Kingyo Izakaya

Colleen mentioned this place to me many times already in the past but we still haven’t gotten around to coming here. Mainly because I don’t like parking my car in and around the downtown area. Well lets face it, I don’t like downtown in general. Parking is expensive and too many cops at night with their useless road blocks. I feel like I should just take a cab whenever I come here. So anyway, we decided to make an effort and come here during lunch time instead of dinner, but the dinner menu is waaaay better and has more of a selection. None the less we were still very eager to give it a try for lunch.

Kingyo Izakaya
871 Denman St, Vancouver BC
Tel#:  (604) 608-1677

Parking was difficult up here so we ended up parking all the way down by Alberni st. (way cheaper per hour too) because we had another stop by another shop after we finish eating here , plus I didn’t mind walking at all since it was a nice sunny day.

We got to the restaurant and it wasn’t really open yet, again we were early. But only about 5mins off from their opening time, so we stood outside and took pix as usual. The waitress noticed us and offered to let us in and have a seat. Naturally we got seated right away the lunch menu was explained to us eloquently.

The interior looks real nice and has a very nice asian touch to it. I especially like the table we sat on, it had such a cool old fashion design to it.
After mulling over the menu for awhile we decided on our items….

This was their Pork Loin Cutlet Set. Our waitresses mentioned this was her favorite item on the menu also. That’s a good thing to hear from a staff member. And boy were we not disappointed. I was shocked at how big of a piece this pork was. It was insanely HUGE! Compared to other pork tonkatsu’s out there in other restaurants, this my friend beats em all, hands down. Not only was the presentation nice and entertaining, the crunchy texture of the pork was awesome.  And as for the pork itself, it was very juicy and tender. Kind o rivals a kurubuta pork if you have ever had one. I don’t know whether they brined the pork before hand or what but it is a definite repeat in my book. The tonkatsu sauce on the side was also very tasty, the waitress pointed out to me that I had to grind up the sesame seeds and mix it with the sauce. hmmmmmmmmm………..

Once I started grinding the sesame seeds I can instantly smell the aroma of it and it was very fragrant. I quickly added it into the sauce and took a dip of it with my chopstick. YUMMY Goodness! If your wondering why there are 2sauces on the side there, it is because the other sauce is meant for the cabbage. It had a bit of a vinegary taste to it and it was a good compliment to go with the cabbage.

This is a picture of how thick the cut of the pork was. SO GOOD! But the best way to start of the meal was with their homemade miso soup mix, it apparently has a mix of 3 types of miso, or is it 4? Doesn’t matter much to me because all I can really say was that the combination of miso of however many it was, was excellent. I truly enjoyed this lunch set.

Our next order to arrive was a Pressed Unagi Sushi. It had parmigiano reggiano inside the rice which made it quite tart. Just in case you didn’t know, a ‘pressed’ sushi is basically a sushi with stuffing inside the rice part. I didn’t enjoy this as much as I would have hoped it to taste as appetizing as it looked, I guess I was too overwhelmed by my pork that nothing else was going to cut it. lmao

The picture on the right is Colleen’s lunch set. YES, I had been out done by presentation. Boooooooooooooooooooo! When it arrived at our table all I had to say was WOW!  An incredible 10 items on rice! hahaha No seriously, this was a treat for the visual aid department. Our waitress was explaining what each item was but there was so many items to look at that we both completely forgot what most of the items are called already. Hahaaha, so we just took more pictures instead and we’re going to try our best to say what was in each bowl.

To the left we have a Chicken Salad, very very dry.  Rather bland too.  And to the right, a Mixed Vegetable Stew. The flavor of the stew was intense and vibrant. Kinda wanted a whole pot of it.

The Jelly Fish with Spinach Salad was very tender and chewy just the way its suppose to be. And on the right, a piece of Tomago. Its just a simple egg.

Salmon Tempura. Kinda on the dry side but still very fresh. And on the right, 1 Deep Fried Scallop. I like the particularly liked the tartar sauce they served it with.

This Pork Belly was very heavy and greasy to my taste. Did not enjoy this at all. I don’t even know what that yellow stuff is at the bottom, I sure hope it ain’t lard or pure butter, lol Tuna Tataki is the item on the right, felt very dry for some reason. I don’t know what’s going on here???

Last but not least, Pickled Vegetable and Chinese Chives. The pickeled vegetable wasn’t really pickled enough for me and the chives was boring.

In all honesty, this lunch box was more to serve as an ‘ooooooo’ and ‘aahhhh’ factor rather than anything else, I would order this to impress rather than to satisfy, it makes a good picture doesn’t it? lol  But if you read the menu, on the side of this order states that they only offer 10 of these per day.  Which means that all the items are pre-made before hand and that its probably been sitting there for a while since it is a rather pricey item to order for lunch….so maybe that was the reason, I don’t know.

Colleen ended up eating most (half) of my pork cutlet and well, I ate her order instead. AHAAHHAHAA this sharing thing ……………..lmao

We also order a Pressed Toro Sushi to-go for my sister and well, the verdict on that was that it wasn’t that good either. So far, only the pork was amazing. But there were tons of other items on the menu that we didn’t get to try and well, I would like to have a chance at it soon. But Colleen will be the one driving here for our dinner reservation next time. =)

I just had to add this picture because it is sooooo cool and I want one at home!

Post by Marv