Inakaya

Last time I went to this place with my homies. My baby started to cry so bad because he haven’t see my sister for a long time. Their female owner started to approach our table and suggest us to take our baby out just chilling for a second. Personally I am not asshole. I recognize the problem and took my baby out; when we come back my baby started to cry again. But I tried to say sorry to my neighbor diners and they understand the situations. So we plan on finish the meal sooner or later. BUT the PROBLEM is their male owner approaches us immediately and say YOU GUYS OUT!!! I M like WTF!!! FUCK this stupid Korean fucking owner!!! We won’t come to this place any more. No offense to Korean guys* worst dinning experience ever in my life. Hope they bankrupt soon!!! And the food taste very normal. Does not worth the prices at all!!!

Food is quite boring, does not meet our expectation and of course, the price.
We ordered quite a lot (for two people, my birthday), all the recommend food. And finally, maybe the udon is the best (among all the food in the restaurant).
Else, when we walk in and ask where can we park our car, the waitress said: wherever you want. I know, it is not rush hour and it is not a busy street, but the answer is quite disappointed.

Eh. When this place opened it was beyond fantastic. Full crew from japan it seemed. Well worth the cost. Last couple years it seems the crew has at least partially changed and while many of the favourites are still there and good, the overall experience is no longer what it was. The food is good but I’d say there are better choices now.

I’ve been coming here for a few years now and must say this is my absolute favourite sushi restaurant within driving range. I’ve dined at many Japanese restaurants all over the world and in this neck of the woods, I have to say this is my go-​to place when I don’t mind spending $ 100 per person for an amazing meal.
I usually sit at the bar because, as known by any sushi eater, it is the only place to eat. The chef special is a fantastic selection of fish of great quality and great taste.
The chef is knowledgeable and friendly in the stoic, dedicated to their craft sort of way. I enjoy our short talks and explanations of the food.
The food is always to my liking and if you enjoy good sushi, you should try this place out. It’s pretty expensive, the service allows you time to enjoy your meal and not interrupt conversation (read as: don’t expect servers all over the place asking you questions every few minutes, just chill, and enjoy the food).
It’s a great experience, pricey, but worth it.
If you want sushi on the cheap, go elsewhere. This is the place you want to spend an hour or two eating great stuff.
The drink program is decent as well, but I’d like it better personally.

First like to say food was good, fresh but the portions were just a bit too small after dinner it felt like i needed to go get more food. Some sushi and sashimi platter each were 15 $ but the amount of food in those were like 6 pc of a combination of salmon, red snapper, a raw sweet shrimp. If priced better i believe that even more people will come. The people there were nice and friendly the environment felt very cozy.
I dont think i will be back too soon. There are other places that i shall try before coming back.

The food was very fresh and in a really good taste. But it was a bit expensive like almost 500 dollars for 4 people lol.

Went on a recommendation. I had very high hopes for an Izakaya that was off the beaten path. Here is my first impression and probably my last of Inakaya. They’ve cramped this space with as many tables as humanly possible. For such a small space this takes away from the experience by taking away people’s enjoyable yet personal space. There was 2 servers and a person working the cash. Unfortunately they were not attentive to the customers or they didn’t really know how to work in tandem or work the room. We had to wait so long for our order to be taken and had to ask twice for green tea. Now to the food… For the prices listed on the menu I was disappointed in the quality. Wayyy over priced! $ 15 for some single item dishes you can get a real Izakaya’s for half the price. The worst part of the experience is when they try to rush you out to accommodate new customers… this is like a slap in the face after you have to wait so long for your food to get to your table.
It’s in our neighborhood but there are so many better options.

Terrible place to eat and a huge disappointment. Expensive for no reason. Service is bad. Food is nothing special as they promote. I am regretting spending my time in there. What a rip-​off!

I’ve heard good things about this restaurant, but it did not meet up to my expectations.
For a table of two, we ordered a la carte sushi (fatty salmon, geoduck, sweet shrimp, tuna, king crab, uni), wagyu beef, chicken katsu curry rice and skewered pork belly.
sushi was fresh but no wow factor
neat that you can cook your own wagyu beef (Caution: when we ordered it we got thin slices instead of thick slices so check before you order)
japanese curry taste exactly like J-​town curry but double the price
skewered pork belly was extremely fatty, spicy and surprisingly dry
service was okay but food takes a long time when its during dinner hour.
I can see why they can overcharge their wagyu beef since no where else sells them but the value for this item isn’t great for the quantity that you get.
Maybe its what we ordered but there are definitely better japanese places to spend your money

Inakaya is a place where you can taste authentic Japanese food. All of the foods we ordered were absolutely delicious. As a fan of Jap cuisine like myself, I have never seen anything so creative like a fired-​up volcano roll (from my photos). I believe the best part about food is when you can put some ideas in it to make it look presentable, and taste good.
This is a small restaurant so be sure to reserve your table! And be sure to finish up your palate with a nice smoothing sake.

Love the food and service here every time I visit Inakaya.
I’d recommend:
KOTAI (whole fish — sashimi)
It’s sooo fresh! The texture is nice and chewy. Reminds me of the sashimi from Japan :)
BEEF TONGUE (Robatayaki — with BBQ sauce)
Rich flavour, not dry at all — I think the sauce option would be yummier than salt.
VOLCANO ROLL
A very picture worthy dish. Beef was tender and it’s served nice and hot.
MIRUGAI (sushi /​sashimi)
It’s a geoduck clam sashimi which I LOVE! Very sweet and yummy!
WAGYU BEEF
You get to cook the beef yourself, which makes it kind of fun.
Despite the portions being very little, I still find the wagyu beef worth it: P

Very authentic but expensive. Omakase at $ 125 and need 48 hours advance reservation. Expect about $ 80 per person with drinks. Great for special occasion and the the booth on the side. More private & intimate experience. Good sake selection!

Borderline 3.5 stars for this place. It is definitely better than a lot of sushi places in North York, but can’t compare to some of my favourite places in downtown Toronto. This would be my first choice for a close sushi joint near my home if I don’t want to drive too far.
Had the sushi and sashimi starter. Very fresh, but nothing out of the ordinary. They seem to cut the fish in crisscross fashion (which I am not sure, if it’s to soften the meat). Also order the bluefin tuna sushi nigiri, which was a whopping $ 25! I would pay $ 25 for two pieces of bluefin tuna, but they must melt in your mouth like butter. This one didn’t. Again, sliced the top of the fish in cross cross fashion again. Really odd. It was half buttery which a few veins in the fish, which is a no-​no if I am going to pay $ 25 for this. Not really worth it. I’ll just stick to their regular sushi and sashimi and stay away from their overpriced items on their special menu. I dunno, maybe I will come back to try their wagyu beef for $ 65 next time, but after the bluefin experience, I am not so sure if it will be worth it.
Everything else was good. Ordered fresh and baked oysters. Both very delish.
Will come back again if I am craving for sushi. I heard their Izakaya items were good as well. Anyhow, expect to spend a little more than the typical sushi restaurant you would normally not spend in the North York neighbourhood. It’s sort of worth it to a certain degree, if you order the right items.

Not just sushi. Menu offered many other Japanese dishes, which was refreshing considering the many mostly sushi places in the neighborhood.
Food was yummy. Eel was very tasty, salmon very creamy. Prices on the pricier side. Cozy atmosphere.
Waitress was incredibly friendly, recognized it was my first visit, kneeled down to table level and walked me through the entire menu with great enthusiasm.
Look forward to trying the beef teriyaki on my next visit.

Previous reviews are right in that service is definitely lacking here. We were seated near the back washroom and I could barely pull my chair out to sit down because there was a pole behind the seat. I asked the waitress if we can move the table out and she pulled it out by probably half an inch and walked off.
Second complaint is lack of parking available. We almost missed our reservation time because street parking was nearly impossible to find.
Third, after 15 minutes of being seated, no water or tea was offered.
Fourth, taking a quick look at the menu, holy moly items are overpriced. The Chirashi is a whopping $ 25, the price charged at higher end authentic Japanese restaurants downtown on Front Street (Inakaya is Korean run). I’m not even sure if our tea is free. The wet hand towel given to us was freezing cold.
Food was sooo slow with large time gaps in between dishes.
1. Volcano Roll $ 18 — Not sure what the hype about this was, besides the little fire show. The beef was very tough to chew on, and the sauce was too salty, you wouldn’t need to use soy sauce.
2. Gindara $ 12 — overpriced for one piece of black cod. It was very good, but still does not justify the price.
3. Sushi Moriawase $ 26 — again, overpriced with very small portions. The fish is fresh but the variety wasn’t impressive.
4. Sashimi Moriawase $ 35 — three pieces per fish type. The octopus was very tough and dry, same goes with this white fish that had no taste to it. Salmon was fatty and delicious as was the tuna. The bowl of rice that came with this was overcooked and had no texture.
I would not return to Inakaya because the food and service does not justify their steep prices.

OMG i didnt even know this was a restaurant until my gal took me to this place for dinner. Its literally located in a house, away from the noisy yonge street restaurants. This is an authentic japanese cuisine that is not runned by chinese or koreans but by japanese people which is hard to find in uptown japanese restaurants. If you plan to come here, get reservations because from what I remember there was only 8 – 10 tables max. We ordered a whole bunch of dishes and it was amazingggggg. The fish tasted soooooo fresh and it literally melts in your mouth. You can tell the fish is legit and not the ayce japanese places. A great place to take for your date. Will be coming back to this place for sure!

Sadly Inakaya no longer offers lunch… no more lunch specials! :(
Dinner experience here is so so… the food is really good… but the service really lacking and a little over priced for some of the items we shared!
Rainbow Roll ($ 15) — Excellent!
Wagyu Beef ($ 55) — MEH!
Sashimi App ($ 15) — OK
Chirashi ($ 27) — love the sea bream and the sweet shrimp!
Cold Sake Draft ($ 15)
That Wagyu Beef for sure is a great disappointment… we got around 10 piece of thinly sliced beef and one have to cook them fast on the flame if not they just get burnt really fast… and definitely not worth the money we paid for!
I definitely not coming back on a Saturday when Inakaya is just so busy and ended up we no services… our waitress cannot even able to serve us our food properly…
I am so sad… I really want to love Inakaya…

Awesome service and really good food. I know others have complained, but we came here on a snowy day, maybe it was slower than usual.
The volcano roll was spectacular (see photo). I also loved the grilled fish… I forget the name, but you can always ask them. I walked in rather clueless.

So disappointed, after waiting to come here for 2 plus years. Don’t get me wrong my shrimp sushi pizza was great and my Maki lunch combo was pretty darn decent. So technically if i was just rating the kitchen, Inakaya would get much higher…
So why the 3 star review, it comes down to service… but more specifically the waitress.
Now she wasn’t overtly rude to me, or anything that would normally anger me, but … she was a complete and utter disaster.
Keep in mind that Inakaya isn’t a big space, and she’s the only one doing the tables, so I did factor that in. But from taking forever to get me a menu, and a seating… to completely forgetting about me. then having the rest of the staff apologize for her service, complete with eyeroll. it just doesn’t make for a good or fun experience for any customer, let alone a first-​time customer.
But the guys at the sushi bar were tops. They got me water, when I stood up to ask for it and they checked back frequently with me to see if I enjoyed the food.
So my experience here wasn’t a complete letdown, but still the service I got from the waitress leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

While «Friends» went on their separately planned HOT date-​night, I didn’t do so bad myself. Even Paris Hilton would have said «That’s Hot» in her sensual tone. Unfortunately instead of pointing at me, she would point at my date with Inakaya’s Flamin’ Hot Volcano Roll. Marshmallows not included.
Inakaya while not a substantial size establishment by any restaurant’s standards is able to find a good balance within the tiny space and design elements. There’s enough to browse from the Chef’s at the sushi-​bar to the LCD displaying all the dishes they have to offer, even to the Sake displays which reminds you it’s an official SAKE-​bar. There’s something about their atmosphere that does draw and attract me. 2.5’d leaning towards 3’d.
Sake they do offer plentiful choices as well as multiple Beverages all display on 2-​sided 8−½×11 that will take more than a second to peruse. There’s always the original Food Menu however the friendly staff would speak more in-​depth towards the daily recommendations as well as the Specials Menu. Whole Fluke did sound interesting but that’s more for my Friend’s AMEX to discover.
Salmon Tataki — Delightful starter both appealing in presentation and flavour. Sliced red onions underneath help give a fresh crunch from the soft Salmon while the micro-​greens on top give color contrast. Maybe a touch more acidity would really get the saliva flowing.
Toro ($ 18.00÷2 nigiri), Hotategai Nigiri ($ 6.00÷2 nigiri) -
In comparison, I’ve seen and tasted better. My dining companion said it all when noting the overuse of Wasabi while spitting out sinewy parts of Toro. Good FATTY Toro no doubt but we just happened to get stringy parts along for the ride this round. The sushi-​rice did have good mouth feel.
Volcano Roll ($ 18.00) — Stunning presentation compared to your everyday bleh as the plate arrives engulfed in flames that take a few minutes to settle. Beef Maki does take more chewing involved than your typical Maki. Nothing wrong with this at all, just not something that I would consider as must-​try. Reminds me of home cooking Minute-​Steak.