Kingyo Awards

Kingyo Restaurant Review:

Step through the rustic wooden door, and you're instantly enveloped in an authentic izakaya-style Japanese restaurant. In fact, you may think you’ve entered the courtyard of a feudal Japanese home: traditional wood carvings adorn the walls, a clay-tiled roof graces the bar, and an elegant strand of bamboo runs the length of the long communal table. The small-plates menu features deftly executed flavor combinations. Deep-fried fresh corn with soy butter is deceptively simple, while the sockeye salmon carpaccio dressed with shaved onion, garlic chips, wasabi mayo, yuzu zest and soy-sesame dressing will have you craving seconds. The Rock'n Kobe has diners grilling marinated Kobe beef atop a sizzling-hot rock set up tableside, and then slathering the meat with two kinds of Kingyo sauces. Seafood includes pressed snow crab sushi with tobiko, ponzu jelly and radish sprouts, and deep-fried anori (seaweed flakes) calamari with shiso herb salsa and tartar sauce. There's a serious wine pro on board, too. Each label on the compact, well-priced wine list is there to enhance Kingyo's menu, as are chilled sakés. Shochu (Japanese vodka) and a list of cocktails, such as the yuzu gin tonic and Japanese sangría, are winners. Delicate creamy almond tofu and Kyoto-style frozen green tea cream brûlée with red bean sauce provide sweet endings. Servers are enthusiastic guides.