Jinzakaya

Order Chef's Sashimi and a plate of deep-fried chocolate Mars bars off the same all-you-can-eat menu, and you have most of what Jinzakaya is about. This Uptown Waterloo restaurant treats Japanese dining as breadth rather than a single narrow discipline, and the meal is built in rounds rather than ordered as one course. A table can open with precise raw fish, detour through grilled beef short ribs, and still finish on dessert that arrives from the fryer. On King Street South, sushi and sashimi share a ticket with skewers, noodles, tempura and hot plates, and the format is designed to keep a table moving through all of it rather than settling into one corner.

The sushi list carries names that belong to this kitchen and no other. The King of Fish Roll, Girl on Fire, the Izakaya Roll and a Black Dragon Roll sit alongside more familiar work like a spicy salmon roll, a shrimp tempura roll and straightforward salmon sushi. Around the raw side the menu keeps widening. Skewers run from a plain beef skewer to bacon wrapped around asparagus and a beef roll bound with enoki. The grill turns out steak teriyaki, chicken teriyaki and short ribs; the fryer handles shrimp tempura, calamari, takoyaki, ebimayo and deep-fried scallops. Chicken Pan-Fried Udon anchors the noodle end, a salmon poke bowl and a Gold Box bento cover the lighter lunch orders, and the deep-fried Mars bars close things out on a knowingly playful note.

What the all-you-can-eat structure really changes is how the meal gets planned. Diners order in small shared rounds, weighing a familiar roll against something they have never tried, and the kitchen is built to keep pace — service runs quick and friendly, and the steady turnover of small plates is part of the design rather than a side effect. It rewards a group that treats the menu as territory to cover rather than a single dish to commit to. The restaurant-specific names help, too; an order feels particular to this place before anything reaches the table. Vegetarian and gluten-free diners are accounted for as well, though the kitchen asks that anyone with a strict need confirm ingredients directly. This is not a specialist's counter chasing one perfect fish; it is a menu that wants you to wander.

Jinzakaya opened in 2019 and operates alongside a sibling izakaya, Kinkaku, and the practical scaffolding around the meal reflects a restaurant meant to be used more than one way. There is a patio for warmer months, catering for larger orders, gift cards, and both takeout and delivery for nights when the shared-round experience gives way to a single contained meal. Reservations are handled by phone rather than through an online link — a call to the King Street location is how a group sets its time. An online-order route carries the takeout menu for anyone eating at home, and beer and wine round out a drink list that also runs to fruit slushies for the table that skips the alcohol.

Approaching Jinzakaya works best on the format's own terms: order a first round, see what lands, and keep going from there. Lunch is where the all-you-can-eat value sits most comfortably, and the kitchen's breadth means a table rarely runs out of directions to send the next order. The schedule is the one thing that rewards a little forethought — the restaurant closes on Tuesdays and breaks between lunch and dinner on several weekdays, so a call ahead of a fixed-time visit saves a wasted trip. Gather a group, come hungry, and plan on ordering more than once.