Victoria has a number of Japanese restaurants. One of the newest is Toro Bar & Bar which is really good! It serves great sushi and other Japanese cuisine.
Victoria’s Toro Japanese Restaurant
Toro Bar & Bar is a newer Japanese restaurant. Located at 708 View Street, the place opened in 2022. We checked it out in the spring of 2023 and were very impressed! We aren’t experts in Japanese cuisine, and we aren’t Japanese ourselves, but we did live in Japan for half a dozen years, and we love Japanese food, so we know Japanese food more than the average person. What we had at Toro Bar & Bar was exceptional!
The restaurant is conveniently located just off Douglas Street between Yates Street and Fort Street. It’s just a short distance from Bay Centre in the heart of downtown.
Toro is very nicely decorated. It’s modern and stylish. The interior is almost all black, so dark, but still with good lighting. Along one side is the drink bar and at the far end is the sushi bar.
Staff enthusiastically call out “irasshaimase!” when customers enter the restaurant, which is what cooks and wait staff really do at restaurants in Japan. “Irasshaimase” means “welcome” and “come in”. From start to finish we found the service both professional and friendly. The seating was comfortable and the ambience was very nice. The food was both delicious and wonderfully presented. It all looked as delicious as it tasted!
Our Experience at Toro Bar & Bar
We ate at Toro Bar & Bar in 2023. We arrived at about 5:30 pm. Soon after we arrived the place started to get busy. The people sitting next to us had obviously been before. They told the waitress they didn’t need the menu, they had eaten there so many times.
We tried a selection of items from the menu. We had the Chicken Yaki Udon (which is an udon noodle dish in a bowl), Classic Ton Katsu (Japanese deep-fried pork cutlet) and BBQ Squid (which is one of the restaurant’s signature dishes). They were all delicious.
At the restaurant we also had what was called Bao Bao Bao which included three servings of kara-age fried chicken in sauce with Japanese pickles in almost taco-like steamed buns. Those were amazing! They were so good!
The menu at the restaurant is full of sushi options, including photos of some of their feature dishes. We had the Strawberry Crunch which was a California Roll with a deep-fried outer edge and strawberries on top. It was both unique and very tasty. We also had the Rainbow Sushi which looked divine and tasted fabulous.
We thought about having dessert, but resisted the temptation. The people next to us though had the deep-fried tempura ice cream which looked decadent. Next time we go, we’ll definitely leave room for that!
If you are ever looking for a great place for Japanese food, we highly recommend Toro Bar & Bar. The prices were reasonable and the food was excellent.
Other Information
For the official Toro Bar & Bar website, visit torobarbar.ca.
Other popular Japanese restaurants in downtown Victoria include the following:
- Ebizo – a sushi restaurant at 604 Broughton Street.
- Nubo – a Japanese izakaya (i.e., tapas) style restaurant at 739 Pandora Avenue.
- Japanese Village – a place where the chefs cook the meal in front of you at 734 Broughton Street.
Other articles that might be of interest include the following:
For the next time you are in the Lower Mainland, articles on the Vancouver’s Best Places website that you might find of interest include the following:
- Vancouver Bars & Restaurants
- Vancouver Calendar of Events
- Festivals & Events in the Lower Mainland
- Powell Street Japanese Festival
- Sakura Days Japan Fair