Damso Izakaya - Review

Solid Japanese spot on Whyte

Successfully broke the go-to decision of always eating at Dorinku on Whyte ave by trying something new. It’s hard, but sometimes change can be good. In this case, it was a surprise to me that this unsuspecting restaurant on Whyte served up some decent fare.

Damso Izakaya on Whyte is a small Japanese restaurant that had some surprising dishes. First was some Parm Truffle Edamame. This dish was surprisingly tasty, might not be your thing if you don’t like the taste of truffle. 

Surprisingly, our Dynamite Roll came out super quick. It had the shrimp tempura in it with some spicy mayo. Flavor was spot on and tasted better because it came out in under 4 minutes. Standard roll, great execution. Tried the Ika Geso (squid tentacles) skewer and it was kind of disappointing. They said it was a deep fried skewer but was hoping for it to be cooked over charcoal. Just something I’d expect from a Japanese restaurant but it’s not a dealbreaker. The skewer was just ok though. Salmon tataki was also quite tasty with the nice touch of yuzu ponzo all over it.

Without fail, the chicken karaage slapped pretty hard. We got it with the honey mustard sauce (cause it’s my fave) and was pretty happy with the dish. It also tasted good as leftovers. Had some crunch in it even after nuking it. Another surprising dish was this massive Agedashi Tofu. Had some solid flavor but wish the tofu itself were bite sized and I also wished it was crispier.

Carbonara Udon was a pretty standard with the exception of the fresh yolk in it’s shell. Pretty cool to just mix that up in the udon. Although this udon had the standard bacon, parm and carbonara sauce...it kinda felt flat. Not enough tastiness for me to recommend it. 

I was already insanely full but felt the need to get dessert for a full assessment of Damso. Souffle cheesecake here was not too bad. Nice and dence yet fluffy? What am I trying to convey here. It’s great to share and was decently presented with the matcha strewn upon it.

Damso had great service here and offered a pretty cozy experience. Damso in Japanese means “to have a good chat” and i’m sure it had that in mind when designing this small yet traditional looking restaurant. Would definitely try again.

Sal says: Just Try It (3.8/5)

Ashley says: Sushi and edamame was good. Tofu was delicious and I loved the salmon tataki! Udon was meh.