Kingyo visit #2

After stopping by for the Bake For The Quake bake sale, Belinda ‘n I were feeling pretty hungry!  We didn’t want to just gorge on all the baked goodies we got, instead we decided to head over to Kingyo for dinner.  Click here to see visit#1. It’s a good thing we came on a weeknight, parking was easy and the restaurant was about 1/2 full when we arrived.

Upon entering the restaurant, we were warmly greeted and led to our table.

Our first choice of the night was the Stone Grilled Beef Tongue.  This was served with a yuzu red pepper paste and green onions.  I really enjoy interactive food, so it was nice to be able to cook the beef tongue ourselves.  We were advised to cook it quickly as the rock would only stay hot for 5 minutes.  This dish ended up being too peppery for my taste.

Next up was the Chicken and Kimchi Hot Pot. This is Kingyos secret original soy based hot pot blended with traditional style miso and kimchi.  This was not too spicy, instead it was quite sweet.  At first when this was brought to our table, we were wondering where the soup was.  We thought all the veggies would burn since there was only a tiny amount of broth.  But after digging around and letting it cook, it turned out to be quite soupy and sufficient enough for the veggies.

Above left is the Chicken Karage.  This was deep fried boneless chicken serv with 3 kinds of premium salt.  The pieces of chicken were huge and very crispy.  It remained crispy till the very end of our meal.  The chicken was nicely cooked, and quite juicy.  Above right is the Ebi Mayo. This is deep fried tempura battered black tiger prawns dipped in spicy chili mayo sauce.  This was good once it hit the table, however the tempura batter was a bit soggy by the time we finished it. There was a bit too much mayo for my liking.

Next to the table was the Sockeye Salmon Carpaccio(above left).  This was thinly sliced sockeye salmon topped with shaved onions, garlic chips, wasabi mayo, green onions, yuzu soy based dressing.  Indeed there was a mound of onions on top.  The garlic chips remained its crispy texture despite sitting in the sauce.  For dessert, we decided to share a Frozen Matcha Creme Brulee. I remember the first time I tried this, I absolutely loved it!  This time, it was good, but would’ve liked it to have a thicker hardened sugar top to it.  I found the whip cream on the side to be unnecessary.

Overall, we both quite enjoyed our meal here.  All of our visits to Kingyo in the past have been consistently good, solid for the food and for service.  We were checked up on often enough without being hovered over.  This is probably my favourite out of all the izakaya places I’ve tried =)

Post by Colleen