Shibuya Izakaya Japanese Restaurant located at 449 16 Ave NE in Calgary

After a brief stop and stroll at the Chinook Centre after arrived in Calgary after 3-4 hours of driving from Edmonton, we went to Shibuya Izakaya Japanese Restaurant for lunch!  Melissa’s friend Linda recommended this Japanese restaurant to her for their really good sushi and izakaya items!  We were all really excited for lunch in Calgary. 🙂

Shibuya Izakaya in Calgary!

Their sushi list if you are up for it all 😛

After we stepped in and got a table for 7, we perused the menu to see what there was to try and eat. Shibuya Izakaya Japanese Restaurant serves sushi rolls, sashimi, izakaya items, and even ramen.  Since we were waiting on two of our friends to finish up an appointment first, we ordered three appetizers to share first.  They also have free wifi here (I actually guessed the password and it worked haha) and the staff are very friendly even though we stayed there for quite some time while waiting and eating that afternoon.  (Also, although this was a Japanese restaurant, the staff there appear to be Chinese, so you might not expect true authentic Japanese izakaya and sushi rolls — just a heads up.)

It was a very nice place to dine in

We ordered Takoyaki, Chicken Karaage, and Spicy Chili Tofu to share.  The Takoyaki were plump and so beautifully presented — actually all of their dishes were beautifully presented!  I really liked the takoyaki! ^_^

Takoyaki (6 pcs). $6.75
-deep fried octopus croquettes

Not the most focused picture, but it was so delicious!

Chicken Karaage. $6.75
-breaded and marinated boneless chicken chunks, deep-fried until golden brown

The Chicken Karaage was also delicious!  Sometimes it’s hard to find karaage that is prepared and fried just to my liking but I really enjoyed this one!  It was perfectly crispy on the outside and quite tender on the inside.  It was just a little odd that they served it with some sweet and sour sauce as karaage is usually served plain or with Japanese mayo.  Nevertheless, I really liked the karaage!! 😀

Spicy Chili Tofu. $6.75
-deep fried tofu topped with tobiko spicy mayo sauce

The Spicy Chili Tofu were actually really delicious!  It was very soft inside and the sauce on top of it was amazing!  Some of us finished the sliced daikon with the sauce since it was so tasty!

While we waited, we perused the wifi and then decided on ordering our main lunch items since it was getting quite late.  I ordered the Lunch Special Bento Box (their lunch special is until 3 p.m.) where you could choose two items with it.  I chose the spicy salmon roll and the dynamite roll.

Our appetizers

Alejandro, Juliana, and Tita Violy each got a bowl of ramen.  On this visit, they only had one type of ramen available and since Juliana only eats chicken, the kitchen was actually able to prepare a bowl of ramen with chicken meat for her.  That was very nice of them.  The ramen looked good!

Miso Ramen. $12.50
-BBQ pork, boiled egg, green onions, wakame seaweed, sesame

Miso Ramen substituted with chicken

Melissa got the pork cutlet and tempura vegetables.  I tried one of the pork cutlets and was actually so impressed with its quality and taste!  Yummy!

Lunch Special Bento Box (two items and includes soup, salad, rice). $12.25
-tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlet) & tempura vegetable (yam, zucchini, pumpkin, broccoli)

Miso soup that came with the bento box lunch

As for my Lunch Special Bento Box, it came with a miso soup that I enjoyed.  It was like a comfort soup!  My bento box came with the spicy salmon roll, dynamite roll, rice, and salad.  I appreciated that the salad actually contained some alfafa sprouts; something that I don’t usually see in salads.  It was really fresh and refreshing!

Lunch Special Bento Box (two items and includes soup, salad, rice). $12.25
-spicy salmon roll & dynamite roll

Spicy salmon roll (6 pcs)

Dynamite roll

Salad

The presentation of the bento box was also nice.  The spicy salmon roll wasn’t truly authentic spicy salmon since it was only the sauce that covered the rolls that were a tiny tad spicy.  I have had better spicy salmon rolls.  The dynamite roll was also not bad.  All of this filled us up!

When the rest of our crew came in, they arrived just before 3 p.m. so they were able to take advantage of the Lunch Special Bento Box before the day ended.  Also, because we had in mind to try some of their specialty rolls, we actually ordered one to try!  We ordered the House Special Roll.

House Special Roll. $14.50
-avocado, tuna, salmon, shrimp, flying fish roe, cucumber, capelin roe

The House Special Roll didn’t take too long to arrive and when it did, we definitely all took pictures of it.  It was so cute!  Because of the colours of the orange and white, it reminded me of a little fuzzy caterpillar the way that the white blended into the orange colour.  It was an interesting roll.  I wanted a little more taste in it, however.

Do you see what I mean about how it looks “fuzzy”?

So nicely rolled!

Check out this gigantic soy sauce and sriracha sauce container!  Clearly, this restaurant appeals more to western tastes and sizes 😉

Finally, we were done our lunch after 3:30 p.m. and then headed on our way to check in at our hotel in Calgary.  It was a very fulfilling lunch and I can see why it is popular with the locals.  Now, I can’t say that it was true authentic Japanese food with the way that the food was made or its taste, but many of the items were very tasty!