MASARU OGASAWARA: [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
[CHEERING]
MASARU OGASAWARA: [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
[CHEERING]
MASARU OGASAWARA: [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
In Japan, it's pretty common when the customers come into
the restaurant [JAPANESE].
Something like that.
But I want to give the customer a good impression, so
we just sing that only one time together.
[SINGING IN JAPANESE]
MASARU OGASAWARA: It means "Welcome to our restaurant."
Some people hate greetings because it's so noisy, loud.
But it's pretty important.
When I come to Toronto, I'm not sure about that we are
being so successful.
So at the beginning, I really want to say, thank you so much
for coming to this small restaurant.
I love greetings.
I love the shouting.
It's totally different from the other Japanese
restaurants.
It's our style.
It's Guu style.
It's my style.
Hi.
This is Masaru Ogasawara.
I'm a operational manager at the Guu Toronto.
And kind of the executive chef too.
I don't eat sushi every single day.
But I can go to Izakaya every single day.
Izakaya is the Japanese style pubs.
Every Japanese people, after work, they go to the Izakaya
and having the beer.
Izakaya is the not so high-end dining restaurant.
We don't serve any sushi.
But our tapas dishes is pretty good.
Our price is a pretty low, but some Japanese restaurants
overprice the dishes, is so we are pretty honest
to serving our food.
I'm proud to be Japanese, so I want to serve the real taste
Japanese dish for Torontonians.
We serve a lot of dishes.
So something, they don't like it.
Something, they love it.
So I think it's a good experience for Izakaya dining.
-[SPEAKING JAPANESE]
-Nice order.
MASARU OGASAWARA: At our restaurant, Kakimayo is that
most popular dish.
Kakimayo is the baked Pacific oyster with white sauce,
spinach, mayo, with cheese on the top too.
I serve the Kakimayo on their shells.
Customers see those.
They like our presentation.
Everybody order the dishes.
Ikapiri is the deep fried squid legs with spicy ketchup
sauce, with some hint of deep friend garlic tips.
We just deep fry slightly and we toss the [INAUDIBLE]
like a spicy ketchup.
[INAUDIBLE]
dishes [INAUDIBLE]
popular food.
Yeah.
I'm pretty proud of it.
Yeah.
-Here we go, guys.
[JAPANESE].
[CHEERING]
MASARU OGASAWARA: I went out with
Natsuhiko, Kenta, and Yumeho.
Kenta has been working together for three lives.
He's a nice manager.
Natsuhiko, I was working with him almost seven years.
He's my best friend.
And Yumeho is the administrator.
We are working with [INAUDIBLE].
They are my friends.
Kind of my family.
KENTA: [CLEARS THROAT]
MASARU OGASAWARA: [INAUDIBLE].
Let's go to get spaghetti now, OK?
-OK.
MASARU OGASAWARA: Yeah.
Let's go to Enoteca.
Enoteca sociale.
[SPEAKING JAPANESE]
[CHEERING]
NATSUHIKO: [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
KENTA: Yeah.
MASARU OGASAWARA: Actually, my dad used to own the Italian
restaurant in Japan.
Japanese Italian food is pretty good.
So, yeah.
Sometimes better than authentic
Italian food, I guess.
Yeah.
KENTA: [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
MASARU OGASAWARA: Here, you go, sir.
KENTA: Thank you, sir.
MASARU OGASAWARA: Here you go, lady.
Here you go, gentleman.
CHRIS JACKSON: How are you guys doing?
Come on in.
Chris.
Great to see you guys again.
LUCA GATTI: Hi, I'm Luca from Enoteca Sociale.
And we're just about to cook the crew from Guu some bites.
You guys like everything?
Perfect.
We'll feed you all night.
MASARU OGASAWARA: I need a beer.
You need a beer too?
LUCA GATTI: The cuisine in this restaurant is Roman food
with a little Toronto flair.
What we do differently from a lot of Italian restaurants in
the city is we use not very many
ingredients in our dishes.
But the little ingredients that we do use, we treat them
with extreme care so they all stand out quite nice.
Treating the ingredients very simply can be a challenge,
because you can't really hide behind certain spices and
certain flavors.
You have to make sure the ingredients that you source
are the best ingredients as possible.
We're lucky here in Ontario.
We have some great local farmers
that do amazing things.
So I always make sure to support the local farmers that
are willing to go out of their way and
grow an amazing product.
All right.
Main course time.
The main purpose of this dish is to have a
lot of fun with it.
The chicken is completely deboned except for the wings.
This way, it's super easy for the customers to
tear right into it.
Just finish it with a knife directly in the middle of it,
and she's done.
-[SPEAKING JAPANESE]
KENTA: Wow, it's so crispy.
MASARU OGASAWARA: Oh.
ALL: Wow.
MASARU OGASAWARA: So good.
-That's not an easy thing.
MASARU OGASAWARA: [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
KENTA: [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
MASARU OGASAWARA: [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
MASARU OGASAWARA: What's that?
LUCA GATTI: That's a sticky, sticky [INAUDIBLE] for you
with house made vanilla ice cream.
There you go, guys.
Enjoy
MASARU OGASAWARA: Looks good.
Thank you.
[LAUGHING]
MASARU OGASAWARA: It was such a good time for us, having to
know Toronto more.
We just came to Toronto like, three years ago.
So I'm not Torontonian yet.
Let's go to the next place, OK?
Yeah.
Let's go.
It's time for drinks.
-[SPEAKING JAPANESE]
MASARU OGASAWARA: I want to be a Torontonian in the future,
so I have to hang around more with my friends.
-[SPEAKING JAPANESE]
[ALL LAUGHING]
MASARU OGASAWARA: I don't know so many bars in Toronto, so my
friends told me the secret bar.
[SPEAKING JAPANESE]
MASARU OGASAWARA: Hi there.
What's up?
-[INAUDIBLE]
MASARU OGASAWARA: Just for four people.
-Yeah.
Sure
MASARU OGASAWARA: Thank you.
So I have never been there before.
The place is pretty gorgeous.
I ideally want to go back there.
Yeah.
Nice to meet you.
Masaru.
ROBIN KAUFMAN: Nice to meet you.
MASARU OGASAWARA: The bartender, he's nice guy.
So I trust him 100%.
He's moving pretty fast.
He put a lot of ingredients.
[SPEAKING JAPANESE]
ROBIN KAUFMAN: A pink sea salt and a grapefruit twist.
NATSUHIKO: Pink sea salt.
MASARU OGASAWARA: Pink sea salt.
Everybody loves his cocktails.
-[SPEAKING JAPANESE]
MASARU OGASAWARA: Thank you so much.
[SPEAKING JAPANESE]
NATSUHIKO: Woah.
MASARU OGASAWARA: [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
I tried two of them.
Two of them was pretty good.
ROBIN KAUFMAN: Agave, lime juice, orange bitters and a
twist of [INAUDIBLE].
MASARU OGASAWARA: Mmm.
ROBIN KAUFMAN: But lots of alcohol.
Enjoy.
MASARU OGASAWARA: So good.
Let's go to munchies.
Let's go back to our own restaurant, OK?
NATSUHIKO: All right.
Thank you, Robin.
MASARU OGASAWARA: Thank you, Robin.
-Bye, Robin.
MASARU OGASAWARA: Next up, man.
Go back to Guu Isakaya.
Let's go have some snacks.
I love you guys.
KENTA: Me too.
MASARU OGASAWARA: You too?
[LAUGHING]
Actually, I guess three years ago, I just come
here alone, by myself.
And then Nats came here one month later.
Three years ago, just two of us.
But right now, over 100 people, 100 staff working at
the Guu restaurant at the [INAUDIBLE].
[INAUDIBLE]
our workers at the Guu, they don't have
the family in Canada.
So it means that we are kind of family.
Guu family.
He's my brother.
He's already my brother.
Here's my sister.
I love you guys so much.
NATSUHIKO: Aw.
MASARU OGASAWARA: Please don't leave me.
[SPEAKING JAPANESE]
MASARU OGASAWARA: [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
Go, go, go.
[INAUDIBLE].
Go!
Kenta, what are you going to be making?
-Ochazuke.
MASARU OGASAWARA: Ochazuke?
-Yeah.
MASARU OGASAWARA: What is that?
Ochazuke?
Yeah, it's kind of Japanese kind of congee.
Chop the scallion with egg.
Oh, looks good, man.
I'm still hungry.
I'm still munchy.
Seeing The meal's so good, Kenta.
So good.
Especially like, after drinking, we need some of
those soup dishes.
[INAUDIBLE]
Kenta.
It's so good.
Do we eat this one a lot?
No [JAPANESE].
You have to eat more.
You did.
But even though we ate the
ochazuke, I feel some hangover.
[LAUGHS]
Kenta feels more hungover, actually.
KENTA: [SINGING IN JAPANESE]