We started off with the Tako Wasa – served a bit differently than Garden – as there is no sea urchin and the plates are a little bit more modern looking.
We ordered the Ebi Mayo, interestingly served on this long narrow dish. Same great taste, but interesting presentation. I think they should serve it on a smaller dish because it looks like there isn’t much on this plate at all.
Our next plate was the Nikuzyaga Croquette – which is basically deep fried mashed potatoes with stewed beef, carrots, onions served with tonkatsu sauce. Deep fried goodness! These little croquette balls remind me of the time I tried making them at home, not an easy feat. Perhaps I should’ve made them these size and not as big as a baseball! The tonkatsu sauce really brings out the flavour in this dish.
The Crab & Shrimp dumpings reminded me of Hau Gau in Chinese dim sum. It was good though with a mix of crab in it.
We ordered Okonomiyaki – which is essentially a deep fried Japanese pancake. However, they serve it super cool here. It’s extra crispy which I like, and topped off with tonkatsu, wasabi mayo, mustard mayo and dried bonito flakes. It was another great addition to our meal.
The highlight of our meal was the Mushroom Cheese Bibimbap: rice in a hot stone bowl with sauteed mushrooms, cheese, seaweed, green onion and seaweed sauce. This is after the server mixed it for us. It was so delicious, flavourful and hearty we ordered another.
To finish it off, no Japanese meal is complete without some sashimi. So we ordered the fresh sashimi with all the usual suspects: tuna and salmon and a something I’ve never had before – scallop sashimi. I was a little weary that the scallop would be very fishy tasting, but it was delicious – it has the same texture as salmon and had a bit of a buttery taste to it. Great slices of fish.
The drinks at Guu Otokomae are a little bit more fun than other Guus. They have great names and great flavour combinations. To start, we ordered (from left to right): Erotic Samurai ($6 – vodka, calpico, 7up, grenadine, grape juice), Diva ($6.50 – cassis, peach schnapps, red wine, guava juice, calpico and Matcha Coco ($6 – baileys, matcha syrup, milk and whipped cream). All three drinks had great flavour to them but our favourite was the Matcha Coco. “Maybe because it’s literally half whipping cream!” Adrian pointed out, which is more or less true.
To finish off, we ordered another round of drinks but this time I tried the Margaret Jump ($6 – peach schnapps, soho, lime juice, ginger ale and cranberry ice balls). The drink was refreshing and not too sweet. I’d definitely come back here again for drinks and share plates with friends! It’s very busy though, so you might want to make reservations, otherwise you will be waiting for at least 30-40 minutes.
Kanpai!
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Check out their website and menu here.
