京日本料理 (Closed)

Item: KYO JAPANESE
Rating: 4
Author: Laminkins2

KYO JAPANESE

49 Reviews

Taste

Decor

Service

Hygiene

Value

4933

Western District

Above $801

Japanese Sushi/Sashimi Omakase

Laminkins2

Level1

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The 2 of us suddenly decided we wanted sushi last night (at 745 pm). Anything half decent was of course all booked up for the night. we happen to stumble upon this relatively unknown sushi bar on open rice and saw very good reviews, so off to Kennedy town we went.

The small restaurant has a very cosy feel to it. There were 2 sushi chefs working at the counter and chatting merrily to guests that were already there.

We were ultimately seated at the bar counter and ordered the 1300 omakase (which isn't particularly expensive these days). Sashimi came, they were really shockingly fresh (some were still moving!). We were absolutely delighted by the freshness of the ingredients.

Halfway, it was time to switch to sushi (we were already very full), and they served the cooked course as the transition dish. it was a huge scallop baked in sake. when I said huge, I meant size of my hand... to be fair, I was already stuffed, so for me, this course was a total waste of my quota, so to speak. the scallop was too sweet and the flesh wasn't particularly tender. never mind.

Then the sushi came, with the uni and toro being absolutely out of this world. they were really some of the best I have ever tasted.

we chatted to the chef and found out he had apprenticed under Kyubei in Tokyo (which is somewhere I had been several times before). this explains the superb knife skills and extremely high quality of the produce.

we finished off the meal with a fruit platter.

All the food was of extremely high standard. it's worth the 1300 price tag for sure. we ordered some not so high quality sake and in the end the bill came to 1700 per head.

now, here lies the issue. there were many flaws in the details that irritated us, which for a 1.7k meal, you would really have expected better.

the bar counter was next to the kitchen (like all sushi bars), this wasn't an issue at all. however, the dish washing lady that kept coming out of the kitchen in her apron, marigold gloves all night was a big turn off. I dunno why they couldn't have asked one of the waiting staff to bring the stuff in and out of the kitchen (there were a few of them standing around as there weren't many clients)? it was just off putting seeing the marigold gloves every 5 minutes.

our waitress seemed pretty inexperienced (or she simply didn't care). For me, the tea that goes with the meal should be hot, so when I asked for a refill of hot tea (specifically said hot), she just poured some pre brewed tea that had been sitting in a pot on the cold sushi counter for ages. this resulted in my already cold tea in the cup getting even colder. I really don't understand why she had to keep such a large pot of tea on the sushi counter and leaving it there to get cold. maybe this would've been ok if there were many clients, but with only 4 of us left in the restaurant, common sense should have told her that such a huge pot would only just get cold.

finally, while we were enjoying our fruits, the chefs decided to prep for closing. I had seen it at other sushi bars before so it's normally not issue. however, this night the chefs decided decided to do more than just cleaning the knives and putting ingredients away. they decided to start slaughtering 2 large fish (right in front of us). so we had to endure the extremely fishy and bloody smell, with the blood and insides being removed right there. this was really quite gross and I was surprised they couldn't wait 10 minutes to do that. after all, we were eating our fruits and would be leaving soon after.

so I am torn between recommending others to this place or not. food was great, price not outrageous. but the tiny details were just totally forgotten... and would easily just spoil someone's meal. I really hope the guys at the place get it together coz would be a shame to see these little places close down.