Guu in Richmond

First time here and tried the lunch menu.
I ordered the beef sashimi and the lunch special (which on the menu said sashimi don or udon).
First of all, beef sashimi is excellent. The sauce was on point and there’s quite a few slices for the price that they charge.
When I got the lunch special I was surprised, because they gave me both sashimi don AND udon. I thought it was one or the other. Both are good sized bowls too. The special also came with miso soup and a small side dish (which happened to be macaroni salad that day). For a whooping $ 8.95.
Everything was fresh, service was excellent, would come back again.

Guu Richmond is very good for lunch as most sushi places in Richmond aren’t that good. The quality is very nice and the portion sizes are plentiful.
The food options for nighttime are good too and the price isn’t that bad for a tapas place. However the service at night ruins the experience a bit.
It is very hard to wave down a server to take your order and when my party finally got one she was very disinterested and looked upset/​mad and also rolled her eyes multiple times while I was trying to order. Not all the servers were like that, however it did dampen the mood quite a bit.

I find the food choices are better at night then lunch because of the daily special dishes. Lunch only have one lunch special the rest are just from their lunch menu. However the food and service are still very good. Less crowded during lunch time. Ordered the Sushi lunch box today. The fish was very fresh and the grilled saba was very moist.

Walking around Aberdeen mall on an empty stomach and with lunch options galore, I decided to venture into Guu Richmond.
I have been to several of the Guu franchises, namely the ones downtown, and only considered Guu as a dinner option as they are known for their izakaya style. However I was pleasantly surprised that lunch deals are quite good!
I ordered the Sushi box and was packed with goodies of variety. The menu includes a generous portion of sushi (tuna, shrimp, hokkagai, california) and sashimi — salmon, scallop, tamago, grilled mackerel, and chicken karaage. Its all freshly prepared along miso soup.
It felt like kind of a mini sampler of the dishes they would serve for their dinner tapas.
Tip: A good measure to check the chef’s craft is to look at whether the subtle elements such as the garnish (tsuma) are finely cut to quality. Guu passes this test.
The service is quite fast and efficient. Very good to power lunch through on a Friday.
I am happy to recommend Guu as both a fine lunch or dinner option!

The Guu lunch bento box specials here never fail to impress! Portions are decent for the price you pay; food is always fresh and delicious. My personal fave is the Sushi box. It contains a great variety of items, all of which taste great.
Don’t forget to get a lunch stamp card — collect 18 stamps for $ 10 off your next visit!

— $ 1 oysters during Happy Hour, which were tiny
–Items on special menu during happy hours are cheaper, though portions are small as well.

Yes I came again and of course, got the sushi bento and it was even better than i remember. They also have a lunch special with a rice bowl topped with 3 types of sashimi and a small udon. delicious sushi rice, fresh fish and light japanese flavours for the best lunch ever!

Came many times! always good servers.
Love Guu in richmond!
Love their special menu always. They surprise me every time.

I was disappointed at the limited choices on the daily menu and regular menu BIG time. There wasn’t really anything to choose from. Some of my favorite dishes were gone. I noticed that they have raised the price for some of the items on the menu. Their service was great as usual but that’s not enough for me to stick around sorry Guu! I should have known when there were only 2 other tables at 6pm on a Sunday while all the other restaurants had long long lineups.

TERRIBLE SERVICE, one of the worst experience I have EVER HAD, I wish I can give 0 star if possible, please note this rating is for SERVICE ONLY!
The food is decent on the other end IMO.
We have made a reservation for the night, however it still took a while before they greet us (while there is no lineup at the door), however the awful experience starts below:
We made our order with a waitress with dyed pony tail, after 40 mins nothing has come, we promptly asked the same waitress to check on our order, she mention she will go and check for us, BAD IDEA! After another 20 mins, we know something is wrong, we try to ask whats happening, as she is not aware of her surrounding, we had to get a waiter and ask what’s going on and he came back and tell us NO ORDER HAS EVER BEEN PUT IN, we had to redo our orders again, as much of time was wasted due to this incident, most of the dishes we wanted to order has been sold by then. The re-​ordered dishes are also slowly getting to our table, one of the main reasons is even the kitchen has pushed the dishes out, no one was bringing them over to our table, we had to ask for our orders again then they realize they are sitting at the ready to serve area.
When we wanted to get our bill and leave, we signaled another waitress that has been working in the cashier area, but after 10 mins of wait, we decide we need to talk to the manager, at this point, we basically gave up on the entire staff crew and need to let the manager know our experience of the night. He apologizes and mention one of the staff was unable to come to work today, and offered us dessert as a gratitude, but our night has been totally ruined already at this point.
The dyed pony tail waitress is totally IRRESPONSIBLE not just because she missed our entire order, but NONE of the staff crew apologize or tried to make it to us except the manger! We also noticed another table wanted to talk to the manager due to bad service. All of us had an horrible night as a result.
for better service, avoid this location at all cost, I have never had such a horrible experience, I personally will never go back to this location again!

Not bad. Fish was average. They had Uni in special/​season but it was only okay…
Average but we only had the nigiri sushi and some sashimi

Came here three days ago for dinner. It’s not as busy as the downtown Guus but reservations are probably still recommended just in case.
Ordered the punk roll, salmon yukke, beef tataki, tuna tataki, ebi mayo, and okonomiyaki.
The food came out very fast and ran out of table space very quickly. The beef tataki and okonomiyaki were satisfactory. The tuna tataki was a lot smaller than I was expecting. The ebi mayo seemed a bit batter heavy. The salmon yukke was a pleasant surprise, it comes with an egg yolk which I assume you stir it in. It was like eating salmon tartar.
My personal favourite was the punk roll, which gives you a good assortment of seafood and they torch it in front of you. I think they have sea salt on the top of it which gets torched as well. But after the torching it tastes rather salty and charcoal-​y. It tasted great after removing most of the salt.
It wasn’t super busy, but we had to ask the server several times to refill my tea. I’ve had better experiences here, but nevertheless I’ll still come back and recommend it.

After trying this Guu location more than once, I can honestly say that the food is consistently mediocre at best (at least relative to its downtown counterparts). If you are planning to come here to with high expectations, please do yourself a favor and go elsewhere.
The Sashimi Salad is one of my favorites at the downtown Guus but the one here was not good at all. The seafood was not fresh and the sauce was an overkill (maybe to mask the non-​fresh fish).
I will not be returning to this location.

Smaller portion than DT. Doesn’t taste as good. I rather go back to DT or pick something else nearby in Richmond.
Staffs are nice!

I’ve heard a lot about Guu in the last several years and after putting it off for ages my friends and I finally decided to go. The fact that it was the Richmond/​Aberdeen location was just by chance, although if the food and service is anything like it was at this location for the other locations I can see myself returning in the near future.
To start, I’m always a bit hesitant to go to a sushi restaurant as I am vegetarian and it’s sometimes difficult to order food that doesn’t contain fish flakes, etc., but the waitress who served us that evening was wonderful and checked the ingredients and everything for us (miso soup, agedashi tofu broth).
We ended up ordering edamame, gomaae, a cucumber roll and avocado roll to keep it safe, but also decided to be adventurous and ordered a Vegeta roll and mango peach roll. Personally, I liked the Vegeta roll more and that’s because I’m not a fan of sugary food, but the mango peach roll was also very delicious and I would recommend it.
Overall, I would definitely return. Food came quickly, customer service was great, and although it was quite loud in there I believe it added to the atmosphere and didn’t take away from it.

GUU Izakaya is my most favorite restaurant in Vancouver, BC. By most, I mean including all the Chinese, Japanese, and other cuisines. Each time when I visit Vancouver, I must visit there. The tradition started at the first GUU in Thurlow stree at downtown Vancouver. Could you believe people wait in front of its door for 30 mins before open, just to make sure to secure a table? Yes, it’s that popular. And believe me, it totally worth the wait.
A few years ago they opened a branch in Richmond, making things much easier. When I visit the GUU in Richmond, I’m so glad that they maintain the same great service and high quality food as the original store. Checkout the pictures I posted on Unilocal,the sashimi in the lunch bento box is so fresh!
This time I ordered beef sashimi, which is thin sliced raw beef with fresh sweet onion. It’s a perfect combination. The sweetness of raw onion really brought out juicy and delicate flavor of raw beef, while giving it a little kick for the balance.
Even a simple bento box there has the one of the freshest salmon sashimi I’ve ever tried. In fact it’s so fresh that it’s the only thing I remember of the whole bento box.
I will definitely go there again next time visiting Vancouver,
As usual, I attached pictures with this review so you can view the dishes they provide.

Beef Tataki: The beef slices were very thinly seared and done nicely! I could really taste the multidimensional flavours of the sauce, which really impressed me.
The Okonomiyaki: Delicious! The pancake was flakey and crispy, with the interior being fluffy and warm. The sauce was particularly drool inducing, as it consisted of a sweet mayo/​mustard and teriyaki sauce.
Pumpkin Croquette: This is one of the most popular dishes at Guu, and for good reason! First of all, isn’t the presentation awesome? They wrote Guu on the plate with sauce!
The croquette itself is about a size of a softball. The interior houses a boiled egg, surrounded by sweet, mushy layers of pumpkin. The softness of the pumpkin is a nice contrast to the crispy exterior shell.

I wish Guu would come to California! The food at this location inside the Aberdeen Centre is just as yummy as the Original Guu on Thurlow. The main menu seemed pretty much the same — at the very least it had all of my favorites, including the kabocha croquette and the kimchi udon. These are my top two favorite things to get at Guu. I should really venture out and try different stuff, but why mess with what’s guud? They’ve also got a specials menu.
This location is very big and spacious — it’s very different from the charming compact and cozy feel of the Original Guu (OG). I think because the space is so much bigger, it doesn’t feel like the same energy as the OG with the loudness coming from the staff. And part of the fun of eating at the OG is sitting at the bar and watching the chefs make all the yummy food. But it’s hard to watch even while sitting at the bar here at the Richmond Guu because of the things that hold the raw fish partially blocking the view.
But the service is excellent and the food is delicious — it’s still a Guu! It’s not as fun as the OG, but it does the job. And because it’s so much larger, it can probably accommodate larger parties. They’ve even got a private room (the kind where you have to take off your shoes) that has a sliding door.
For dessert, I highly recommend the black sesame ice cream — it’s really good and a perfect way to end a meal.
And here’s a tip! If you’ve got a long enough layover at YVR and have a craving for something Guu-​licious, take the Skytrain from the airport to the Aberdeen Centre stop — it’s way closer than taking the train into downtown. It’s just a short walk to the Centre and the Guu is on the second floor — it’s kind of tucked away to the side, away from where all the action is. I think it’s above the H-​mart and next to some Chinese dumpling restaurant. Just make sure to note the hours — they close in between lunch and dinner. Guu’d-bye!

Came here for some lunch.
Parking is plentiful in the Aberdeen parking lot, but get ready for a lot of cursing and near-​misses.
The entrance is tucked away upstairs (partially down a corridor), so you do have to locate the place.
Out of all the locations, Steven N. is right, the interior is different (in a bad way) from all other locations — you are reminded that yes, you are inside a mall and not a standalone izakaya. My table was wobbly, and overall the furniture was quite beaten up.
Takowasabi — excatly what it sounds like. The sauce had the consistency of snot, but the wasabi gave it a really nice kick. Need to be careful when eating so one doesn’t drop octopus bits everywhere. My favourite dish out of the mix.
Maguro Steak — quite disappointing. They cooked the tuna a bit too well — the entire slab was really dry (think of canned tuna fish) as a result. The sauce was decent with the garlic and all, but the dryness really killed it for me.
Uni & ikura don — exactly what it sounds like. A wee bit pricey at almost $ 15, but actually quite tasty. They didn’t skimp on the uni, which is a great thing. Served with some ginger and daikon.
Ika-​maru — grilled and sliced squid (poor little guy). Served with some sauce that tasted like salad dressing. Not bad, but it’s exactly what the dish sounds like.
Overall the experience was decent, but you’ll probably have a better experience at one of the downtown locations.

Looks like this Guu has been around at least a year, but I had no idea until a few days ago. This location is pretty convenient since it’s located inside Aberdeen. Easy to access and free parking, although I’m not a big fan of Richmond parking lots in general. At least this one is better than Crystal Mall’s I guess.
The staff at Guu in Richmond were great. In keeping with the Guu authenticity, the waitress was able to speak Japanese. I like that extra touch from Guu because they don’t just hire based on looks only.
Food came at a good pace and all the dishes were delicious. My favorite items were the Beef Tongue and the Smoked Salmon with Wasabi Mashed Potatoes.