Don Don Izakaya is located in the downtown core, and is steps away from St. Patrick subway station. The establishment is located upstairs, and whenever anyone arrives, they would be greeted with a loud drum roll. The atmosphere was relatively loud with chatter and overall just a lively one.
Additionally, the seating arrangements are typical like other tapas/izakaya establishments; bar-side or communal tables.
My friends and I only ordered four dishes, as they were there to basically drink (and we were also going to KBBQ after so we were saving room in our stomachs for that).
We started out with the seafood udon
($7.60) which I really enjoyed. The texture of the udon was very chewy
and the sauce wasn't bland at all. Additionally, there was a decent
amount of seafood in the dish so that was good
I wasn't too keen on trying the black croquette ($7.00) out at first as it didn't look that appetizing. However, I did try a piece of it and thought that it was a very interesting dish. The outer layer was crispy and inside contained a soft mixture of potato and cod.
The smokey hay salmon ($11.90) was fresh sashmi that is seared with hay fire to provide a smoky flavor. It tasted okay with the a slice of garlic, and salt, but was definitely not worth the price.
Lastly, we got the tako wasabi ($3.50) which was basically raw octopus and wasabi. The portion was a
lot smaller than we anticipated and it was nothing special.
One of the great things about Don Don Izakaya would be their extensive drink selection (alcoholic beverages/various sake choices). We ordered a lot more alcohol than food, that's for sure.
We only ordered four dishes so I can't really make a sound judgement on the quality of the food. I did like 2/4 of the dishes that we ordered, and thought that the service was friendly and quick. I'd probably come back here another time to try more dishes out.
RATINGS:
Quality of Food: 3/5
Service: 4/5
Overall Dining Experience: 3.5/5
Price: $$
Address: 130 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON, M5G 1C3
