I’ve been wanting to go to Kingyo Izakaya for a while now but have yet to get around to it since Grayson and I rarely go downtown but since the weather has been looking up lately, we’ve decided that we would make an effort to explore the food downtown Vancouver has to offer more often.
Now, I’ve never been to any of the restaurants owned by + Group like Suika or Raijo so I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I walked in the door. We were greeted by the host who then asked us if we made reservations to which I replied “no” because I honestly didn’t think I would need to make any. Then he asks the two of us if we wanted to wait for a tabletop.
We somewhat naively (in hindsight) asked how long the wait for it would be and the host told us “we might have an opening for you at 10.” Now the two of us were shocked to hear this because goodness, it would be a THREE AND A HALF hour wait for a table! Evidently, we just went with being seated at the “communal” table and coincidentally we got the head of the table so it wasn’t too bad or crowded. But note to self for next time…make a reservation when you come to Kingyo Izakaya!
Menu
Upon being seated at Kingyo Izakaya we were given the menus one of which was the June special menu. I always have a soft spot for restaurants that offer a special menu for the current month or season because I feel like they put effort into highlighting the food that’s in season! I also liked the menu because it looked so pretty and the fish were so cute! What can I say? I’m a girl and I’m a sucker for presentation
Tako wasabi
The two of us rarely order appetizers but sometimes Grayson feels like being adventurous and we end up getting one. Today was one of those days and we decided to get the Tako wasabi ($3.50). We had the option of getting it cooked, raw or half/half but he wasn’t feeling thaaaattt adventurous so we went with getting it cooked. Neither of us tried this dish before so we had no idea what we were expecting.
On top of that, I never use wasabi so I definitely had no idea what I was getting myself into. Grayson ended up liking the dish quite a bit! He likes wasabi I think this is ONE of the only dishes where he can handle the spice of and I can’t. It wasn’t too bad though because I just ended up putting less of the tako on the nori wraps. The tako was cooked perfectly and wasn’t too tough/chewy which tends to happen when you overcook octopus.
Tan tan noodles
The two of us then decided to share two dishes. The first one being their famous invincible + undefeated Tan tan noodles ($9.80). The soup was a pork bone and shrimp broth seasoned with chili oil, sesame, miso and cashews. It’s topped with chives, ground pork and black sesame seeds.
We ended up choosing this one because of its title I mean it has to be pretty darn good to be considered famous and undefeated right? The ramen was cooked perfectly tender and the pork was flavourful. Although I’m not a fan of “creamier” broths, I liked this one quite a bit because it was really flavorful. The chili oil wasn’t too heavy either so it didn’t end up tasting too spicy. Only complaint is that I wish there was more veggies. (:
Kani meshi
We figured that we should try something off their June summer menu. So we decided to get the Kani meshi ($13.50). This was topped with nori, snow crab meat, salmon caviar, egg, green onion, crab butter and green onion. It was basically a seafood version of bibimbap since it was mixed and served in a hot stone bowl similarly. The server mixes the bowl together for you at the table.
I’ve never been a fan of salmon caviar but I sure enjoyed it this time. They were partially cooked so they tasted less “fishy”. I liked the addition of the crab butter as well because it added a level of creamy richness to the rice! Plus he was bemused with me saying that salmon caviar looks like dragon balls.
Even though we didn’t order dessert, we had a mini dessert of frozen grapes at the end that came with our bill. They were a lovely surprise for Grayson who never tried them before.
