Anju – Review for You!

4.1/5 Foodie Foursome Index

4/5 on the Fusion Scale

We thought it might be nice if we started sharing our breakdown used to come to our overall rating. So please enjoy!

Ambiance: 3.9
Service: 4.7
Food: 4.3
Value: 3.4

Overall 4.1

Mike’s Review:

I arrived at Anju first, and this was the first meal Jenna and I did not arrive together, so I took some time to survey the restaurant, it was a beautiful place. The interior was very cool and very large, that’s why I was a bit surprised when they sat me directly beside the only other couple in the restaurant… and not like near… like 10 inches beside. I found it a little strange but I myself am a huge Tetris fan, and I understand from a servers point of view the advantages. I was surprised yet again when the third party entered the restaurant (not Jenna unfortunately… I had been waiting for a bit already…) and the hostess sat them DIRECTLY beside me on the other side. Now we had a beautiful space, and only 5% of it was being utilized, however, thank god the newest party requested to move, perhaps because they were uncomfortable with me breathing in their face.

Although the beginning was a bit rough, the server and food more than made up for the fact that I overheard the couple beside me breaking up. The tuna tacos were phenomenal and quickly followed by delicious sushi wraps. Jenna took me on the magnificient jouney through Korean drinks, as she use to have foreign exchange students stay at her house and received many gifts. The Kim Chi Ramen was good, but I am not a big soup fan, however, if you enjoy soup even the slightest it is a must try at Anju.

Overall, it is understandable how Anju is one of Calgary’s favorite Korean infusion restaurants. Whether entertaining relative from out of town, or looking for that hip first date venue, Anju will deliver… although you may be sitting with more people than you came with.

Jenna’s Review:

I was very excited to try Anju as I had heard so much about it and also because it is the first fusion type cuisine that we have tried on the blog! It is located on 17th Avenue so you know you are in for a treat, plus it is Tapas style and you all know that Mike and I love nothing more than to be able to try multiple different things and call it a meal.

The ambiance inside was nice. It definitely has an upscale and modern vibe with dark colors and sleek textures, nothing too out of the ordinary.

Now, we decided that we needed to try the Soju to drink because we work hard and that was something you don’t see every day. Apparently Soju was the largest selling Korean liquor in 2014 (according to Wikipedia). The Soju is a distilled beverage containing ethanol and water. You can have it on it’s own or you can have it with aloe or the liquid yogurt. We of course tried it all three ways because how else my fellow readers would we be able to tell you the best combination. I personally liked the aloe best and the yogurt was a close second, but on it’s own…I think it is an acquired taste.

For the food we all took a shot at picking some items to share. We ended up with the following dishes; the featured sushi roll, the spicy salmon tacos, the braised pig ears, the lemongrass gochujang brussels sprouts, the crispy prawn dumplings, the oxtail tortellini and kimchi ramen.

I have to say that I they brought everything out at a great pace that allowed us to enjoy the food as it was served. I really liked everything but was not a huge fan of the pig ears. But at least I tried them! The sauce on them was lovely but the ears themselves were fatty and rubbery and not quite my thing. The brussels sprouts were delightful and cooked really well as was the kimchi ramen.. I am on a bit of a ramen rampage so that may have only been me who was obsessed with it but if you like ramen you have to get it. Another winner was the spicy salmon tacos. Wow is all I can say about those. The oxtail ravioli was also delicious but it only came with 4 pieces so you don’t get much bang for your buck there.

I would definitely check out Anju again, especially if I am in one of my “I don’t know what I want to eat” moods since they have a nice variety of tapas to fulfill my needs. We had a ton of fun with Manisha and Rajen, it was laughs all night long! This is also really fun if you have people who like sharing as you can try more dishes in one sitting, or you can just go back a whole bunch, you do you.

Manisha & Rajen’s Review:

Coming soon… They had some things to do. #latereview