Hanami Izakaya is located at 86 Gordon St. in Guelph, the small city about 90km NW of Toronto. Hanami has a modern interior with several booths. Disposable chopsticks are used unfortunately, but we brought our own as always. Ginger is not dyed pink. Pop is included in the AYCD price which is excellent. iPad menus are used. Soy at table was flavorful, not too salty and fresh enough. It was very noisy, annoyingly so, with chatter and a radio and a very noisy table of four girls beside ours.
My miso soup would have been excellent if it was not diluted, but Mishy’s bowl was worse and tasted a bit off. Happily the rest of the meal was much better. Agedashi tofu was excellent and I loved the sauce. Shrimp tempura was excellent, light, flaky, and also had very good sauce. Cheese wontons were excellent with plenty of cheese, though Mishy didn't agree saying they were “uneventful” whatever that means. Bacon with asparagus and bacon with mushrooms both excellent and savory, because bacon of course. Mishy did not like the bacon crabmeat (probably surimi) but I did as it was very savory. Avocado salad was good with spinach and nice dressing.
Beef teriyaki was delivered sizzling and was a very good thick cut of beef; Mishy said the seasoning was a bit boring and needed salt to make the flavour jump so added soy. I loved it as was nicely complemented with other things ie peppers. Chicken karaga had a dark and interesting flavour, and the sauce complemented it well. Chicken yakitori was delicious with an Indian cumin flavour. Deep fried scallops were enjoyable and the sauce was very good. Chicken teriyaki very good (not “rubbery” thankfully) and with a very good sauce. General Tao chicken was good although Mishy didn't like the breading.
Salmon sushi was very good to excellent, fresh and Mishy liked it very much too. Butterfish nigiri was good and almost perfectly fresh. Red tuna was excellent, very fresh and went perfectly with the wasabi. Italian gourmet rolls were original and a nice touch with prosciutto and Calabrese.
For dessert, deep-fried Mars bar was definitely an original and first time I've ever had these though was not really impressed; just like an oily Mars bar. Deep-fried ice cream was good. Chocolate ice cream had an interesting flavor but was quite good. Strawberry ice cream was fantastic and fresh. Matcha ice cream which is concentrated green tea was very good and preferably to plain green tea. Red bean didn't really taste like much of anything. Weekend lunch is $30, which is pricey given the area but is nicely offset by the included pop, and with a couple of exceptions was otherwise worth it. Other than them, we enjoyed our lunch.
Rating: 8 / 10
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