Dake Japanese Fusion Restaurant

The food was fantastic, as was the service. I had a volcano roll, which was one of the best rolls I have ever eaten. The fried noodles were also excellent. I sample one piece of sushi from each of my friends and all were excellent. I can’t understand why there was almost no one there.
Highly recommended.

Fabulous, delicious food!
We wandered over for some lunch while attending a Classic Car show next door and I was blown away! Our waiter, Wade, was super-​helpful and anything he didn’t know, he certainly went and found out for us.
I took his recommendation and had the veggie bento box for lunch and it was amazing! If you’re looking to get a little bit of everything, the bento boxes are the way to go! And the fact that they have a ripe, juicy orange included with them to give you a little bit of sweetness after your meal is FANTASTIC. It was the perfect way to finish off my meal. Mind you, the rest of the people I was eating with tried the fried udon, the sashimi bento box and the Korean fried rice pot and everyone said their meals were fantastic as well. So apparently, after our small sampling of various menu items, my opinion is that no matter what you choose it will probably be delicious.
I will most definitely go here again! What a great find for a restaurant we randomly stumbled onto!

Great ambience! I enjoyed the slow jazz music playing. This is probably one of the pricier sushi restaurants in KW but the quality is excellent and service is good. They have an extensive drink menu as well. I would recommend going for lunch since you can eat for $ 15 – 20 and be full. Great place for date night!

Clean Japanese place in KW. Great place to go with friends and get some decent sushi or meals when nearby downtown Kitchener. The place is a bit isolated from the rest of the downtown area, but I presume things will improve with recent developments in the area.

Choice on menu was quite extensive and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the sushi was presented EXACTLY as pictured!
The miso soup was delicious but I was a little sad that the cup was only half full. I had the Large Sushi Plate for $ 19 and while the quantity was good, the quality was lacking. Not all the fish tasted fresh and the California roll seemed bland. My friends shared 4 fancy rolls and they were very impressed by the Young Roll.
Waiter was great! Service was fantastic.
Décor was ok, too modern and generic for my tastes. Booths were very comfortable and cutlery was real!

Pros: 1. Huge selection on the menu — there was at least 3 pages full of different rolls. It was nice to get to try some different offerings other than the usual rainbow rolls and dragon rolls. 2. The place was big, clean, and had lots of comfy booths. 3. Good service.
Cons: Not the best sushi I’ve ever had (but far from the worst). I would probably still come here again to try some of the unique rolls.

Great spot to eat lunch and dinner. Sundae roll is amazing!!! The charge for the tea is the only reason they are getting 4 stars :)

I love this place! The atmosphere is great, the food is really good and if you go around lunch time, there are deals to be had. It can be pricey, but I believe this is better than AYCE. Not to mention the service — you can tell they want to do a good job.
I always get the dumpling soup and a roll, which also comes with miso soup and salad. Their rolls are huge and flavourful. The dumpling soup can be a bit salty, but it’s crammed full of veggies and dumplings and comes in a really cute bowl. The seafood udon is also nice, the broth has some really good flavour. A server recommended that over the popcorn shrimp combo. I’ve never tried the teppenyaki but it’s on my to-​do list!
Service is good. They aren’t going to stand there and have a profound conversation with you, but they will definitely check up on you every now and then. This place is great for a date, I just dislike how far down King St. it is.
I don’t have much to say, because I believe Dake speaks for itself. I’ve been back so many times I lost count and even influenced a few friends to go! While it is by no means authentic Japanese cuisine, it is definitely high quality and delicious. So delicious.

I only had Sushi items, and i can say they’re no Niko Niko, but it was quite enjoyable. Everything tasted good, and they have pitchers of beer which is odd but i still enjoyed one with my guest. The menu was enormous with lots of different rolls and items. The place is huge and it wasn’t very busy.
I didnt like that we were sat right beside another table. It was like they didnt want to sweep under more booths or clean more than they had too, so they sat everyone in a tight little bubble.
I would return and i would be interested in trying their teppan

The service was terribly slow. The waiter tried to give us the bill while we were still eating even though the restaurant was half empty. Not impressed. The food was mediocre too. The kalbi was extremely rubbery. The salmon teriyaki salty yet bland. the only good item was the Dake crunch roll.

Best presentation of sushi in the Waterloo region. Each dish looks like art work. Décor is unusual, though, it looks more like a nightclub. They make the best seaweed salad. Wishing them the best and here to stay.

Best sushi /​teppan restaurant in KW! Have been there twice in the last 2 weeks. First visit was for teppanyaki. Tons of fun and entertaining! Food was fresh, plentiful, hot and tasty. Service was attentive and friendly. Be prepared for a good time and lots of fire!!!
Just got back from visit #2 for sushi. Incredibly fresh sashimi. Huge choice of rolls. Definitely recommend crispy valentines roll, crispy crunch roll, and our favourite — the spicy cottage roll — fresh ingredients wrapped in rice paper. The tempura was crisp and large portions. And we loved the chocolate spring roll and tempura ice cream.
Service is very good — friendly, polite and attentive. Exceptionally clean and fresh décor.
Will definitely be back!

Good restaurant, good food, and attentive service. But we all had pretty rough upset stomachs after. Must have been the fish in the rolls…

Friends and I went out for lunch. First let’s start with the positive. The restaurant is very modern and clean. I like others remember it as Zeke’s. You do get a fair amount of food. The plating is beautiful!
Now some of the negatives that I received:
— Waiter was okay. Came by after 30 seconds to 1 minute after receiving our meal to find out if everything was okay. Hardly had time to try anything. Never came back to ask us if we would like more water.
— Why would you offer free pop with a meal? For me, I would like having a tea with sushi. You have to pay $ 3.95 for a tea. That seems excessive to me
— It is too expensive for me. Do I think it was worth it? No, I don’t. The flavour were not as robust as I have had at other sushi places.
— The wait was longer than I was used to at a Sushi place.

I was visited Dake on a Friday evening at 5:30 for teppanyaki. It was not the great experience I was hoping for.
Positives:
The restaurant is trendy and nicely decorated. They really did a great job overhauling the old Zeke’s Feed and Fuel. Service was friendly. The table side cooking was interesting and entertaining.
Negatives:
Our teppanyaki grill just had one other couple when we arrived but they squished us in beside them instead of spreading us out a bit. I felt crowded during the meal and it was awkward having a private conversation with my husband during our meal.
The chef first cooked the vegetables. When they were ready, instead of dividing them up into four equal portions and serving them to the four of us, he gave the men larger portions than the ladies. Although my hubby does eat more than me, shouldn’t it be up to me if I give him the portion of my meal I can’t eat and not the chef? Also instead of putting the cooked veggies aside on a cooler part of the grill, cooking the meat, then serving everything together, he served the veggies right away. We then had to decide whether to eat a plate full of hot veggies on their own while the meat was cooking, or wait while the meat was cooking and eat cold veggies when it was served. The veggies, although nicely cooked, were very bland.
I ordered shrimp for @25.95 and my hubby ordered shrimp and calamari for $ 27.95.
They brought out two servings of shrimp, one serving of calamari, two chicken breasts and a steak. I received about 10 shrimp, my hubby got 4 and the other gentleman got 6 with his steak. The volume of shrimp and calamari in my hubby’s meal was much less than the volume of shrimp I got and his meal was $ 2 more. Calamari on it’s own is the cheapest thing on the menu! The other lady who ordered chicken (the second cheapest thing on the menu) received two full chicken breasts to eat. She even exclaimed as it was being piled on her plate «That’s all for me?!?» It just didn’t make sense. Not to mention the shrimp was overcooked.
The meal overall was not very flavourful. Thankfully, two sauces were provided: ginger and something wasabi-​flavoured. These were served in a dish with two sides. My hubby, who can’t stand wasabi, could not pour the ginger sauce on his plain steamed rice without getting wasabi in it.
When we were finished eating, we were left sitting with our dirty dishes in front of us for 10 minutes, still crowded at the teppanyaki table. It wasn’t until we both stood up that the waitress came over to see if we wanted anything else. And the restaurant was not busy in the least.
Overall:
This restaurant has received great reviews, but it sounds like most people have eaten the sushi. In my opinion, we had over-​priced, under-​portioned, bland stir-​fry and a mediocre dining experience. I had teppanyaki once before in Cuba and it was a wonderful experience but at Dake, I couldn’t wait to get out of there. The Mongolian Grill offers far more selection and flavour with a similar experience for a much better price.

After looking at the reviews, I decided to have a stop here with my family for dinner. We risked not reserving, but thankfully not many people knew this place opens on Victoria Day.
I went for the dining table, since I can experience teppanyaki with one of the chefs I know back in Toronto. We were welcomed by a very attentive greeter and an even more attentive waiter who served us the entire time we were there.
I was expecting the large amounts of variety in the rolls, and the menu didn’t disappoint me. I went with the White Christmas Roll, Volcano Roll, and Dake Crunch Roll.
The White Christmas Roll is good in the sense it’s not as filling as some of the other rolls (see Volcano Roll), yet it’s still tasty all in itself. There is no seaweed in this roll, which is kinda interesting… never had a roll without seaweed in my life. The Volcano Roll is very good, I really liked the sauce they used, very filling, and the scallops and eels were cooked perfectly… albeit slightly too mushy. Finally, the Dake Crunch Roll was my favourite, with the crunchy bits tasting like wasabi, but not to the point of spiciness (I normally can’t stand wasabi in my food), plus the other ingredients tasting very good as well.
Aside from the slight mushiness from the Volcano Roll, I was also slightly irritated by the screaming folks down by the teppanyaki table. I understand this restaurant is the only place with teppanyaki and some residents may be enjoying for the first time, but the restaurant is such an open concept that I can hear the chatter even from across the restaurant (and the restaurant is quite big)…so please, keep it down over there.
Will recommend to my friends, will come back for sure.

Finally made to Dake for dinner Apr.20/13. Wonderful atmosphere and beautifully decorated. Attentive, thorough service. Teppenyaki was unavailable as I fuels their remodeling a bit. Surprisingly robust menu with Sushi, Terriyakis, etc. so there’s plenty of choice. A little (but not too) pricey, but all-​in-​all my taste buds still belong to Watami

Had the chance to try the teppanyaki recently. Eddie Kim put on an exciting show for us. The food itself was pretty normal-​tasting (I’m not a huge fan of teppanyaki). Very attentive waiter.
There are 2 large teppanyaki tables (fit up to 12 people each) so it’s great for groups.

Why haven’t more people discovered Zake in Kitchener? I’ve been there 4 times for dinner and the food has been amazing… my favorite is the Valentine Roll… real crab, avocado, shrimp etc. and topped with spicy salmon and covered with some crunchy potato shavings… the flavors just pop in your mouth.,.we’ve ordered it every time.
I like the ginger… it’s white, not dyed pink like at most other places.
The décor is beautiful and food is so fresh and delicious but I can’t understand why it’s not packed with people.
Really looking forward to my next visit. I told the manager that my husband and I don’t dine out often but when we do, we like to go to Dake.

Went for lunchtime teppanyaki with coworkers. We had a great time and the head chef, Eddie Kim was amazing.
The food was better than other teppanyaki places I’ve been too also.
They only have two teppanyaki tables which held about 32 people so you should make reservations to be safe although we just walked in.