Remember to order carbs at Suika

Suika has a tight space that looks perpetually busy. Dark interior with dark furniture. Fantastic sake-bottle chandelier.

Bathrooms are black-walled so for goodness sakes do not turn off the light or the next person will have a helluva time looking for the switch.

Like a real Japanese establishment, they have mouthwash and toothpicks. (Nope, not ultra-classy enough to give you disposable toothbrushes.)

They are too busy to give you the most prompt service and bussing and water, but the apparently all-Japanese staff are friendly and polite. Plus, the kitchen is quite fast, all things considered. And they do make sure someone sees you all the way to the door and wishes you a safe journey home.

It's an izakaya, which is sort of meant to be drink-alcohol-eat-snacks. Therefore portions are going to be small for your money, and you hope it will be tasty.
TIP: If you are hoping to put together a filling dinner at a decent price, remember to order carbs. Like noodles or rice. Those do come in a smallish to OK portion for your money. If you do not order any carbs, be prepared to order a lot of dishes and shell out maybe $40+ per person, excluding drinks.

Pan Mushroom Udon ($11.80)

• Smallish portion of what looks like stir-fried udon. Taste is initially okay until the flavours build and the bit of spicy heat hits you. Then magically, it tastes really good.
• Has chunks of chicken breast as well. Total chunks of chicken breast and mushroom look disappointing, however, especially for something that is $11.80.

Suika Deluxe Box ($12.80)

• Nine sake cups of very flavourful items including an interesting shrimp cream cheese.
• Price will feel steep because each item disappears in two bites.
• You could possibly pair it with a small order of plain rice ($2?) and make a meal of it.

Torotoro Cha-Shu ($6.80) Pork roasted, then slowly braised till tender; served with suika's secret spice blend. It melts in your mouth.

• Strangely soft -- so soft it's almost creamy in texture, so yes, it does feel like it melts in your mouth!
• More interesting than tasty. Whatever "secret spice blend" they have, they need to give you more of it because this was awfully bland.

Ebi-Mayo ($8.80)

• The staple of every izakaya and favourite of Japanese all over.
• It's ebi-mayo. Nothing special here except they are skimpy on the mayo part.

Pork Feet ($6.80)

• One pig's foot (a little more than just the hoof part) that appears pan-seared with some sort of fairly tasty juice until the outside is almost crispy.
• Fat and collagen, and not that much of it because the rest is bone.
• An acquired taste for sure. Price for portion is ridiculous for something that's mostly fat, so you really have to love it to want to pay for it.

AAA Beef Garlic Steak ($19) comes with fresh shichimi spice and soy onion sauce

• Comes sizzling on a hot stone, so if you needed to you could cut the cubes open to expose the medium-rate inside and sear it some more.
• Tender, but otherwise steak is steak.
• Garlic bits sitting on top is where you need to go to get the garlic flavour.
• The greenish chopped up stuff tastes is like wasabi paste but is not as strong. 

Grilled Sable Fish ($9.80) grilled miso-marinated sable fish

• Tender almost buttery fish. Otherwise nothing special here. Save your $9.80 for something more interesting from the menu.

Corn Kakiage ($5.80) organic corn niblets fried with cilantro batter, soy sauce, and butter

• Sweet corn that was battered and deep fried.
• Tastes like sweet corn. Waste of time since batter and the deep fried treatment didn't really enhance the already strong and delicious flavour of sweet corn.

Beef Tendon Bibimbap ($9.80) stewed pork belly, sweet dried shrimp, and scallions on rice served in a hot stone bowl

• If you want a picture, tell your server IMMEDIATELY. Because they mix up the rice right away for you, a thorough process that takes a few minutes.
• They paste the rice against the sides of the bowl. You can leave it there for a few minutes to get crispier rice.
• TIP: Order this early if you want crispy rice, and nibble on something else while waiting for the stone bowl to crisp the rice. Otherwise you will probably not have the patience to wait. Watched rice never crisps.
• About 10 heaped tablespoons worth of rice. I know because we were sharing it amongst 5 people and we each only got two big tablespoons.
• Once it's mixed thoroughly, you can see the ratio of stuff to rice is actually pretty high.
• Predominant flavour is pepper. Otherwise tastes sort of like canned corned beef mixed in rice.

Hits and misses on the menu but even the misses are at least good-tasty. Better in a group so you can sample dishes. Remember to add carbs and you can get a moderately filling meal at around $25 without drinks or dessert.

No shortage of cute girls here -- and not just the staff.