Kinka Izakaya is a chained authentic Japanese restaurant that offers the perfect low-budget lunch combos ideal for students. Kinka Izakaya has multiple locations across Downtown Toronto. The best part is that one of its location is only about a 5 minute walk from the Ryerson campus!
They have a wide selection of Japanese cuisines features in their lunch menu. For example, noodles, donburi combos, sashimi, and even light snacks too. Almost everything is under the $15.00 budget!
The space is also really organized and clean with both indoor (tables, benches and bar seating) and outdoor seating area. Quick service and upbeat music too.
I got the chance to try out all 3 of their donburi combos thanks to the $2 discount coupons I got from Ryerson orientation week. I love that all of their lunch donburi combos comes in big portion, served along with the house special salad and miso soup. You will definitely feel really full after this meal. After trying out all 3 different flavours, my personal favourite would have to be the chicken karaage don.
- Karaage Don $10.00 | Rating ★★★★☆
The karaage don was served with lettuce and white rice, with pieces of Japanese-styled fried chicken marinated with light soy sauce flavour. The chicken were fried super crispy yet still juicy on the inside. The sauce was definitely a highlight, the chicken tasted amazing with Kinka’s signature garlic mayo sauce.
- Gyu Don $10.00 | Rating ★★★★☆
Oh my god, I absolutely loved neat touch of the soft boil egg placed on top. They had a great balance of the meat and the rice, where the donburi bowl can nicely mix together without having extra unmixed rice leftover at the end. The marinated slow-cooked beef meat is soft and didn’t taste dry at all, it tasted a lot similar to the Japanese sukiyaki beef to me. As well, I really liked the teriyaki sauce they put on, but I think if they served it with just a tad more sauce it would be even better.
- Salmon Don $11.00 | Rating ★★★☆☆
Their salmon sashimi was sliced into pretty big slices with some small chunks underneath the big slices. The natural and fresh salmon really shined , and I also loved how they lightly torched the salmon on top. However, compare to the chicken and the beef donburi, it didn’t taste new or overwhelm me. Also, they only lightly sprinkled some soy sauce when serving the Salmon Don, so the rice kind of tasted a bit plain at the end with no sauce leftover. Aside the 3 signature donburi combos, Kinka also has a SPECIAL spicy salmon don option for spicy food lovers too! I would definitely want to come back and give that one a try too.
Kinka Izakaya
Address: 398 Church St, Toronto, ON M5B 2A2
Hours: Sun – Thurs (Lunch) 11:30AM – 2:30PM (Dinner) 5:00PM – 12:00AM Fri – Sat (Lunch) 11:30AM – 2:30PM (Dinner) 5:00PM – 1:00AM
Telephone: 416-977-0999
Website: kinka.com (multiple locations in Toronto)
Hey Toronto and Ryerson foodies~ I’m always hungry and looking for new food places to try! Collab and share your food recommendations with me! DM me @my.eatz
Post by: Yunny Hou
