Guu is a trendy restaurant with a fun atmosphere and tasty food. It’s the kind of restaurant you’d take guests to if they were visiting, which is why I seem to come here a lot when I’m in Vancouver.

Guu’s got 3 locations in Vancouver, each with its own theme and feel. This one’s located above a couple storefronts, and it’s easy to miss unless you’re looking out for the sign on the sidewalk. The entire waitstaff (and many of the customers, it seems) speak Japanese, which is a good sign.

One key to any good izakaya is the variety of the small dishes being offered, and Guu has plenty of that. Thanks to a seasoned Japanese diner in our midst, we were treated to plate after plate of interesting and tasty concoctions that you’d never find in your standard sushi/sashimi joint.

Not every dish was a winner, but all were well presented, and definitely worth trying at least once. Given the scope of the menu, this means I’ll definitely be back.

This is Japanese pub-style food. It’s not just a meal, it’s an experience. It’s sort of like having tapas or dim sum – there’s a social element to it. When you have a large group, you also get to sample many dishes!

Everything here is well-presented and tasty. You have kababs that are served in a kabab-length dishes, pieces of cow tongues that you have to grill yourself, and items that you don’t expect to see in a Japanese restaurant, like fried Brie or seafood paella. Each dish is a conversation piece – so maybe it’s also a good place to take your blind date or people you know that are really boring then? :P

But most of the dishes (at least the ones we ordered) are deep-fried or greasy so a meal at Guu may not be the most satisfying. Also, although the decor is fairly nice and trendy, the restaurant smells a bit greasy. Those are reasons why the place didn’t get 5-stars from me.

I love izakayas and I agree with the rest of the reviewers that the Gastown Guu is roomier and less busy than the robson location – but, still busy. The service is fast and friendly once you get seated but the hostess usually ignores you when you walk into the restaurant and you can expect a wait with or without reservation. Once seated, the food arrives very quickly and dishes sometimes crowd your table as the kitchen attempts to fill your order asap and pressure you to leave. Weekends are the worst. The food here, however, is very tasty and cheap when you share multiple dishes with friends. My favourites include the taro balls with green tea salt (sato ima), spicy garlic squid (ika), tako yaki (octopus balls), ebi (shrimp) mayo, yaki udon, croquette, and duck breast. I love brie, but the deep fried brie with mango sauce was just too heavy for me. Kitanoya Guu is definitely in my restaurant rotation.

The food here was great! The atmosphere is great too! I love how they all yell out and greet you as you enter and leave the restaurant.

This place has a lot more room than the one on Robson.. And didn’t have an hour-long wait even though we went at 7pm on a Saturday evening – though it started to fill up more as the night went on..

Food selection was different (I think.. I don’t recall exactly, as it was more than half a year ago since I was last in Vancouver and went to the one on Robson).

The only let down was that I was looking forward to trying something like the shochu (sp?) wih Aloe that we had at the last place, but here, most of the shochu was like $70/bottle! I recall it being less than half that price previously..

Ah well, a great dining experience nonetheless..
And it ended up costing us about $23/pp after tip, with beer and cocktails.