Sake Bar Kushi

Went to celebrate friend’s b day. We really liked intimate setting. Not like another loud izakaya. Service was attentive but dishes were either hit or miss. Nothing was really standing out. I would give another try if i am in the neighborhood

In my twelve visits to this restaurant I have eaten and enjoyed nearly every item on the menu. The food is always delicious and the servers are attentive and polite. The chef is a thoughtful and genuinely hospitable man who treats his guests and his staff very well. The tall wooden booths provide enough privacy to enjoy a quiet conversation even when Kushi is packed with its many happy guests. Chef and his staff graciously welcome and thank every guest – even following guests outside to bow – no matter the weather or how busy they are.
Featuring Sapporo pints for $ 2.95 after 9pm, exquisitely prepared raw and cooked dishes, and very reasonable food prices every day of the week, you cannot go wrong visiting this restaurant. Warning: one visit may turn you into a regular.

I have been coming here for just about a year now and over the course of at least a dozen dinners here I have never been disappointed.
Upon entering the establishment you are greeted warmly in Japanese by the entire staff. The setting is comfortable and dimly lit and gives you a sense of privacy even when you are sitting at one of the many seats in the middle. Also a little tip, you can put your purse/​bag in the space under your seat as the seat is a hollowed out rectangle.
The food has been consistently great and the chef really takes pride in how every dish is presented. The fish is generously cut and the sushi rice is just perfect. The kushi (skewers) come with your choice of 3 flavours: sea salt, spicy sauce, teriyaki sauce. Keep in mind that Japanese spicy sauce is more on the sweet side so don’t expect much of a sting if spicy is your thing. The skewers are all made to order and taste great. The sake selection is fantastic and they now also offer a special on Sapporo pints for $ 2.95 everyday after 9pm. It really is a great little place for casual drinks and tasty snacks. The service is spectacular and you never feel overlooked as the staff are all very attentive and polite – they crouch at your table whenever they need to take orders or answer questions. On many occasions I have been on the receiving end of complimentary dishes, even on very busy nights!
At the end of the meal they walk you out the door and thank you for coming no matter the weather. They really take hospitality to the next level!

I don’t want to believe it and I don’t want to write it, but Sake Bar Kushi is losing it. I hope they notice and make a change (for the better) because otherwise the trend is undeniable. It is really sad because I loved them before but now anything good remaining is from their early days. Other than those Kushi (meaning skewered items in Japanese) is rolling downhill.
The good (from the early days and still today):
tried hard to create an attractive atmosphere
nice decorations and dark syle
comfortable booths
usually offer free food which is a nice and caring touch
A variety of sake
cool music but not too loud so you can speak and hear
THE SERVICE. welcome you, open the door, walk out with you, bow, excuse themselves when arriving and shout in cool Japanese style
lots of kushi on the menu
The bad (getting worse with every visit) now:
Food is getting strange. I am sure they have changed chefs. Once they had very good Japanese food. Now they have fusion weird tastes instead. They now have oden. It arrived at the table boiling! What? oden is boiling? And it had mushrooms and seaweed inside?! And they forgot to peel the radish’s skin! It was cooked with the skin on! None of these are oden style.
The skewers which were so delicious are now always burnt and have no taste. Er, where is the taste and could you not char everything? Also, we don’t want Korean style hot sauce on everything please stop. Isn’t this a Japanese restaurant?
Fish with ketchup. Seriously salmon and ketchup?
Chicken karaage has lost its taste and really shrunk in size. Two years ago they had great juicy karaage with taste. Now? zero taste.
Generally ask your chef to go back to Japanese style or bring back the original days’ chefs who knew Japanese izakaya menu. If I want fusion Korean hot sauce stuff I know where to go for that.
As you see the best parts of Kushi are leftover traditions from their opening days. Nowadays things are going downhill. I think they have replaced their Japanese front and kitchen staff with non-​Japanese and they are letting the whole things go.

For the pricing u can’t go wrong. very reasonable prices. The food is decent. Service is good. After 9pm there’s a beer special. The sashimi is very good & very fresh. All the portions are small because it is like a tapa restaurant. I liked the grilled cod. The rolls were VERY good.

Awesome! Sake bar kushi is amazing food and always gives things on the house. I was driving so I couldn’t enjoy the 3 $ Sapporo pint after 9pm… sadly.
I got the ebi Mayo, udon and a bunch of other tapas between 4 – 7 $.
I was very happy with the service — they treat you very well here and the food was amazing. Tempura fried edamame on the house.
It’s sad cause it’s located just awkwardly off of yonge and eglinton so it’s not as busy as it should be.

Seems like they try hard but the food was really sub par. Not sure if they were actually cooking fresh meat on the grill, certainly didn’t taste like it. Even the negi tasted off (mushy in the middle).

I went there with my Japanese friends last night. Excellent Japanese style service. Reasonable price. Best of all, not noisy like other Japanese owned Izakaya’s. We can actually talk!!!
I will definitely come back.

My favourite izakaya for these reasons:

–exceptional service here; everyone was extremely friendly and helpful
–the food was great; prepared quickly, priced reasonably, variety of dishes to choose from
–intimate atmosphere; great for catching up with friends or for date night
–large selection of sake!!! Anywhere from $ 11 to $ 100+
For food, we ordered: calamari, chicken karaage, saba, squid, salmon sashimi, ebi mayo, and mochi ice cream. We enjoyed all of them, especially the squid.
For sake, we had hot urakasumi and hot typhoon (it was snowing outside; we needed to warm up!). Urakasumi was very smooth tasting and slightly sweet. Typhoon has a very similar taste to Korean soju (this could be a good or bad thing, depending if you like soju).
Looking forward to trying more different types of sake!

Came here with my family. The service here is wonderful! We even got two dishes on the house!!! They are having the 1,3,5,7 special menu right now, so prices are pretty good for an Izakaya. However, the food is not that good. Some dishes were too bland and some too salty for my taste. My favourite dishes were the tonkotsu ramen and grilled cod in teriyaki sauce. I wanted to try the greentea lava cake but they did not have it:(Overall this place has wonderful service but not great food.

Friendly stuff, nice interior. However, most it food they offered as course A was disappointing.
We were 14 of us. And so, we reserved a big table at the back of the restaurant. They said because it is Izakaya style reservation, we can only choose one of two course menus: A or B. That’s fine if they provide fine food for the price. However, almost 70% of there course food was some kinds of deep fried dishes: chicken, shrimp, squid, you name it. Even dumpling (Gyoza) was fried. Yes, each deep fried dishes might be tasty, but who what to have more than 3 of them in a course?
I expect them to change the menu. Otherwise, I won’t come back for it.

As soon as we walked into this restaurant were greeted by a roar of welcoming voices — (ever so often the staff yell something in Japanese — I have no idea what they are saying but it sounds exciting).
The restaurant itself is very dimly lit with hanging light blubs scattered down the middle. There is a also a large distressed wooden communal table running down the centre of the restaurant towards the bar with a collection of sake bottles acting as a divider down the middle of the table.
Booths line the sides of the restaurant and we are led to one near the front. I love how large and private they all are. Our waiter comes over to greet us and goes over the menu. He is soo polite and respectful kneeling down when talking to us and explaining the menu.
Onto the food. These are all the items we ordered:
Avocado Salad — fresh avocado w/​mixed veg
Loved this dish, I adore avocado, it was super creamy with the tangy dressing a refreshing crisp lettuce
Spicy Salmon Roll — chopped salmon sashimi w/​spicy mayo sauce
Not very spicy but I enjoyed the crunchy tempura bits and fresh salmon
Gyoza — crispy deep fried dumplings
Really crispy golden brown loved the crunchy exterior and juicy filling
Bacon wrapper asparagus skewer —
Really nice smokey charred flavour from the bacon
Yam Tempura — deep fried yam potato
Very crunchy and crispy sweet yam paired with the cool tangy dipping sauce nice contrast
Salmon — grilled salmon w/​teriyaki sauce
Salmon was soo flaky and tender a nice medium rare just the way I like it with a light teriyaki galze
Chicken Karaage — deep fried chicken w/​sea salt
Really crunchy exterior enclosing nice white meat chunks definitely squeeze the lemon over it and roll it in the salt n pepper mixture for extra zing
Vege Yaki Udon — pan fried udon w/​veg & teriyaki sauce
A steaming pile of thick noodles with fresh stir fried vegetables and a nice coating of teriyaki sauce really good
Teriyaki Salmon Tempura
Our waiter brought this complimentary dish over from the cook.
Light crispy coated morsels of salmon in a teriyaki glaze
Bulgogi — marinated beef w/​veg
Loved this dish served on a sizzling plate perfectly cooked tender strips of beef and ample fresh stir fried vegetables
Green Tea Ice cream
A very small portion just one tiny scoop set on top of a crossed chocolate filled pocky sticks topped with whipped cream and a frozen raspberry
Overall I have to say the service here is one of the best, waiters were very friendly and dare I say almost too polite. Food was very fresh and came out in a timely matter and also very affordable (the most expensive dish we ordered was 7.95). If your ever in the mood for some Izakaya I suggest you give this place a try.

We come here every so often, I’m a bit disappoint with the noodles and rice this time, some the udon of bibim noodles are now fully soaked… still dry and chewy. And the rice of salmon teriyaki is hard… like left over. I think the basic of a good Japanese restaurant is to cook perfect rice. But obviously you guys didn’t do it well on plain rice.
I love the lobster tartar and the shrimp mayo.

Came here for a reservation for Valentines Day and we were welcomed with 2 FREE dishes, one was a fried salmon and the other, oddly, was a dessert. I did kinda wish that they saved the dessert towards the end of the meal though cause it was kinda weird eating that so early on.
We decided to go all out for this special day (we were splitting the bill to give ourselves greater freedom and less guilt from ordering) so we got the skewer combo, mentaiko carbonara (MY FAVOURITE. THIS IS DA BOMB), chicken ramen, grilled mackerel and perhaps one other dish that I don’t recall at the moment. We ordered all this presuming that portions are the same as other izakayas which are incredibly small and not filling. We were wrong. The things we ordered was all a solid entrée size with the mackerel being a fairly large appetizer. In a nutshell, this means you can actually be full without breaking the bank hear! Bonus pts for sure.
I also really like the privacy you get here. The booths are built in a way in which you feel separated from the rest of the restaurant. You don’t have to worry about being neglected though cause the wait staff makes a big effort to check up on you often.
One thing that is slightly uncomfortable is that they may be toooo polite. As a slightly socially awkward person I don’t know how to react when I’m bombarded with so much niceness. Even when we left, our server ran out after us to say bye. Sure it’s generally a plus, but it can get tiring for introverts like myself.
Overall though I would love to return especially on the days where they do half off specials and such!

Sake Bar Kushi has this most amazing and friendly staff. 5 Star for service.
I love the cozy and dark interior.
I really want to give it a higher rating than 3 star but the food was just a little disappointing.
We shared:
Sashimi Moriawase 55 pcs ($ 55) 50% off Wednesday
— The fish selection though interesting but a lot of the pieces did not taste fresh.
— some of the sashimi was a little dry and some a little warm
— I won’t be happy if I have to pay $ 55 for that but it is 50% off on Wednesday but still I expect good quality fish!
Kushi Moriawase 10 pcs ($ 17)
— If you do not like pork belly, don’t order this! Even though the menu states that it is a combination of Chicken, Fish, Heart and Pork Belly but out of the 10 skewer at last 4 of them were pork belly…
— It was served almost the same time as our Sashimi Platter and of course the food got a little cold while we were eating our sashimi… and cold pork belly did not taste good.
— Better off just order a la carte off the menu and enjoy my food slowly!
Sapporo for $ 5.50 a pint and other drinks though are quite reasonably priced! And of course great selection of sake!
I probably would come back and give Sake Bar Kushi another try. Maybe Tuesday for their Kushi special. But definitely won’t be ordering sashimi or the kushi platter though.

LOVE the wooden interior of the place. The booths are very roomy, and it’s a bit dark but was appropriate for the establishment.
The staff are very polite and the service was excellent. We were even walked out to door when leaving.
We had a Groupon, so we got a chance to try lots of different variety of dishes. Overall, it was delicious but nothing spectacular nor dissapointing. The portions are a bit small, and they use quite a bit of mayo on most of their fried dishes.
I would return since it’s close to work, but would take advantage of their daily specials next time I go.

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very Good 5: Excellent
Food: 4
Service: 4
Ambiance: 5
Overall: 4.5
Extra information:
* Open for dinner and late night
* Closed for lunch
* Takes reservation
* Happy hour
* Good for large parties
I first found out about Sake Bar Kushi on facebook when my friend ‘liked’ their page and it showed up on my feed. It was when they just opened and were offering really good deals which I can’t remember now cause it’s been awhile.
I’ve been meaning to check it out but since it was a trip for me to take the subway up to Eglington, it just kind of lingered on my ‘go to’ list for awhile.
When I first walked into Sake Bar Kushi, I was surprised by how spacious the restaurant was. They had communal bar table in the middle of restaurant, individual blocked off tables to both sides and a huge party room at the back! I was impressed. and then I realized this is Eglington, not downtown. Ok, then that makes a little more sense.
Anyways, it is hard to find a izakaya so spacious that can cater to a large group, so I was pleasantly surprised to see their party room at the back that can hold up to 50 people. Baby shower? Bridal shower? Birthday dinners? good thing to know they don’t have a minimum charge for the awesome party room they have.
Throughout the week Sake Bar Kushi always has specials so that is also something to look out for.
Ordered: Spinach Gomaee ⁴⁄₅
Blanched spinach with sesame sauce for $ 4, this seems like it is such a simple salad but so easy to mess up. This was a nice way to start my dinner, the spinach was blanched just right (not too soggy) covered in yummy peanut sauce
Ordered: Avocado Salad ⁵⁄₅
Fresh sliced avocado with mixed vegetables for $ 5. Avocado with sriracha is one of my favorite things to eat right now– no wonder I loved this salad. It is just simple and I really liked the light tangy dressing.
Ordered: Ebi Mayo ³⁄₅
Deep fried prawn served with mustard mayo sauce for $ 7. This was def different compared to other ebi mayo, the batter was almost like mochi texture (very sticky) and not crispy at all. I thought it was a little weird but my friend liked it nontheless.
Ordered: Cheese Okonomiyaki ⁴⁄₅
Japanese pancake with cheese for $ 7, your ordinary Okonomiyaki but covered in cheese! It was a lot of cheesy goodness and for some reason it didn’t even feel too heavy at all. Perfect dish to pair with ice cold beer for sure!
Ordered: Tuna Tataki ⁵⁄₅
Lightly seared tuna sashimi and green onion, garlic chip with ponzu sauce for $ 12. This was my favorite dish out of everything I’ve tried that night– Tuna was covered in tangy ponzu sauce and that deep fried garlic on top really added flavor to this simple dish, I loved it so much I probably finished most of it.
Ordered: Kimchi Pork Ishiyaki BiBimBab ⁵⁄₅
Steamed rice with pan fried kimchi and pork on sizzling stone bowl for $ 9. I know all of you out there loooooove BiBimBab, but not me! You will never ever find me ordering that at Korean restaurants, but this Japanese-​Korean fusion BiBimBab really blew my mind. It has pork belly. how can it go wrong? It’s a nice dish to share and make sure to get some of those crispy bits on the bottom of stone bowl.
Ordered: Kushi Moriawase ⁴⁄₅
Skewers with chicken heart, shishamo, pork belly and chicken leg with teriyaki/​spicy/​seasalt sauce for $ 14. They offer 3 different types of sauce for their kushi (skewers) and spicy was my absolute favorite. Spicy porkbelly and spicy chicken leg would go perfect with beer. Be adventurous when ordering skewers, they offer so many different kinds.
Ordered: Mocha Ice Cake ³⁄₅
Green tea cake with icecream, January special for $ 8. This is only offered in January so it’s not something you can find on their regular menu. It was a nice way to end a meal.
Summary: I am so glad I made the trip to check out Sake Bar Kushi cause I absolutely love them. They offer good, quality food and did I mention the service was exceptional? All of the servers were super friendly and even though our table was hidden away in a corner, they were always around when I needed something.
It is a little bit of a walk from Eglington Subway station, but I would def be visiting Sake Bar Kushi again. I can’t wait to go back and sit down for a nice dinner with some sake! Thanks for an awesome meal :)

I have been meaning to try Sake Bar Kushi (also known as Kushi Izakaya) since they first opened but never made it due to it’s not so ideal location. Last weekend, I was so lucky to be invited to try their new and improved menu and I was more than thrilled to oblige.
As we walk in, we immediately felt in love with all the wooden booths and the long communal table in the middle with the sake bottles as dividers. The booths really gave dinner some privacy and the whole place was pretty quite unlike most izakaya.
Always love izakaya menu, love the square format. Here’s the sake list and there’s quite a bit of variety with different price point. Quite a few of my faves available.
Spinach Gomaae
~ blanched spinach w/​sesame sauce
~ Love how this had just the perfect amount of sauce/​dressing and it was light a not overly salty.
~ I must have tried so many places where it’s drenched in overly salty sauce. This was perfect.
Ebi Mayo
~ Deep Fried prawn served with mustard mayo sauce
~ Tasty but wish it was the whole shrimp with the shell still on. It’s way more tastier.
Draft Sake Shiboritate 180ml
~ Personally not my fave sake, will def choose something else
Pork Belly & Chicken Leg Skewers
~ one each w/​sea salt & terriyaki sauce
~ Have to say that we were both disappointed with these skewers, it was rather dry and bland.
~ The one with the terriyaki sauce was a bit better since it gave them a bit of moisture and flavors.
Kodako Karaage
~ Deep Fried Baby Octopus served w/​chilli mayo
~ Love this, wish more restaurant would served these.
~ Nothing better than deep fried dishes while drinking (^_​^)
~ Perfectly crispy thin batter with perfectly tender baby octopus.
Grilled Squid
~ charcoal grilled squid with terriyaki sauce
~ You can definitely taste the difference when it’s charcoal grilled and this was also perfectly cooked. So intense, full of that yummy charcoal smokey flavor.
Cheese Okonomiyaki
~ Deliciously addictive, topped with huge amount of bonito flakes (Katsuobushi) and the perfectly crispy slightly burnt bottom.
Bulgogi Ishiyaki Bibimbab
~ steamed rice with marinated beef and vegetable in sizzling stone bowl
~ Ben made the mistake of pouring all the sauce in at once and it was way too much.
~ Unlike the Korean version, their sauce is less salty and a bit on the sour side.
Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich
~ Instead of the usual cookie, they use thin steam boa which was very appropriate and gave it an Asian Japanese flare.
~ But although I like the idea, I find that the bao lack the crunch that’s much needed in an ice cream sandwich.
A big room at the back which is perfect for bigger group
Verdict:
~ Loved it, although we didn’t like the skewers everything else was pretty perfect.
~ Will def come back to try the rest of the dishes and have some of my fave sake.
~ The service was more than perfect, all the staff was incredibly attentive, friendly & always had a big smile on their faces.

I had dinner here last night and I was impressed! We were seated in the back room where you take off your shoes and sit at tables where you can either cross your legs or place your legs under the table where there’s a lower compartment so you can just sit normally.
We ordered:
Saikora steak — yum! but you gotta eat it warm
Takoyaki — was too mushy
Salmon tataki — ponzu sauce could use some work, it was too bland
Bibimbap with kimchi and pork — yum! and a very large portion compared to Guu
Kinmon (sp?) sake — mild warm sake that was recommended by the waitress that was perfect for our taste
Skewers $ 2 each!!! — scallop, whole fish (no idea what it’s called), pork belly (yum!), kushi chicken, chicken skin, shrimp, asparagus with bacon. You can get these with either teriyaki sauce or sea salt. I recommend the sea salt as it really brings out the flavour of the skewer compared to the teriyaki sauce which overpowered it. Also, order the skewers as you want to eat them as they get cold quickly.
Salmon tempura salad — on the house! Such a nice surprise! You know everything tastes better when its free hahahaha… but really, this was good as well. Not outstanding but a delicious surprise that we finished even though we were stuffed.
The service here was awesome! Our waitress, Mau, was very cheerful and accomodating. When I asked her if the sake was warm since she brought it out in the bottle, she quickly brought me a bucket of warm water to keep it in. And when we left the hostess came out of the restaurant to bow to us! My boyfriend thought she was chasing us down but was surprised when she came out into the cold, bowed 90 degrees and cheerfully said «thank you for coming!». Honestly, I would probably come back just for the awesome service alone, you just don’t get that anymore at moderately priced places — keep up the good work Kushi!

I just came back from dinner here and it’s a four star in my books!
Parking — There is no parking lot, but there’s street parking and Green P spots along Eglinton.
Décor — This place looks like an izakaya in Japan (maybe even a cleaner one). All the memorabilia is a great touch as well. Washrooms here are super clean.
Food — The most important part to my dining experiences! I really enjoyed the food here. The menu has a lot of choices, including some unique dishes. The saikoro steak was delicious. Skewers were a hit as well, including the Negima and Hotate.
Pricing — Quite reasonable for what you get.
Good for: drinks, groups, dinner, Japanese tapas