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| - If you like Izakaya, maybe you will like this place. We went to this place nestled in the heart of Cabbagetown to celebrate my sister-in-law-to-be's bday. As you enter, you are greeted loudly by a hostess followed by numerous echoes reverbrating throughout the restaurant. I personally am not a fan of Izakaya because generally the greeting is not genuine - its built-into the job description, the food is trendy but pricey with hit or miss quality, and the all female wait staff, although appeared genuinely Japanese, do not speak much english.
The decor was a cross between a bar and a hip lounge resto. There are neon flashing decor and a giant screen playing japanese anime. It had features that reminded you of a traditional Japanese resto such as wood panels and japanese fabric visuals however it is lined with burgundy benches akin from a sports bar, and an open bar/kitchen akin a trendy japanse lounge/resto. This place is hip/cool but treading so many styles as if it could not make up its mind on what it wants to be.
As for the food, we ordered many dishes
- Real Snow Crab California roll - $10.80 - was OK, too much mayo - could not taste the crab
- Spicy chopped scallop roll - $9.20 - was Excellent but a little skimpy on the scallop. Would order this again.
- Lightly Seared Tender Beff Tataki roll - 10.50 - Mediocre - tasted like any other beef roll, not bad but nothing orgasmic
- 5 kind of sashimi - assortment $30 (3 pieces of Prawn, 3 x hamachi, 3 x salmon, 3 x tuna, and 3 tiny slices of one scallop) - great display and tasted fresh but overall lacked wow factor
- Garlic Tuna Takaki & Ponzu Jelly - $8.20 - Was below par - did not taste as moist as you would expect, portion was ok but the ponzu jelly was piled on top and too sparse - served with raw onion slices and deep fried garlic - was expecting my eyeballs to roll to the back of head from the experience however was very underwhelmed
- Salmon Oyako Battera - $12 - 5 pieces - Excellent! Salmon was fresh and covered with roe/herbs, served with Ponzu sauce.
- Red Tuna and Tiger Prawn Avocado Tartar - $10.80 - Hot Mess - This mix came in a shape of a hamburger and 4 slices of crustinis. It didn't take long for it to look like a hot mess after we tried to top the crutinis with the world's smallest wooden spoon. I could not taste the red Tuna -we all agreed it tasted fresh, but overall UNmemorable.
- Deep fried chicken wings - $8.20 - this tower of 6 chicken wings were crispy drizzled with some kind of tasty spicy almost cajun powder - these were a HIT!
The waitress came around taking all of our sauce trays away after the first food tray. It seems they advocated that 4 people use communal saucers to dip their soya/wasabi mix. uh hmm...I DONT THINK SO!
Soya sauce was sparse and came into a small jar with a cork lid the size of you thumb - the kind that comes with a keychain and sand from a souvenir shop. Wasabi came on a piece of wood cut and painted like a small shirt - very cute, was tempted to take this home in my pocket.
For drinks we had sake $9, kyoto lemon green tea $1.8 per person (tasted like any other green tea served FREE in other japanese restos) and served in a cafe press, sapporo beer $5.50 a pint, and two glasses of white wine from a very limited wine selection.
The service was OK - we had 3 different servers/food runners throughout the meal none of which could speak fluent english. We did receive a wet towel that came in a tablet that looked like an antacid but expanded as water was poured over it. I felt like it was an intermission at a play. A fresh towel to wipe our greasy post chicken wing hands.
The bathrooms are equipped with mouthwash and instruments to floss your teeth. Apparently, someone cares about your oral hygiene.
We were seated underneath a vent so i ate my entire meal wearing my leather coat the whole time. I looked around but no one else had their coat on. All kitchen staff are men that wore a wool toque or a bandanna - regulation or are you COLD too?!. They were all asian with the exception of one caucasian - he was tall and stood out - we joked he must be the only one who is mute when others hollered greetings in Japanese.
The logo for this place was a goldfish. We wondered the whole night if the name Kingyo had anything to do with a goldfish - no we have nothing else better to do than to contemplate these deep thoughts.
The damage was $160 with tax and tip for 4 people for everything listed above so it was $40 per person. We were all fairly full and not in need of a second meal. Overall a good place for a first or second date - the place is so full of noise that you will definitely not be stuck with awkward silence.
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