Review: Guu SakaBar pt. II

This is the continuation of my post earlier on Guu SakaBar (which can be found HERE).

After the first round of food arrived, we ordered another three dishes:
Maguro Tataki: seared tuna (picture 1)
This was fresh tuna sashimi that came with more ponzu sauce and garlic chips. (My companions agreed that a lot of the same ingredients are used over and over but they work well in each dish so I can't really fault them.) Once again, another well done dish.
Okonomiyaki: deep fried Japanese savoury pancake (pictures 2-3)
The okonomiyaki served here is made with squid. It was not the most memorable or outstanding dish of the night, but I still enjoyed it and it was good for what it was.
Kakimayo: baked oyster with garlic, mayo and cheese (picture 4)
Served atop of shells, this very rich dish came in a set of two (and I highly recommend sharing it). The best part of the kakimayo was definitely the creamy spinach and garlic mayo surrounding the oysters. I love cheese and there was lots of it on top of the oyster but some parts of it were overly salty. In spite of its shortcomings, I enjoyed the kakimayo overall.

At some point in the meal, I commented that I was very impressed because every single dish that was brought to our table tasted amazing. Unfortunately, I spoke much too soon. The final three dishes were a disappointment to me and I suggest avoiding them:
Hotate: buttered scallops (picture 5)
I'm not a big fan of scallops but these ones were overcooked too, which was a let down.
Tontoro: grilled pork cheeks (not pictured)
Coming from a household that eats similar pork dishes on a fairly regular basis, this dish was nothing special for me.
Gomaae: spinach with sesame sauce (not pictured)
The blanched spinach itself was fine albeit a bit boring despite being mashed into a ball. Unfortunately, the accompanying sesame sauce was much too salty.

THE VERDICT: Although it was busy, service wasn't compromised and all our food came within 10 minutes of ordering. In the end, not all the dishes impressed me but there were way more hits than misses. As an izakaya, the dishes are generally small and not the kind of place I would go to get stuffed. However, I still left feeling quite satisfied after sharing 10 dishes between 3 people. Overall, I really enjoyed this restaurant and it's clear from the steady turnover and line-ups of customers, I'm not the only one who feels that way. After all the great things I heard about it, Guu lived up to the hype and I look forward to future visits.