Izakaya Ju 🍣

📍 3160 Steeles Avenue E, Unit 3, Markham

Attempted to go to Shiso Tree Cafe for their lunch menu, but apparently they stopped serving at 2.30PM and we had arrived there at 2.33PM. I thought they stopped lunch at 3PM, but lesson learnt and will come earlier next time!!

So we walked about J-Town and decided to stop by Izakaya Ju since it was close by. We barely made it before they had their last call for lunch as well.

My friend ordered the Udon from the lunch menu which came with char siew or bbq pork belly in Ju’s Special Broth, whereas I ordered their Asari Ramen which was limited only 10 orders a day – so I decided to give it a go!

Tea was served and service was good and they were attentive. The salad came first, presumably because of the lunch menu. We shared the salad, it was alright, nothing special about it.

My Asari Ramen came next, which has loads of clams and it is supposed to taste “light and rich in flavour”, which was very true. The broth tasted very light at first and the rich flavour after.

However, the entire bowl of ramen was very plain as it just consisted of clams, with green onion and ramen noodles. For $16, they gave a huge amount of clams which I was delighted about, I mean, they had better give a lot for charging $16.
A little tip that I did was to peel all the clams from their shells before tucking into the meal & I placed the shells in the empty salad bowl.

Next up was my friend’s Udon, which came with 2 pieces of BBQ Pork Belly, green onions, drizzled with seaweed. My friend claimed that the meal was just alright, and had better udons elsewhere. I’ve also tried the broth and their “Special Broth” didn’t taste anything extraordinary.

They also had these condiments on the table. I would like to say that they are authentic Japanese spices but I don’t know that much… It seems authentic with the Japanese writing and ingredients listed, etc. It is J-Town afterall! I just found it pretty cool 🙂 .

Halfway down our meal, our server brought us the bill… I know we were late to their lunch service and they close before reopening for dinner service. But we still felt rushed and pressured to finish our meal without enjoying or savouring it… Ohwell.

Overall, this place was just okay to me. Even though I thought their Asari Ramen was their recommended/popular dish since they advertised it separately, it was just meh and nothing too special. Everything was just average here but I do like the service (before they rushed us by bringing the bill over). Servers were attentive, checked back on our meal and refilled our teas without us asking. It could also because we came late to the lunch service and there were not many customers were in the restaurant… thus we get all their attention, so to speak.

Felt like it wasn’t worth the value and I definitely had better lunch elsewhere.

Till next time, ♥

For more nomz – Official Website (which seems to be bugged or something) • TripAdvisor • Yelp