Today on Food on Fridays we take a look at what has been our favorite restaurant here in Vancouver, a Japanese izakaya named Guu with Garlic.

Guu with Garlic is part of  a local chain of restaurants which specialize in izakaya food.  Izakaya is a type of Japanese bar food, offering small plates to go along with the beer, sake and other  drinks.   Interestingly, over the past 8 years, the Guu restaurants have gotten big enough to commission their own line of sake, which was fun to try:

Cold sake developed with the Guu restaurant staff

However we go to Guu for the food. The Guu branches are  only sort-of-a-chain of restaurants, since each locations seems to specialize in different styles of foods. For example,  there’s one in downtown Vancouver  which has more meat-based dishes, while at Guu with Garlic there are a lot of fish items on offer. One of our favorite things is any type of grilled fish, which is simple, straightforward, and grilled fresh while you wait:

Grilled Mackerel

Our favorite dish, though are Udon noodles, pan-fried with kimchi (a spicy cabbage dish originally from Korea) and cod roe:

Yaki udon (pan fried noodles) with kimchi and cod roe

All the Guu restaurants do make some Guu signature dishes, including the Pumpkin ball: mashed pumpkin wrapped around a hard-boiled egg and then deep-fried.  It’s served hot:

Pumpkin Ball – a signature dish at Guu

Pumpkin Ball – cut open to reveal the hardboiled egg center

Plus, the fried octopus fritters are a standard:

“Tako Yaki” (Deep-fried octopus fritters)

On our last visit, one of the daily specials was unexpected: a “pizza” prepared with flatbread and topped with melted cheese, a  very atypical Japanese dish. However, under the cheese was a creamy scallop-mayo dish was provided a cream accent under the cheese.

Flatbread topped with melted cheese and scallop-mayo mixture

While those dishes may seem a bit unusual if you’re not familiar with izakaya food, I can assure you that an experience at Guu is always a highlight. So, it was fabulous to find out they were still in business — and also still quite good.

Or, as they now put it, guuuu’d.  

Chopstick wrapper with Guu slogan