I'm Only Here for the Food!

Guu with Garlic
1698 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC

Almost everybody in Vancouver knows about Guu and its offerings. However, while they are known for their izakaya dishes, it was recently that they started to serve lunch in their Robson location (if memory serves me right, they serve/used to serve lunch in their Thurlow location). And, me working near that places, I saw no reason NOT to drop by for lunch, right?

Unlike most of my lunches, I chose to go with a “volunteer” (not really). That way, I would end up checking additional dishes. And, just in case, before we walked in, a quick look at their menu (not sure how readable it is – feel free to drop a message if you think a larger version is necessary!).

I started with a drink: Ramune. I was given the bottle with a small plastic opener (that yellow/greenish plastic tab). It startled PE (my lunch companion) as he was not expecting the “explosion” as a result of pushing the marble. Pass that, I would say that it is similar to Sprite (but a bit more lemon-y and acidic). But, still, it was just a sweet carbonated drink.

Anyway, for our lunches, I ordered the pork tenderloin burger and PE ordered the garlic steak moco loco (don’t ask!). My order came with:

A small cup of soup, here, pumpkin soup and a salad. However, due to a snafu, PE ended up eating the salad. What happened was that PE also ordered a salad to go along and we thought the salad was ordered as an appetizer. Nope, that salad was part of my dish… The soup was quite interesting, I must say. While it might look creamy and thick, it was actually a bit more watery. Not that it was bad; rather, it was unexpected. Still, it held some sweetness of the pumpkin.

PE’s order. I am not sure what makes the “moco loco” part and I did not really ask about the yellow blob. Probably it was a garlic mashed potato? Regardless, PE did not find it worthwhile. However, that might be partially due to the fact he does not like rare-ish meat (which was the way it was cooked).

Here is my order: the pork tenderloin burger. Again, not sure how much cropping affects the final result but I will have to say this was small. Think about 66% of a McD’s Filet of Fish. When you have a big appetite, well, this might leave you still hungry afterwards. As for the taste, it was actually quite good, with a hint of sweet sauce and the tenderloin being crispy (it was fried). Would I have preferred a pulled pork version? That would have been interesting…

Overall, I will have to say lunch was way below average. Aside from the portion issue (I won’t be too critical here, as each dish was under $9), the main problem was timing. Between the soup/salad and the rest of the food, it easily took over 30 minutes. Not a good thing when you consider that (1), they were open only from 12:00 m to 2:00 p.m. for lunch; (2) people have limited time for lunch and (3) there were not that many people. Would I come back for lunch? Unlikely, no due to all the reasons above.