After hearing my bro go on and on about how amazing this restaurant is, I finally got him to take me. My bro has been to Kingyo so much, he's officially close with the owner and known as the "number one customer". Not that surprising considering he does seem to come here weekly.
And here comes our perk, free hamachi sashimi on the house.
You probably can't really tell but its been torched a bit. The fish was really fresh, and the texture was soft but a bit chewy - good good!
As for starters, we ordered a salad. Spicy Soft shell Crab Sui Choy Salad. ($12)
When my bro suggested ordering this I was kinda shocked myself - couldnt really picture how good a soft shell crab salad would be that good. But to my surprise, it was really good. There was a lot of Soft Shell crab, probably 2 big full crabs. Finishing this salad could be equivalent to a girl's meal. The little shreds of black stuff at the top is my favorite Japanese veggie. Apparently in japan it is really expensive, people tend to add it into their rice balls. It's crunchy but chewy and salty. It definitely added a good taste with the salad. One thing was, on the menu its called "spicy", but i didnt find it spicy at all.
Tuna Avocado Shrimp Toast. I don't know the exact name of this dish, it was on the specials menu.
This was my favorite dish of the night. Slices of tuna sashimi, mixed in with mayo, avocado, and shrimp pieces to go with crispy garlic toasts - Perfect combination. I highly recommend trying this dish
Negi-Toro Gunkan ($8)
Not sure if you can see this clearly, but this is basically toro sushi. The tuna is chopped into super super mushy texture, with green onion. The sauce goes well with the combination as well. Really good, I recommend trying this.
Kimchi udon ($8)
I wasn't expecting much, but this tasted was really good. You might not be able to see, but there are tiny fish roe along with the kimchi sauce mixed with the udon. And no, I'm not talking about the red stuff at the top of the udon, that is actual kimchi pieces. However I do think this dish could be a bit more spicy.
Big Kingyo Short Rib ($19)
This is known as one of their popular dish, a huge short rib dressed in kurozu vinegar. I think the ribs were a bit over cooked this time since the meat was a bit tight and not as soft/fall off the bone. The sauce is kinda similar to one of the shanghai dishes, sweet vinegar pork.
Nagoya style Ebi Tempura Rice Ball ($9)
This didn't really come out the way I expected it to be. Or maybe because this dish came last and I was already stuffed to the max. The piece of rice looks small, but because we were so stuffed it felt like the rice was huge. I think i kinda gave up eating the rice and just ate the shrimp. The shrimp tempura was well fried and crispy, didn't feel oily at all.
2 Color Almond Tofu ($6)
I am not going to lie, I did not like this dish at all. I'm not sure if its because of the berry sauce and jasmin sauce in the middle which killed the tasting, but i did not enjoy this at all. My bro insisted on finishing it though since he said it would look too rude to not eat it, so I literally and to force myself to finish it. Maybe I'm just not a fan of almond or tofu. The top white layer was Almond pudding, which i told my bro to finish. I finished the bottom half which was tofu pudding.
Yes we definitely ordered a lot of food for just the 2 of us.
When they gave us our bill they serve you frozen grapes. I personally don't like frozen grapes, but it's so cute the way they serve them.
Food: Amazing
Service: Really good and friendly
Price: Expensive
Atmosphere: The place isn't small at all, but its always fully packed. You either have to make reservations a day or 2 before, or go early to get a table. (I think we went at like 530ish because we got rejected the last time we went at 6). The place is a lot more quiet than Guu, which I like because you can actually have a conversation without having to shout. They have lots of those mini arcade things on the walls as part of their deco, and they have a huge tv by the bar - they play doraemon! Well they play something different everytime so when i was there, they were playing some random old school black and white chinese show.
Overall: After paying a visit here, i finally understand why my bro loves coming to this restaurant so much. I agree, it is really good, exceeded my expectations. When I first saw the menu I wasn't as excited as nothing really stood out to me, but my bro kept saying just order anything, it tastes better than you think. It's definitely better than Guu, but at the same time more pricer. But what can you say, you pay for quality. As much as I do like the food here, I dont think I love it enough to come here every week like my bro. But without doubt, I recommend this place and would love to come again.
Kingyo Izakaya
51B Winchester Street, Toronto
