[Japanese] Donburi

Restaurant: Donburi
Location: 505 York Regional Rd 7 #93, Markham, ON L3T 7T1
Price Range: $$

[wp-review]

Donburi is a Japanese restaurant located in the same plaza (Commerce Gate) with Sweet Note Desserts (review here). I have been here twice and the quality is the same. During both visits, the service was good and the servers frequently check up on us to make sure everything was okay.

As you can see, Donburi is a bright and neat restaurant. They had the new series of Pokemon on the TV, so I pretty much kept starring at that lol. I wish they had the original series or Sailor Moon on though 🙁 the new series is just..not quite the same.

If you know me, you know I LOVE black cod. The moment I saw this, I wanted to devour the entire thing, hence the bad-angled picture, I was rushing to eat while the fish was still hot! 🙂 It was so tender and melted in my mouth. The skin on top of the fish was crispy and there was no layer of slimy fat either.

Ikayaki is simply a grilled squid topped with sweet soy sauce. I definitely recommend this dish. The squid was cooked perfectly – very tender, not too chewy and rubbery at all. The sauce on it is amazing and complimented the dish really well.

The takoyaki were tender and fluffy. Unfortunately there were only bits of octopus, but good thing they weren’t rubbery. Although my friend liked this dish, it wasn’t something that blew me away, but it was still better than many others I’ve had. Albeit it was only $5 for 6 balls, I can’t ask for much. I know Guu has this dish as well, but they were more expensive and the takoyaki there are very starchy.

Don’t order it, nothing special. Okonomiyaki fries is basically fries topped with seaweed, mayonnaise, and a soy sauce based sauce on top. As you can see, the ratio of fries to sauce was a bit off, there isn’t enough sauce for the fries at all. If you really want Okonomiyaki Fries, I recommend Ramen Raijin near Ryerson, their fries there is delicious!

I loved this dish! The chicken pieces were nice and juicy, and the breading on it was light and not too salty at all. I wished they had the sauce on the side though, as I love to dip my Karaage and top it with a lot of that thick and rich Japanese mayo.

The Onigiri was okay, there was nothing inside and surprisingly it’s not really spicy at all, I would say the spicy level was mild.

The seafood skewers were not overcooked and they were all well seasoned. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for the beef, they were a bit dry and not much flavour, at least the sauce saved it…

I’m not sure why I ordered this in winter lol, this dish would have been perfect for a hot summer day, not during winter. This dish was okay, not good and not bad either. It is very refreshing and the flavour is subtle. To be honest this soba dish is actually really easy to make, so I don’t recommend ordering it when you are at a japanese restaurant, unless they put a twist on it.

Overall I didn’t really enjoy my time at Donburi. It’s not a place I would rush back to, and even if I was in the area, I don’t think I would visit it either. I have tried their Donburi before and it was quite decent (hence the name of the restaurant). The price is quite reasonable, and with all the family Chinese restaurants around the area, this place is a good addition to the food scene uptown :).