Popular B.C.-based Japanese restaurant chain finally opens first Toronto location

A hotly anticipated new restaurant from British Columbia has officially landed in Toronto, marking its first venture outside the province.

B.C. is, inarguably, the Japanese and Chinese food capital of Canada (its Chinese Restaurant Awards recipients outnumbered Ontario's two-to-one, after all), but Ontario comes in a very close second.

As such, the province, and its capital city in particular, is home to no small number of exceptional restaurants serving Asian cuisines, but it's still always exciting when a new chain lands in Toronto by way of the West Coast.

Look no further than the fervour drummed up when The Lunch Lady, a Vietnamese restaurant from Vancouver, finally opened a location in Toronto this past summer for proof.

The latest restaurant from B.C. to make its first venture into the Toronto market is Saku, a chain famed across Metro Vancouver and beyond for its Japanese cuisine, with a particular focus on katsu.

Founded in 2018 with its original location in Burnaby, B.C., Saku has since expanded to five locations in British Columbia and, as of Saturday, Nov. 1, one in Toronto.

The restaurant's long-awaited opening was somewhat overshadowed by baseball-related brouhaha, but now that the Blue Jays are, for better or worse, no longer the subject of every conversation happening in the city, we can once again focus on what really matters: katsu.

Saku serves up what could be the most diverse selection of the panko-crusted Japanese dish in the city, with the choice of various cuts of pork, chicken, seafood and even straight-up mozzarella, all blanketed in that delightfully crispy, lightly-fried cocoon.

Even though the city won't be hosting a victory parade for the Blue Jays this week, Saku, I'd argue, is giving Toronto something worth celebrating.

As of publication, Saku is still in soft-opening mode, so you'll want to call ahead of your visit to confirm hours.

Saku is located at 22 Edward St.