Bistro A Un

Food is very decent for the area! My shrimp were lil too salty but good nonetheless. One star missing because it lacks a bit of the usual Japanese hospitality. Perhaps if you are Japanese you might get a better service.

I absolutely loooove A*Un!
The atmosphere is so calming, the lights are dim, the place itself is small and feels very cozy. I usually sit at the counter to grab a couple drinks and a meal. The bartenders are so nice! One time one of the girls was worried if she made my drink too strong, and offered to put some umeshu on the side to weaken it. So sweet!
My biggest recommendations would be any of the omurice, the poke, the fried cheese, and the ahi steak! They are all sooo good and the poke especially is a great otsumami :)
If you’re looking for a relaxing, intimate dinner this place is one of the best.

Omurice, omurice, omurice! If you only remember one thing about this place, remember the omurice!
What makes this place a great spot is the low key atmosphere. It’s fairly quiet, so there’s no need to shout over each other to be heard. The staff is friendly and attentive. The food is interesting, if not delicious. If you enjoy lemon, this is the place for you. They give you a slice of lemon with virtually all of their dishes. Fried chicken? Lemon. Asparagus wrapped Bacon roll? Lemon. Water? Doesn’t come with lemon, but I’m sure if you asked…
Ready for omurice talk? So far, I’ve had the beef and mushroom omurice, which I devoured. No joke. I’ve also tried the Shrimp and Spinach Omurice that my friend ordered, it was ohhhh soooo goooood! Finally, they also have a Pork Cutlet Omurice which is their simplest one, with the egg over the rice and the pork cutlet on the side. I’ve not tried that one, but I’ve been told that it’s good as a gateway to introduce someone to the world of omurice.

This is a quick update on their happy hour that the hubs and I tried this weekend. Happy Hour is Mon-​Fri, 6 – 9 pm and nothing is over $ 4.00! That alone probably deserves 5 stars!
For $ 3, you can get: beer, edamame, cucumber with miso, cold tofu, cheese platter, marinated asparagus and french fries.
For $ 3.50 you can get: deep fried fish cake, deep fried tofu agedashi.
For $ 4.00 you can get: fried chicken and fried cheese.
Not to shabby huh? For our fried fest, we ordered the fried tofu, fried fishcake and the fried chicken. We also ordered okonomiyaki thinking that the happy hour items would be small plates and not enough food, but we ended up canceling the okonomiyaki since the portions of the happy hour items were pretty generous (for two people at least). The tofu was a little chewy and there were no bonito flakes and only a little bit of daikon, but we liked the fried fishcake and the fried chicken. That was a whole lot of fried stuff, so if we go again, we should probably try to balance it out with some veggies, perhaps ;o)
One of the cheapest happy hours out there, for some pretty decent food. You won’t be blown away, but at least you’ll be glad that you didn’t blow savings!

I LOVE A UN! =)
This is by far my favorite place to go after a long day at work. They are open Monday thru Sunday 6pm to 2am. I prefer to go on weekdays so its not too crowded. Weekends tend to get busy so I try to avoid those days.
A Un is located in the middle of Mccully shopping center. It’s a rather small bistro but I think that’s what I like most about it. It seats about 20 people. The first time I went here I felt like this was just a hidden gem in the middle of Mccully shopping center.
Very comfortable atmosphere. My boyfriend and I personally like sitting at the bar in the little corner. I don’t know why but I feel that’s just our spot ;)
The food always comes out great. Compliments to the chef! We always order different things when we come here. I think so far my favorite is the fish collar. I like to be simple I guess. The calamari is also a good eat in my opinion! The Hamburger steak has a great presentation and taste good as well!

I had been looking forward to trying out Bistro A Un because 1. I loveee Japanese food more than anything 2. Its so close to my house.
Chris M and I met to have dinner before attending the Unilocal Elite event at ING café. She wasn’t that hungry so we only got a few dishes which turned out to be a good idea because I was still able to stuff my face at the event.
I had been craving okonomiyaki so I ordered that and we got a miso eggplant (nasu no dengaku) and an agedashi tofu which was $ 3.50 on the happy hour menu.
They had a pretty extensive menu, ranging from everything from omurice, spinach bacon, escargot, to tomato and mozz.
Everything we ordered was okay, but nothing outstanding.
The agedashi tofu was probably the best item. Although the outter layer of the tofu was a little thick, I liked the tofu and the dashi they paired it with, could be a little sweeter but I’m not complaining seeing at it was so cheap. It came with 6 pieces of tofu.
I love miso eggplant, my mom used to always make it for me when I came home from college. Although they didn’t skimp on the miso, it was SO OILY. I could have easily gotten full off of three of these. There was 2 slices in the dish.
The okonimiyaki was another okay dish. They need to stop being lazy and cut the cabbage into smaller slices or buy a food processor. It was as if my okonomiyaki was crunchy. They told us it had shrimp, pork, and scallops but I never saw any scallops. For $ 10 it was a pretty good value since I took it home and ate it the next day.
The service was decent too, although our waitress was pretty attentive she lacked any personality and was like a robot to us. She was super nice to the regulars though and actually talked to them.
The three dishes came out to $ 20. I might come back to try some other dishes but I don’t have too high of expectations, sorry.
Unilocal 365: ¹⁸⁵⁄₃₆₅

(G) reat food and atmosphere here
® eally noisy in here most times
(E) verything on the menu here is amazingly good
(A) hi Tartare… YUM
(T) he Garlic Steak is to die for
(L) ove the Sauteed Spinach with Bacon too
(A) sahi Beer with this food is a perfect match
(T) he menu offers a variety of thing to choose from
(E) ating here with a large group is ideal
(N) ighly specials available as well
(I) try to come here at least once a week
(G) otta try the escargot… so delicious
(H) amachi Kama… WINNING!
(T) he cheese plate was just… plain
(D) runk and happy when i leave this place
(I) see a lot of Japanese tourists here too
(N) ever empty here. always crowded
(I) wish this place was a little bigger though
(N) eed to try the Ankake Friedrice… A MUST ORDER!!!
(G) igantgic portions here… NO!!!
(A) diverse menu is what makes me happy
(T) he pasta dishes are divine
(B) ottle of Crown Royal is only $ 85 bucks!!!
(I) love the mentaiko pasta…
(S) eafood Gratin is out of this world
(T) he portions here are just right. if you are a skinny japanese tourist
® ave a bout this place all the time
(O) pen daily from 6:00pm to 2:00am
(A) t McCully Shopping Center is where they are located
(U) nique items on the menu that you dont see at most places
(N) ever had a bad dining and drinking experience here ever!!!
Here a just a few of the items i just LOVE here at Bistro A-​Un:
Escargot:
Garlic Steak:
Seafood Gratin:

It’s a quaint little place in McCully shopping center. I guess you could order your own food, but this place is more like a order lots and let’s all share kinda place. So it’s good for groups.
The flavor is good too. They even have happy hour til 9 pm!
Unilocal 365 Challenge #325/​365

Bistro A Un
… is a tiny izukaya Japanese bar hidden in the busy McCully Shopping Center. It is situated on the first floor, dead center behind the elevator. At max Bistro A Un can hold up to 30 people. Friends and I come here often on the weekends or after work. I don’t know why we keep coming back to this place!!! There’s nothing special other than we have a bottle there. There’s no attractive women, just old ones. The crowd is quite old, maybe between the ages of 30 to 40-​year-​olds. Not my kind of crowd (if you know what I mean). On very rare occasions, a group of hotties may walk in, but very rare.
I’m guessing my friends like this place because its quiet and quite close to where everyone lives. To me, I prefer lively & loud crowds with tons of women to talk to, flirt with, or creep on (I’m playin on the last one,. I have a GF, sorry ladies). I still can check out though… haha!
Anyway, food is decent, small in portions, and kinda expensive. We normally order the tofu, Karaage Chicken, Edamame, Ahi Poke, Seared Ahi sliced with Ponzu sauce, Alcohol, never really tried anything than our bottle of Ichiko. (10^th bottle FREE btw). Offers a full bar, so I’m sure they can make all the common mix drinks.
Service is great. Ice bucket always filled. Turn times on the food is quick, don’t have to wait too long for food to be served. Classic Japanese services so expect to be well taken care of.
Décor, dark and intimate. Windows always kept down. Only came at night so idk the hours of op, but they close at 2 in the AM.

A hidden gem located on the first floor of the McCully Shopping Center (the parking sucks big time at this place!). If you’re not looking for it, you will definitely walk past it’s dimly lit entrance. I have to admit that the use of shower curtains on their windows also was a deterrent. My friend Derek is a regular here and keeps raving about their food (their fresh monkfish liver & foie gras in particular), so I decided to give it a shot.
***They no longer offer foie gras… sniff…****
This restaurant/​bar is pretty small & narrow in architecture. There’s limited seatings with only a handful of tables (a couple 2-​seaters and a bigger long table for a larger group of 6 or more). There’s also a bar area that you can dine at as well.
Reservations are highly recommended to insure that you have a table.
Open for lunch Mon-​Fri, 11am-​2pm
Dinner/​bar: daily 6pm-​2am
Happy Hour runs from Mon-​Fri, 6−9pm.
$ 3 Sapporo drafts
$ 4 house red & white wines
A few of their menu items are also avail for a couple bucks off during happy hour.
Kenny F. & I only ordered a few items, we were short on time. I did enjoy a couple dishes, while a couple other items flopped.
TUNA STEAK WITH PONZU ($ 10.95):
The ahi is seasoned with just the right amount of cajun spice and seared beautifully.
It’s served with a shredded daikon salad and additional slices of cucumbers & red radishes.
The ponzu sauce had the right about of acid, bringing out the sweetness of the fresh ahi. YUM!
Pic of ahi steak prior to saucing (they serve the ponzu sauce on the side). Isn’t it beautiful?!
After the ponzu sauce is drizzled over:
SPINACH & BACON ($ 5.50):
The sauteed spinach is smokey & tender (but not overcooked) and went nicely with the pieces of bacon. At first glance, this dish was obviously very greasy, but it was tasty! I would order it again.
Now the dishes that we didn’t like so much…
FRIED CHICKEN ($ 4 during happy hour, $ 5.25 reg):
The chicken was seasoned & cooked to the right doneness on the inside.
But the batter was hard and greasy on the outside, while still doughy on the inside.
I would’ve liked some sort of sauce with this dish to help with the blandness.
FRIED OCTOPUS ($ 5.25):
Lightly floured and fried. LOVE fried tako so I liked this dish, despite it being a bit overcooked. Like the chicken dish, I wished there was some sort of sipping sauce to go with this… like a garlic aioli of some sort.
DEEP FRIED TOFU WITH SOY DASHI (a bad attempt on Agedashi Tofu, $ 4 happy hour, $ 4.95 reg):
Served with sliced daikon & red radish.
The tofu was very dense and lacked any sort of seasoning. The soy dashi was also flavorless.
**dipping the tofu into the ahi steak’s ponzu helped**
COD ROE PASTA ($ 9.95):
Kenny and I are huge fans of Genius Lounge’s Tarako/​Mentaiko Pasto, we’ve been craving it for a while. You bet we were happy to see this on the menu! We looked at each other right away and said «let’s compare!!»
The pasta came looking delicious with tons of cod roe (more than the amount given at Genius!). The pasta was cooked to a perfect al dente, but it was greasy and flavorless.
Yes, despite having way more cod roe in their pasta — this dish was bland! There was no salt in it. Just greasy pasta. Seems as though the quality of their salted cod roe is not as good as Genius Lounge’s.
Close up of pasta:
I will probably return to try out more of their other items. It’s a nice place to hang out and have a few drinks. Their male bartender is pretty friendly & serves stiff drinks, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth in alcohol.
The extra star is for the good service and Tuna Steak dish.

Izakayas are my thing. This one is small, comfortable, and we can usually walk in without a reservation. The menu features what I call Japanese comfort food — nothing fancy — just basic.
My favorites include the deep fried stuffed lotus root, the old-​style tsukemono, and the pan fried noodles (yum!). I’ve also had the pastas, omurice and the other yaki-​skewers (asparagus wrapped with bacon, chicken) which are also good in a homestyle kind of way.
However, being a fan of red wine, I have to mention that the wine list is not memorable — next time I go, I’ll ask about corkage. But since it’s an izakaya, I really should stick to beer and sake.

If you walk to fast you probably wouldn’t notice it. A un is right next to coffee and tea and infront of the elevator. I came here a couple of times a few years ago and totally forgot what was good.
When we got here it was pretty busy but there was one table open. This restaurant is pretty small and could probably fit only 5 – 6 parties if you don’t sit at the bar. It is usually filled with Japanese customers who come after work and chill. Keep in mind there is only 1 – 2 workers so service might be difficult to receive excellent service. But they provided pretty okay service.
The menu is pretty plain with no pictures so we don’t really know how the food looks like other than Unilocal.We ordered the bacon asparagus roll, beef and mushroom omurice, tuna steak with ponzu sauce, and okonomiyaki.
The bacon asparagus rolls and beef and mushroom omurice was whatevers, I didn’t really care for it. Don’t get me wrong it was good and I ate it all but it didn’t really taste special (probably something I could make at home). The tuna steak and okonomiyaki was pretty damn good though. The tuna steak is lightly grilled on the top and raw in the middle. The outer layer had lot of ground pepper which made the steak kick a little. But the more I ate the more tastier it got. The okonomiyaki was delish as well. It was glazed in mayo which sounds pretty unhealthy right now but at the time it was so good. Even though it had squid in it and I’m allergic it was still worth it.
The bill came out to $ 40 which was not bad for two people. I would probably come here again but not often. It’s also great for a late night eatery if you want more fancier food.

Hi, can I just say one thing?
I (#*%@(%($*#$#-ing LOVE this place!
The food is DERICIOUS! portions are somewhat small, but I can live with it because the taste is excellent! (I may just be biased because I love the way food cooked by Japanese people taste lol). If you’re looking for a small cozy spot to eat good food and have a few drinks, this is the place! I honestly can’t believe I didn’t come here sooner.
Some recommended items:
Pork Kimchi
Eggplant Gratin (REALLY good!)
Menchi Katsu
Renkon no Hasamiage (dunno the English translation lol)
Other items:
Okonomiyaki
Natto Omelette
Crab cream croquette
Bacon Asparagus
Escargot in cheeeeeese
I haven’t tried everything on the menu, but I’m willing to go back as many times as needed to! Also, this place opens at 6pm for dinner and during happy hour has $ 3 beers! cheers, peeps!

Cute little place in Mc Cully shopping center… easy to miss, I probably walked by it multiple times and didn’t even notice it. Very limited seating… I think there must be only 4 – 5 tables in the place? We had made reservations though, so we were seated right away.
Calpico sochu drink is super good.
For three of us, we ordered a bunch of smaller dishes to share, and the spinach-​shrimp omu-​rice dish. I would go back again to try out more dishes, but I hate the parking lot there…

Hidden gem is an apt description of this cute bistro in mccully shopping center. Sitting inside the cozy, dim lit room you feel like you’re In some small speakeasy in the lower east side or Montréal instead of a strip mall in the middle of a tropical island (this is a good thing!)
As for the dishes. deelish! Both the Japanese style and Italian style okonomiyaki were drool worthy. I had the pasta with roe and the roe was so fine it could pass for parmesian cheese if I didn’t know any better! The prices are very reasonable and the place is open late. Definitely going to be one of our go to places

I came here for lunch with a couple of friends back in November and really enjoyed it! We had heard great things about their appetizers so we were really excited about those but they apparently don’t do appetizers during lunch time. Well, that’s okay because I got their Spinach and Shrimp Omurice and it was amazing! I could smell the heavenly scent of the omurice even before the waiter reached our table. The egg part was super fluffy and the rice inside steaming hot and moist. And the sauce. Oh my gods the SAUCE! So darn good I could have had a bowl of it. Next time I go, I am going to go at night so I can try their appetizers =).

I really wanted to love this cute little place, but unfortunately I didn’t.
As soon as we walked in, we were punched in the face with loud yelling from a table of about 10 sitting by the door. They were SO LOUD! Once we got seated, I could barely hear my friend from across the table. In fact, I was yelling to him and it would’ve sounded like I’m whispering… it was that loud. RIDICULOUSLY LOUD drunken peeps! Thank God for the sake!
I heard from a few co-​workers that they visited A*Un for late night food and loved it… I guess I need to go with them next time for find out what they’re ordering.
On this night, we ordered:
*Fried Octopus ~ I love my fried tako, but this dish was waaaay overcooked. The tako was so dark in color and not so tasty.
*Sauteed mushrooms ~ other than the sake, this was the highlight of our meal
*Tuna Avocado Tartare ~ meh… just ok. A base of little chopped up bits of avocado with chopped bits of maguro on top. Just ok.
*Tarako and Ume Chazuke ~ broth was yum, but tarako seemed overcooked. A little tough to eat.
*Crab Cream Croquettes ~ sounded a lot better than it tasted. The sauce tasted like a brown gravy which didn’t really seem to jive with the crab cream.
Don’t think I can make another trip down to A*Where? Not A-​Un.

Dear A Un,
You popped into my mind today and I realized I never told you how much I appreciate you being around.
Thanks for all the great times we’ve shared over the years. Thanks for listening to all my woes of boy trouble when I was heartbroken. Thanks for always cheering me up with delicious izakaya dishes.
You light up my life with your okonomiyaki. You warm my heart with your omurice. You bring laughter to my soul with your takoyaki. Your alcoholic beverages always brought good times and memories to our table.
I’m really glad that we are the best of friends and that you have always been there for me. I hope that never changes. I missed you and can’t wait to see you next year!
Always,
Amy

Getting there: McCully Shopping center is easy to find but the parking is pretty hard to get. Always busy.
Ambiance: Two heavy wooden doors to this place makes it look more formidable than it really is. Enter and you’ll find a restaurant in bar level lighting. The tables and chairs serving patrons who do not want to eat and drink at the bar are comfortable It is really a half bar and half restaurant.
Service: Excellent. Water level always full and the bar tenders double as waiters/​waitresses. They are courteous and friendly and will chat you up if you’re so inclined. They were playing Secondhand Serenade (and not just one song; no radio or mix tapes) and since I like his music, I enjoyed it.
Food: Though I didn’t try the whole menu, of the items I did try the chicken karaage was the thing that stood out to me. The crispy, browned-​to-​perfection meat was so moist that it nearly drips; succulent on the inside, flavorful, and not heavy.
Also tried the okonomiyaki and italian-​style okonomiyaki. If you’ve ever been to Japan, the Okonomiyaki there vary in style by region and are often huge. The ala carte Bistro A Un version was thinner, and although had some of the same tradtional ingredients, lacked the generous amounts of filling and topping that I’ve normally found. That being said, it does not lack taste That goes for their unique italian-​style okonomiyaki which basically has pizza topping like cheese and tomatoes – an odd combination but it worked.
Would’ve liked to try other dishes they had but couldn’t eat another bite.
Who to bring: Good place to bring a date for a light dinner since everything is ala carte and you can share each plate. You could also bring friends but the atmosphere fits a ‘date night’ theme.
How much to bring: Each ala carte dish is about 7 – 10 dollars and the larger dinner menu items are about 15. *They’re having an anniversary special where Sapporo beer is discounted all month. Enjoy it while it lasts!
Verdict: The food and prices are fair though the place doesn’t fit just any occasion so despite the great tasting food, I’ll give this place 3 stars.
Final notes: If you go, I cannot stress enough that you order at least one chicken karaage.

Maybe it was a bad night but my experience here was horrible.
The recommended avocado and tuna tartar was awful. They had the nerve to serve us black old avocados. How unappetizing is that! For the price, they shouldn’t be so cheap and just cut up a brand new avocado!
Tried the seafood gratin which was okay (My Mom cooks better ones) and the choi sum was overcooked.
Then to top the night off, there was a roach crawling on the booth right behind me. The waiter came by to kill it with a napkin but he missed and he went on the table next to us. Terrible!
I will not be going here again.