Hapa Izakaya

I decided to meet up with my friend for dinner and he suggested Hapa Izakaya. He found a Groupon that lets us pay $15 in order to have $30 of restaurant credit. So we basically paid 15 dollars for 30 dollars worth of food! It was an amazing deal!

Here's what we ate: 

1. Duck Poutine 

• menu description: duck confit, fingerling potato wedges with soy gravy and cheese curds
• thoughts:  This was my favourite dish of the night! Not only were there duck cooked in its own fat (nom nom nom) but the soy gravy also had a strong duck flavour in it! I'm a huge potato fan so I'll favour the ones with potato in it LOL.  
• picture: top left corner 

2. Ika 

• menu description: grilled squid, sake soy garlic marinade 
• thoughts: In my opinion, it wasn't anything special and I was disappointed with this one. I'm not saying it wasn't delicious, but there was nothing really unique about this dish. 
• picture: bottom left corner 

3. Crab Tempura Roll 

• menu description: snow crab, cucumber, sweet chili sauce 
• thoughts: The sauce was really nice and had a great kick to it! But the breading on the outside of the sushi was kind of soggy :( 
• picture: bottom right corner

4. Chipotle Beef Curry Ishi-Yaki 

• menu description: rice, slow braised AAA beef, chipotle curry, egg; served in a hot stone bowl 
• thoughts: I'm not a big fan of curry of any kind but this dish was pretty good! I think it's because the curry wasn't overpowering or super intense (which is good for me). Also, the amount of fried rice (the ones that are at the bottom of the stone bowl that become crunchy) in the dish made me a happy customer :) 
• picture: top right corner

Overall
The food was decent and unique but personally, I was pretty dissapointed because I expected more from this restaurant (especially since I traveled 1.5 hours to get there); going to Guu a few days ago didn't help either. Its fusion dishes reminded me a lot of Guu Izakaya so these two restaurants are somewhat similar in my opinion.

The good thing about this restaurant is that this place is a lot quieter than Guu so you can carry on a conversation without having to scream across the table. If you want Japanese fusion and would like a quieter place, this is the place for you. But if you're like me who likes loud and lively environments, Guu is a better suit for you!

Tip: the dishes are pretty expensive, especially when you're a student like me so definitely try and get a discount or something!