Gushi

Perfect snack for winter. A bit spicy and sweet. Did I mention there was fried chicken?! The purple rice was the perfect vehicle for this.

Ah-​mazing. Ordered through Über Eats and it was spectacular. Juicy chicken with spicy mayo with delicious purple rice. Thoroughly worth it, excited to try the rest of the menu!

Looking for Japanese street vendor food? Then look no further! Four words: This place is awesome! I had the liberty of trying this place during my lunch break; courtesy of my boss. Since then, I’ve been here twice! Gushi is one of those street vendors you would see at those Asian night markets. Out of all the street vendor foods I have tried in my life so far, this one is by far the best one ever! They also have bench tables for you to sit if you decide to eat there (outside). Let’s talk about the food!
There are three categories of food: Meals, Snacks, and Sides/​Dessert. The meals come in a portable box container. My top two favourite meals are the Gushi Original Meal for $ 6.86+tax and the Nanban Tetsuya Meal for $ 7.30+tax! If you’re a first-​time Gushi eater, I recommend the Gushi Original Meal. It comes with Gushi chicken, purple rice, sesame dressing, spicy mayo, pickled ginger, green onions, and nanami pepper. The Nanban Tetsuya Meal is recommended by the cook! It comes with Gushi chicken, purple rice, citrus vinegar sauce, aioli mayo, pickled onions, green onions, and nanami pepper. Other meals include the Japanese Curry Meal for $ 8.40+tax, Japanese Vegetable Curry Meal for $ 6.86+tax, Okonomiyaki Style Meal for $ 7.30+tax, Gushi Supreme Combo for $ 10.18+tax, and Gushi Curry Combo for $ 11.73+tax. All Meals have the option of Extras and Add-​Ons such as ordering Extra Rice or Extra Chicken (2pcs) and adding a side/​dessert such as Edamame, Green Tea Cheesecake or Mango Cheesecake. Extra Rice is $ 0.75, Extra Chicken (2pcs) is $ 2.50, and the Add-​Ons are all $ 2.65.
I haven’t tried the Snacks yet but based on the menu you can order Takoyaki (octopus balls, 6pcs) for $ 5.30+tax, Hotdog on Rice for $ 4.86+tax, and Gushi Chicken ($ 9+tax for 5pcs, $ 17+tax for 10pcs, or $ 30+tax for 17pcs). For the Sides/​Dessert, you can get Edamame for $ 2.88+tax, Cheesecake for $ 2.88+tax, and Seaweed Salad for $ 2.65+tax.
I’m a huge fan of Gushi and I hope they expand all over Toronto! It’s a bit far from my workplace considering I have to take the streetcar but definitely worth it!
Gushi is also in collaboration with Grabb so if you ever want to order takeout from your phone, don’t hesitate to use the Grabb Mobile App!

Tried their chicken a couple times at various Night Markets. They got some serious chicken game! It was moist and perfectly cooked, and served piping hot. A bit of Sriracha mayo and some pickled goodness made this a perfect snack between vendors. Haven’t been to their small outpost on Dundas yet but I am sure we will meet again.

If you like chicken, you have to go here! The sauces are a great addition. This is by far one of the best chicken karaage in downtown. This is exactly how karaage should be, not like the sad imposters at most «Japanese» places here. I am so glad that real Japanese food is slowly seeping into Toronto, and for anyone looking to try uncomplicated, fast, cooked Japanese food, try these guys!

had their hot dog meal and gushi chicken meal. each entrée came with bed of purple rice and spicy mayo drizzle, green onion sprinkles and ginger. Great, crispy and juicy chicken with it’s special flavoring. hot dog meal was OK. my bf loved it. but we both gave ¹⁰⁄₁₀ for gushi chicken.

Saw the highly-​rated reviews so went to try it out. Ordered the Gushi Chicken Box 5 pieces for $ 9. Order comes with spicy mayo and soy sauce. Chicken was juicy and flavourful. The sauces did nothing to improve it. There’s nothing spectacular about it and not worth the hype. Pretty hard to mess up fried chicken using dark meat.
Came to check out the hype. But honestly I would not come back. $ 9 for 5 small pieces of average chicken? It was a bit too much. Overpriced basic fried chicken. Hence the two stars.

This place is amazing! I come here several times a month. Their chicken is so tender but chrispy and the purple rice just compliments the chicken :) the person who usually works there is also very friendly. The service is consistent and the food is always good. The price is fair. Always a gushi fan!

The Gushi chicken is undeniably a fantastic snack food, made to order and good flavour. Not the best fried chicken I’ve had but still delicious. They use dark meat so each bite is tender with a bit of melted fat.
There are two picnic tables out front.

I tried Gushi at ROM’S FNL, they were one of the food vendors. They were swarmed with people (it was a very busy Halloween night at FNL), so my review would probably be different if they hadn’t been so busy. I tried the Karaage Chicken Sushi Sandwich (Fried Chicken in sushi rice and wrapped in seaweed). The chicken wasn’t crispy, the rice was undercooked, and it didn’t taste good. I know being a busy food vendor is difficult, so I feel bad giving them only 1 star, but hopefully next time they’ll be more prepared for bigger crowds.

Event: DT Food Date. Bf @ I travelled all over downtown on a hot summer day to try out different restaurants & food.
Location: Wasn’t too hard to find. It’s by the streets with a few other carts.
Food: YUM! Japanese street food. Ordered a Gushi Chicken Skewer ($ 6). It was fairly big (definitely worth $ 6). The chicken was crispy and juicy. The sauce made it even better –drools– is it just me or does it taste better here than at Night Market?!

I was part of a friend’s birthday food tour and this was stop 3 of 6.
First time trying Japanese style street food and I always liked karaage. Never been to the mini-​stalls by Bathurst and Dundas before so I was surprized by the diversity of choice offered.
I eventually settled for the original Gushi chicken meal with the spicy mayo and sesame vinaigrette. The karaage was fried nicely with the batter a golden brown on the outside (although I wish it was a wee bit crispier) while the chicken nugget inside was kept juicy and moist. It went well with the spicy mayo that was drizzled on top to give it some kick.
My only niggle with this meal was the purple rice. It was warm but kinda packed down into the box but lacked any seasoning.

Gushi is one of those standout names that have pop up stands at every Japanese event across the city. Doing traditional street fare like katsu and takoyaki they also have a few other interesting bits like deep fried hot dogs and curries. There’s not much here aside from great food and friendly staff, and you’ll find not much in terms of seating unless it’s summer and the community center puts out extra chairs and benches. Sometimes you’ll find that the meat is really fatty, I’ve had one occasion where the chicken katsu here was easily 30% cartilage and fat at one point. Aside from that it’s usually a great time. Decent quick bare-​bones food that is bound to please most.

Gushi specializes in karaage chicken, which is a Japanese style fried chicken so most of their dishes will contain their specialty. I have tried their Gushi original and skewer, my next choice would probably be takoyaki as the ones I have in Toronto so far have been quite disappointing.
*Gushi Original — $ 7.25:
to be honest I’m not a fan of deep fried chicken, but I will always have a soft spot for chicken karaage. Unlike other versions of deep fried chicken, karaage is not greasy and will not make you feel gross or drowned in oil afterwards. The chicken karaage at gushi achieved just that, it was juicy with a crispy-​light surface, while still remained succulent when cold.
The purple rice was alright, I found it to be cold and hard to eat :(. The rice can be bland for some people, however the karaage had a right amount of salt in the seasonings, with a hint of spiciness from the mayo sauce, when eaten in one bite it was a delicious combination! Although they didn’t give me any lemon wedges, there was some ginger to refresh your palate so I can forgive that! :p
*Gushi Chicken Skewer — $ 6:
The skewer was longer than an iPhone 6 Plus! (Yes sorry for the weird comparison, but I can’t think of any other object to compare to lol).
Again, the skewer was juicy and delicious! I wished they served this with some lemon because I loveeee squeezing a liberal amount of lemon before eating karaage ;). It really helps to lighten the dish and kill any kind of gaminess of the chicken.

Food was edible… but that’s about it. I had very high hopes for this food stand based on Unilocal reviews, and I ordered the fried chicken as well as the fried hot dog. The hot dog was okay… could have used some more mayonnaise and had a bit of an odd aftertaste, but it was fine. The rice, however, was bitter, slightly crunchy, and had a very unpleasant aftertaste. The chicken was also very tough, and some parts were nearly impossible to chew. Overall this was a very disappointing experience and I wouldn’t return.

Great idea, street food from Japan, just outside the awesome gigantic pool at Scadding Court Community Center near Dundas and Bathurst. There’s nothing like a swim in the sunshine to give you an appetite and Gushi is right there for an impulse snack on your way back out onto the streetcar. Served up in a cool portable package, just like in Japan, a craft paper box with printed logo along with good quality Japanese disposable chopsticks, and the chicken is crunchy good, smothered in some tasty toppings like shredded ginger, ymmmy! It’s all on top of a bed of red rice which is tasty as well. so go for a swim and grab a box of Gushi chicken to eat while you watch the world go by sitting on Dundas at a picnic table. $ 7.

Stumbled upon some photos of juicy fried chicken on Instagram; it was love at first sight. I logged into Unilocal to find out where Gushi was exactly located and decided to go a few days later. It’s a food stand so don’t expect a sit-​down restaurant; there are some picnic benches along Dundas though. I have been twice so far and each time there has been one person working the stand. This results in waiting times to be usually a minimum of ten minutes. The fried chicken is quite good so it’s worth the wait. For a box of chicken over purple rice, it’ll cost you eight dollars and something cents. You can add a few dollars for a larger box; I opted for this option the second time I went as I found the regular sized box to be a little small for me. Worth checking out for unique dishes that use Japanese fries chicken (karaage). Both the Original and Nanban Tetsuya are delicious.
Good for: street meat, Japanese fried chicken

3.5 stars**
Two months of buzzing past the same row of Market 707 Cargo Street Vendors on the 505 streetcar since June 2013, I’ve finally made my way up here upon a mate’s craving for mayo and rice (and you better bet he went for an extra drizzle of mayo).
Good ol’ Gushi.
Their menu is mainly focused around their all-​time popular Deep-​fried to order, Gushi Chicken on either rice or fries ($ 8~9). Their Deep-​fried Chicken uses NO eggs or dairy in the process; they are dusted lightly in a potato starch for minimum oil-​absorption and the ultimate crisp!
**A box of the deep-​fried chicken goods alone runs for $ 9, and a party pack runs for $ 25.
LIFE’S BIGGEST PICKLE: one hotdog (on rice) for $ 3 or two hotdogs on rice for $ 5!!!
I went for the less greedier option, and had one (sheesh, who was I trying to impress?) — but, no regrets, it was just enough! The boil-​and-​go type of hotdog was served up, battered and fried-​to-​order, on a bed of mixed rice and garnishes.
CONCLUSION: Get ready to become well-​fed for well under $ 10! …But, sad to say, both definitely needed more sauce (and exra sauce is extra $$ whhaat). I AM THE DANG KEWPIE MAYO QUEEN. Didn’t you know? I would like to come back to try another one of their more flavoursome Gushi Chicken. I have my eye on the Nanban Tetsuya.
** Tip for the penny-​pincher folks: The prices on the billboard in-​store do not reflect the correct price, the online menu does!

On a summer day its great to sit outside on the communal picnic tables, it has a really great community feeling to it. The staff usually 2 girls are nice the few times I went.
Their deep fried hot dog is junk food goodness. Panko crusted, with spicy mayo and scallions on top — Cant really go wrong with that. Their fried chicken skewers are the best though, large meaty chunks that come our really crispy and hot, its a must get!
I also tried their curry with fried chicken — the cripsyness is completely gone and drowned by the curry. The curry did have good flavour but felt a bit box like. It came with little diced vegetables and purple rice. A large box is $ 12 with 6 pcs of chicken, its not bad but not great either.

Ordered their original chicken with rice as well as their Nanban chicken with rice.
Decided later to also add in takoyaki to the order.
The girl who was working there however, (not sure if it is part of worker training) I tend to watch those preparing my food with a certain attention. Throughout the whole time she was preparing our food she did not wear any gloves. I also noticed that she moved a dirty garbage bin and a dirty bin underneath it after to grab paper but did not wash her hands (nor did she wash her hands before preparing our food prior either). She used her hands to grab scallions/​takoyaki toppings etc (at least could have used chopsticks or tongs). It kind of did not sit well with me, it was just not proper hygienic food handling.
I am not trying to discourage anyone from trying their food however just noting what I saw. I’m just going to assume that her hands were clean to keep myself from over thinking.
Their food took a bit to prepare but the girl was very nice and we got it to go. The Nanban was the best in my opinion. It had the most flavour as well as the rice was a nice change (purple/​red grain rice). The Takoyaki was taken out from the freezer and clearly bought from the asian grocery store due to the packaging. It wasn’t worth the price, have had better. I would definitely come back for their chicken & rice but walk away when they prepare it (not hating).