Tanuki - Markham

The fact that I am writing this review upon immediately leaving the place after eating shows my extreme dissatisfied about this supposedly high-class restaurant. I don 't know if it is supposed to act like a fusion-style Izakaya restaurant, but I didn 't think it lived up to the hype I was told it 'd be like. The pictures are a fraud and service was beyond just terrible. I went the moment it opened at 11am and tried out the three dishes as attached to my post. It was overly fried and the tempura batter wasn 't sticking to the shrimp. Their fried stuff needs a lot of work. Their representation of the food and how the photos are published don 't match so there 's a consistency issue. It also doesn 't taste that great as others stated. The atmosphere was quite cold when fall is just around the corner. We changed our seating location once already thinking that going up the top of the stairs would be warmer but it 's not. We didn 't even take off our jackets when dining and we still kept feeling a draft coming from somewhere. Maybe the a/c was still on. Idk if they changed the staff and owners overtime, but it was definitely how I remember it when I even walked in to grab a take-out menu as a newcomer. My brother bought the Thanksgiving special one year and again, the inconsistency from the promo pictures weren 't lining up! The roast beef was too dry despite the outlook of it looking quite juicy and moist. One thing I agree with one of the other reviews mixed in here is how they said the service is unbelievably frustrating. They come to you frequently for the first 2-3 times when you 're NOT ready yet but when you are, they DO actively ignore your table when it isn 't busy. Mind you, I said I went there immediately upon opening. Later, walked in 2-3 more tables of people. It was still quite empty. I wonder if they think it 's because us customers are indecisive and slow at ordering that they essentially just give up on coming back to serve your table until they hear you say we 're gonna leave if they don 't come back to me in the next round. On top of all of this, she didn 't come back to clear out the table as we were running out of space to put things aside when done and she didn 't refill our water pot (I asked to have hot water) given it 's finished so fast because of its tiny size. It 's the same size as the cups she provided us and we deliberately watched ourselves to conserve our pouring because we knew it 'd be gone in a flash of we split it in half. The fact the waiter said it 's 10% off if we paid in cash made us fume given how poor the customer service experience was so I said we will stick with paying with credit card. We were originally thinking of tipping but luckily we didn 't and saved a few dollars on top of a hefty bill. The customer behind us did the same and we could almost feel off of him even that he was dissatisfied with his visit here as well. Absolutely not worth it. Is the dinner time portion the same type of dissatisfaction?

We've eaten at this place several times now and we fully enjoy ourselves each time. Great place to eat with friends, family, or just ourselves. Eating at the patio I'd quite relaxing if the weather is nice enough. The portions are very filling! Much larger than I would have expected and surprisingly quite full after a meal here. The servers are really nice and very hard working. Then you have J-Town to explore after eating...Parking: No issues with parking.

Was in the area for some lunch and found this place when searching, wait time for the service it’s pretty short when getting your food after ordering as it was a mid afternoon time.Ordered some seafood noodles, and fried chicken,The portion of the noodle it’s was quite small for the price you paying for same go as the fried chicken,The flavour of the noodle was a bit salty for my liking, as it tastes like soy sauce for majority of it. Same goes for the fried chicken. Both were little to salty, not a Japanese authentic restaurant, for what it served and the pricing of the food, recommended go somewhere else.Overall it was okay place to grab a bite if you’re near J -town, was it worth? Not really

September 2023 update:I've dined in at Tanuki a few times since they've opened and happy to see a changing menu and improved execution.Most recently I came for dinner and we got the torched mackerel for the table and I got the Chicken Sando and Aki Crisp cocktail. The food was fresh and tasty. The salad with my sandwich was really overdressed and sitting in a pool of salty dressing. Service was great. 2020: Came here at 8pm on a Saturday evening and was seated in their outdoor patio immediately. The tables were distanced well and staff were masked up. Service got rather slow near the end of the night so we were waiting quite a while to flag down a server.We ordered the Tanuki slaw appetizer, and Buddha Palm Pig Knuckle and Memories of Harambe Tonkotsu Curry.The Tanuki Slaw has a lovely mix of textures but I think it needs tweaking on the seasoning. The umeboshi (salted prune) dressing is too sweet and needs a pickled/savoury element.The portions of the mains are huge so I think it's great value. The Tonkotsu Curry was fried perfectly. Note that the curry tastes like butter chicken sauce it was a bit unexpected, but still tasted great and had potatos and carrots like in traditional Japanese curry. The Pork Knuckle was super tender and tasted good. The sauce is a bit watery and I think could be more concentrated.The pickled beets that comes with the mains are awesome. But the miso tahini glazed sweet potatoes don't really have any of the described glaze flavours.Overall, it's a great addition to J Town and I'm hopeful that they will improve as they establish themselves.

We came here on a Friday night and it wasn't busy. We got seated right away and ordered the mackerel appetizer, omurice, and chicken sando. Everything was just ok the omurice was a good texture, but the fried rice was something I could have done at home. The fries with the sandwich were soggy. The mackerel was flavourful but very oily.