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| - Kiu is a great source of confusion for me. It started with me flip flopping on my decision to try this place with every new review on Yelp: "Get the sushi, it's amazing", "Worst sushi ever", "Ramen tastes so good!", "Ramen is overpriced". Well, I finally put on my big girl pants and made my way over to formulate my own opinions. My verdict? I'm still confused.
First things first, the food that I tried was tasty. There's no denying that. I got the Chirashi Don and my SO got the Shio ramen with a side of Karaage (fried chicken, great deal at 2 pieces for an extra $3). Shio ramen was on the salty side of acceptable, but it is salt-based so it only makes sense.
The confusion for me comes from the Chirashi Don, which is essentially an assortment of cleanly sliced sashimi over a bed of rice (seasoned or not). It's supposed to be simple and highlight the freshness of the fish. Kiu's Chirashi Don was the opposite of simple. It had random pieces of all types of fish, pickled plum, bits of Japanese styled egg, salmon roe...and everything in between.
Taste-wise, it was pretty good. Towards the end though, I was not enjoying the fish at all. At first, it was cut in neat little chunks which later became shreds of fish, with parts that seem like they were rejects from other dishes (e.g. there was some black cod skin bits and a shred of salmon with some bone??). The fish shouldn't be the worst thing in a Chirashi Don. I mean, at this point, is it even correct to call it such?? When your fish is fishy, that just ain't right
I'm leaning towards giving this a slightly above average rating at 3.5. Food was ok, not the best, but ok. Service was spectacular. Imagine walking into a restaurant and having every staff member greet you. The menu and specials were explained in great detail and water was constantly refilled. So yes, call it overpriced, call it delicious, call it whatever. Depending on what you order, Kiu can be all of those things!
(83/100) - 2016
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