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Kyoto
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
3 reviews for Kyoto
Kyoto is located in the center of Tacoma's Korea Town. It's a nicer middle class restaurant w/ a good sized koi pond, sushi bar & tatami rooms. It is well lit & nicely decorated & clean, making it a good place to take company. The food is good, but on the more pricey side.
The fish is fresh & well cut. The combo sushi/sashimi platters are definitely the way to go ($17+). Bento was $18+, very tasty. Uni was $9 - definitely high, tekka maki was over $5. Solid classics, but almost no innovation in the maki category. The hot food was very good, but spendy for what it was....teriyaki dishes, chicken & beef, ran close to $15. The oyster dishes were particularly yummy.
Service was polite, but seriously lackluster for a place attempting finer dining. I was never given refills on my water or tea. I was never asked how my food was, nor if I wanted anything else & was given the bill so unceremoniously that I thought they were closing (nope!).
Kyoto is a good choice in Tacoma for a quality sushi fix in a nice setting. Hopefully the service will improve soon!
The service here on my first visit was not on par with the quality of the food.
Walking in, my GF and I were impressed by the decor, which is pretty elegant for a Lakewood strip mall: a koi pond, semi-private tatami rooms, clean wood floors, etc. Being a Sunday evening, there were only a few other parties in the restaurant and we were seated right away.
But our waitress, aside from seating us promptly and taking our order accurately, didn't get much else right. We got only one menu between the two of us. The plates from our appetizers never got cleared away so our table was cluttered for the whole meal. Getting her attention was work, since she never came by to check on us and avoided eye contact every time she walked past our table. We asked for a second pot of tea which never came. We asked for our bill and after waiting more than fifteen minutes for it finally just got up to pay at the cash register.
That being said, the food was good. If you end up in here, I highly recommend the Kyoto special roll, featuring unagi and real crab (not the fake stuff). And I wish you luck in getting better service than we did.
Fact: I am a sushi lover. Whether it be sake nigiri, hamachi sashimi, or uni gunkan, I am always searching for the next, freshest thing.
And this is the place that started it all for me.
The wooden bridge that takes you over the indoor pond conatining huge koi fish, the bamboo forest private rooms, and tables divided by a wooden gates reminiscent of ancient Japan, all contribute to the overall atmosphere of the restraunt.
More importantly is what comes from the full-size sushi bar, cut and presented masterfully by the two skilled sushi chefs. The quality of foods served here is the standard to which I compare all other sushi/sashimi to. Even just a simple california roll here is better than some of the other guys' house rolls! Their deluxe sashimi order presented on a large wooden boat, atop shredded rasdish, is something you can call actually call a real order of sashimi.
Their cuts of fish are generous and fresh. From their ice cold hamachi, to ther subtle oily toro. They serve a good potion of uni, and fish gills, with this order - both of which are really rare. Kyoto is one of the few sushi restraunts I've seen in WA that serves ama-ebi, or raw, sweet shrimp. Eat the meat, and ask the waitress to take back the shrimp heads and deep-fry them for another unique treat. Some other deep fried seafood goodies to try are the soft shelled crab, and whole fish bones? The fish bones are something truely unique to even an experienced sushi conosouer. I believe it's the bones from a flounder that they bread and deep fry, which turns into a crunchy edible sukidashi.
Speaking of sukidashi, they serve you a lot of little side dishes to try with an order of sashimi and some sake. Some examples are a type of squid and rommaine lettuce salad with a chillie sauce or dressing, fermented ray and bellflower roots, sea cucumber slices, etc. etc.
I was going to give them 5 stars until I read Cat's post, and realized she was right. I too had noticed that their service had gone a little downhill since they rehired the waiting staff. But overall, still one of the best places for quality sushi and sashimi. Definately worth stopping by if you're in Tacoma.
