The Bottom Line
A vibrant Japanese izakaya with quality food for a great price. Reservation is a must. One of the best izakayas in Toronto, not to be missed!
Overall Rating: 5/5
Time to Spend
- Budget 2-3 hours
Recommended Dishes
- Stonebowl Mushroom Tofu
- Garlic Tuna Tataki
- Beef tataki salad
- Kara-age (fried chicken)
- Grilled Jumbo Yellow tail cheek
- Ebi Mayo (shrimp)
- Stonebowl seafood sea urchin don
- Almond Tofu dessert
- Punch cocktail
The Restaurant
The restaurant is classier and less noisy than the famous Guu. I like Guu, but to be honest (maybe it's a sign that I'm getting old), I can't get used to the noise. Guu is also a younger college crowd, so I prefer Kingyo for a better dining experience.
The place is clean, and like all izakayas, when you enter the restaurant all the servers loudly great you. I love how the walls have pinball machines, although for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to play with them.
The Food
Because we were a large group, we had a pre-arranged menu. For an unbelievably reasonable price of $40, our menu consisted of:
- 3 Kinds Kingyo Appetizer Set (Renkon Kimpira, Tomato Kimchi, Tako-wasabi)
- Stonebowl Mushroom Tofu
- Garlic Tuna Tataki
- Beef-tataki Salad
- Red Tuna and Black Tiger Prawn Avocado Tar Tar
- Kara-age
- Ebi Mayo
- Stone Grilled Beef tongue
- Grilled Jumbo Yellow tail cheek
- Stonebowl Seafood Sea Urchin Don
- Flame-seared Makerel Battera Sushi
The Stonebowl Mushroom Tofu came in a stonebowl (well, no surprise there), and it was hot, sizzling, and delicious.
Next, we had the beef tataki salad, which was refreshing with a nice thin slice of beef, it is a very well balanced dish.
The kara-age (fried chicken), is probably one of my favourite. But then again, who doesn't love fried chicken? I would say that the meat is juicy, while the exterior holds its crunchiness. Another great dish.
To be honest, at this point in time, I was pretty full already, so maybe that affected my affinity for the avocado red tuna/ tiger prawn dish. I didn't like the creamy texture of avocado, I thought it was a tad too heavy, especially at this point in our meal.
Last time I came down to cabbage town, I ate at the Stonegrill (which is adjacent to Kingyo), so I find it funny that they have the same dish here! The Hot Stone Beef Tongue is very similar to Stonegrill, you cook a piece of meat on top of a very hot stone. I wasn't a fan of this dish, maybe because it's beef tongue and I wasn't used to the chewier texture.
The grilled Jumbo Yellow tail cheek actually tastes better than it looks. The meat is very juicy, and it was cooked nicely. We all know how over cooked fish can end up dry, so I'm glad they got this right. If I'm a fish fan, I would be in love with this dish.
The stonebowl seafood sea urchin don is another one of my favourite. Mixed together, it was a very flavourful rice bowl. I loved this and now as I'm writing this and looking at the picture, I'm drooling.
If that wasn't enough food, next came the Ebi Mayo (shrimp mayo). I was sooo full at this point, but it looked so good I couldn't resisting trying one, and then another...
Our final dish was a flame-seared Makerel Battera Sushi. I could only take one bite and ate half of one at this point, but I remembered it being good, and that you can really taste that it's been "flame seared" (I can't really describe it, but it's got that smokiness to the fish that made it a step above an average sushi).
When the dessert menu came, I simply had to order a dessert. I mean, my dessert stomach never gets full, right? I chose a lighter almond tofu dessert, and it was simply delightful. It's a light dessert, with just the right amount of sweetness to it.
The restaurant also gave us complimentary skewered frozen grapes to cleanse our palates. And they served it to us in a nice flower bowl. So cute and so thoughtful. Delicious way to end a meal.
I really can't really any fault with my dining experience. There are some dishes that I liked more than others (e.g., I wasn't a big fan of the stone grilled beef tongue), but in general, excellent pretty much sums it up. I will sure be back to Kingyo!
Kingyo Toronto
51B Wincester Street,Toronto.
http://kingyotoronto.ca/
No comments:
Post a Comment