Sunday, June 5, 2011

Raa? More Like Blah!


If it wasn't for the voucher and the fact that it was uptown I would never have bothered with this place. I can't believe the guy talked so much sh*t. If I didn't know any better I would have believed every word of it.

Raa recently opened at Yonge and Sheppard.

Despite the bad reviews I still went with hopes that it wouldn't be so bad. Once again should've listened to the people. I didn't leave smiling like this statue. I was fuming.


Once we entered we heard some loud raucus at the back of the restaurant. When I looked down I realized it was the staff greeting us just like the people at Guu. The setup is much more different than Guu though. At Guu once you enter you can see the entire place but here it was long and narrow so you couldn't see the chefs behind the sushi bar until you walk further down.

Just a warning here all the pictures came out really bad since it was dim lighting. Hate it when restaurants do that.

After flipping through the menu my eyes went straight to the snow crab croquettes. Unfortunately, it wasn't available that nite. Then we asked for the grilled tongue and that wasn't available either. WTH!!! It was 7pm on a Friday night and the 2 items that I was excited to try wasn't available at all. Not a great start so far.

Here was the complimentary appetizer. Some sort of marinated octopus over bean sprouts and okra I think. It tasted ok nothing extraordinary here.


My boyfriend ordered the 20 piece sashimi platter. It was decent. It wasn't spectacular but it wasn't horrible.


$17.50 for this huge plate of rice and sauce oh sorry, Katsu curry. The pork was dry and the sauce was watery and so bland that I had to complain to the waitress. The owner came over to ask what was wrong with the dish. He claimed he just ate it before I got my dish. He agreed that the pork was a "lil" dry but the sauce was great. Apparently it's one of their bestsellers. He even said that he has 4 chefs who just came off the plane from Japan the week before. I honestly question the taste buds of these "chefs who just came from Japan". My boyfriend's curry dish taste a hundred times better than this and he uses the package curry mix. (By the way, I got charged full price for this dish. See how there's six tiny slices of meat well I only ate one piece. They didn't even bother to either remove it from my bill or provide me with another dish...some customer satisfaction there).


This was their house special, the Raa deluxe with lobster, king crab and caviar. By the way, there was no meat under that shell it was for display only. Unless the meat was used in the sushi roll but believe me I couldn't taste the lobster or crab meat at all.


All I tasted was rice. Also I don't think that was king crab it was IMITATION CRAB. $16 for this. I got ripped off here. The owner actually told me himself that they use real crab meat. This without a doubt was not king crab. I know how crab taste and that certainly was not it. When I told him that I didn't like his sushi roll he asked me where do I go to eat sushi so he can imitate it. It was a pretty interesting conversation we had. I will just leave it at that. (Maybe that's why he still charged me full price for the curry dish?).


It's funny we received our entrees before the tapas dishes. These last 2 dishes didn't arrive till another half hour later after we were done our entree. (well I was done earlier since I didn't eat the curry dish nor did I order anything else).

Here was the marinated black cod. The sauce was just too sweet.


I can't remember the name of this dish. The waitress recommended it since we couldn't get the grilled tongue. It's almost similar to bulgogi but a much more sweeter taste to it.


If you do want to give this place a try make sure to talk to the owner. He is easy to spot. Let's just say he doesn't look Japanese or even Asian at all. He can sure talk a load of crap and can probably convince you his food is one of the best authentic Japanese cuisine since he has chefs who just "got off the plane from Japan".

TOTAL BILL $82...ONCE IS ENOUGH!!!

4848 Yonge Street
(Yonge & Sheppard)
416-224-0075

Raa Uptown Japanese on Urbanspoon

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

HAHAHA.. oh my, what a terrible experience! I probably wouldn't bother letting the chef know since I doubt they'll do anything about it anyway. Some places just don't care.. and that's why they never improve and just end up closing... Raa seems like one of them ;)

The Food Junkie said...

I'm still shocked from the lobster shell without lobster meat in it. Horrible! Thanks for the post now I know not to go!

Eat Here Next said...

if he hadnt come to our table i wouldn't have bothered saying anything but since he asked i let him have it but i didn't call him out on the imitation crab since he really believed it was real crab...hey if he wants to lie bout it then you know wat i've got nothing further to say

Eat Here Next said...

hey if it wasn't for the voucher & location believe me i wouldn't have even bothered with this place...darn those deals gotta learn to say NO

Chops said...

Wow, that's a tough bill to swallow for sub-par food. thanks for the warning, will not try.

Spatula Geek said...

My jaw dropped when you told me that curry is for $17.50! Even at bloor and spadina I can get that for $8.75 and I get 2 cutlets!

I might have been a bit hasty in my tweet about the airplane. The sushi staff looks competent but the back kitchen staff should be ashamed. It sounds like the owner had the kitchen cook the food to his liking. The chef should have spoken up about anything wrong about the dishes. Looking at the lunch menu also shocked me when it said rice and soup OR salad! Huh??? Did the food prices really go that high? I hope that was a typo.

He sounds like a car salesman to me really trying to sell the food.

kiki's B.F.F said...

hate those re-use shells at restaurant =P next time you are craving for katshu don or curry just head to J town instead =D

Spatula Geek said...

Don't forget about the Omlette Rice and the bakery there also!

Ally said...

Oh to live in a world where one thinks imitation crab is king crab...think of the money savings!

Eat Here Next said...

@chops yes do not even bother wasting ur money here so many other places to try

@spatulageek i got ripped off pretty bad...personally in this case im just pissed at the owner since he has the nerve to treat me like an idiot...i know wat real crab taste like dude and that aint it

@kikibff i wasn't craving for curry it was the only thing i didnt mind tryin on the menu...nothing really got me excited except for the items they didnt have like the crab croquettes & grilled tongue

@ally lol yes they will be making loads of money selling fake crab as real crab

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