Ikki Izakaya - Edmonton

Ordered 3 drinks, two of which the bartender didn’t know how to make ?‍. Not the bartenders fault. You see all these wicked drinks on social media and management drops the ball on either scheduling the correct staff or their training. No wonder they’re closing. If you’ve been on the fence about trying this place out, consider your chance missed, the ship has sailed. Side note ordered 3 food items, they were out of one. No surprise since they’re closing.

It was a cool place to check out, I love Japanese whiskey and Shake so I had to try this place, they had technical difficulties in the kitchen so I can't really tell if the food was good because I didn't have any, the ladies behind the bar seemed like they were new and was still learning how to make some of the cocktails but I give them A+ for effort, they did not do too bad and the drinks they made even if they had to look up the recipe for them was pretty good.

It’s a cute small place, so naturally we expected better, more personal service. The entire night the servers were avoidant and were not the least bit welcoming or hospitable. I waited an hour for the server to take my drink order (just a water), and it never came. I ended up drinking my friends water because I didn’t see a server for half an hour. Despite the main server asking us our names and to repeat our orders several times throughout the night and writing in her notebook, many items came out wrong, served to the wrong person, served very late (some waiting over an hour for their food), and some orders were missed completely. I ordered katsu chicken (waited about an hour) and fries which was good but definitely not worth $35. After about 3 hours we asked for our bills. I did not leave for another hour as we were rudely told that the server was figuring out our bills, which then came out wrong and had to be fixed twice. Shocking as the server was taking notes all night like I mentioned. They did not check on us or ask how our food/drinks were, and were annoyed when they would approach our table finally and we asked for things we needed (napkins, more water, they didn’t bring a knife to cut our cake, then they dropped off a knife and plates, and took a while to get cutlery when we asked for some so we could actually eat)I would consider returning to try the drinks as they looked good, but only if there were staff who cared and weren’t clearly annoyed with doing the bare minimum as a server.

Great ambiance! Love this place, as soon as u come in there's this ambiance that welcomes you and keeps you in. The bartender was awesome, very attentive and courteous.

Very interesting izakaya! The interior is narrow like in Tokyo, and the lights are dim. I really like the atmosphere of the place as it does remind me of Japan! The food is quite delicious, and the same as well can be enjoyed in a very fun way you can take shots of the sake by doing a sake bomb (hitting the table to make the sake glass fall into another glass from the top of chopsticks)! My only wish is that I wish there was a wider variety of menu items.