll find nearby but the décor and environment are also a lot nicer.

3.5÷5, +.5 for service
Arisu was my only Winterlicious stop this year, and it was certainly worth it.
I came in with a large group of 12 people, and we were accommodated quickly and efficiently. Both the Winterlicious menu and the regular menu were offered that night, so there were a huge assortment of choices available for our large party. After careful thought, I stuck with the Winterlicious options. I had the Japanese pork belly, Seoul-​style sushi and maki roll, and the yuja cha + mochi ice cream.
Despite it not shown on the menu, the waitress gave us all complimentary miso soup, as some of us ordered from the regular menu and the waitress figured we should all have the starter soup regardless, which was definitely nice of her! The pork belly was decent, however the portions were a little smaller than I anticipated as I somewhat expected 1 – 2 more pieces. What started out as slight disappointment was eradicated when I saw the Seoul style sushi and maki roll… they were some of the most unique sushis I’ve seen! To make it even better, they tasted delicious! Definitely some of the best sushi I’ve had for the price point. Finally, the mochi ice cream tasted very good, but I could’ve done without the yuja cha.
Service, as outlined already, was excellent, and our large party was attended to the whole way. With the relatively excellent food here as well, I will definitely return.

A friend and I decided to go to Arisu for Winterlicious dinner since he had previously gone before and had a pleasant experience. I know they left him with a bad impression after this time.
What I ordered: mung bean jelly bites for appetizer, which was served with kimchi, mushrooms, chives and Yuzu dressing. This was basically the only good dish in the entire meal. For my main course, I had veggie delight dinner box which was subpar. It’s good that this restaurant has vegetarian options, but it was too drab. For dessert, I had red bean porridge with rice flour dumplings.
Well, it was supposed to come with rice flour dumplings but there weren’t any. Seated on an uncomfortable bench and did not offer us to change to a booth seat when there was an available one even though I asked. The most infuriating thing about the entire night was the service. Waitress asked if I wanted the dessert to come when the main course had just arrived. Who eats dessert when their main course just arrived? So I said no, it should come later. Then another waiter comes and tells us to let them know when to bring out the dessert. My dinner partner and I kept getting the feeling that they wanted us to leave. I’m certain two hours for a Winterlicious dinner is not a long time. Why should we be in a hurry when the entire restaurant wasn’t even full? Then the waitress brings out the dessert and starts collecting our utensils and main course when we didn’t even ask her to! What the hell is that! To top it off, when giving change, we gave her two $ 50 bills and the change was two $ 20 bills, a loonie and a quarter. How do you expect us to give you tips? Good idea, we should leave you the loonie and quarter right? Because there’s no way we would leave you the 20. However, I’m not mean to servers even when they offer really bad service, so we still paid around 10%. Your fault we did not tip above because of how you gave us the money, not everyone carries spare change around. Terrible experience, do not go! This restaurant should not participate in any Licious events ever again. I will not be returning.

Came in today with 2 co-​workers on our lunch. I ordered the Curry Chicken Bento Box. Probably the best tasting items on a bento box I ever had. Came with miso soup on the side (can’t go wrong with Miso). Curry chicken was a chicken breast with curry on top and sliced vegetables (peppers, mushrooms, onions, etc.) Delicious! Real white chicken breast too not «pretend chicken» lol
Small portion of rice which was perfect as that’s all one needs. 2 really delicious dumplings; a small portion of salad (nothing to write home about); 3 California rolls (not bad).
ON the table, they put a few dishes for us to share (little portions of Kimchi, another little portion of bean sprouts; tofu; wheatgrass, fish portion). Very nice addition to our plates.
Overall, Great meal, great service and quick. Best part for me was the delicious chicken breast.