Kingyo

Kingyo occupies the higher end of the Vancouver izakaya scene and its chef has almost rock star status, known for wearing a playful face mask while cooking for a crowd. The interior has a lot of quirky detail, bamboo and textures. I don’t know why it took me so long to try it, but once I did, I had to go back almost right away. I went with a couple of hungry mad people and we ate almost the entire menu and took good advantage of the reasonably priced hot sake. The dishes overall stand apart from guu or hapa. The menu lists their “special ingredients,” describing the Yuzu, Shiso, Ponzu, Miso and Salt choices, an informative and appetizing touch. The Sizzling Kinoko Tofu is deep fried tofu with mushrooms, dried scallop and okra, served in a sizzling hot stone bowl, both memorable and delicious. The soft shell crab salad is crunchy goodness and I am particularly fond of the stone-grilled Kobe (cooked at the table), which is sold at a well-deserved premium. The tako-wasabi dish offers raw, cooked or half and half wasabe marinated octopus, and the latter was fabulous. Carpaccio, mixed sashimis, sushi and rolls are all mostly great, but the hot dishes stand out a lot more from the competition. We tried a special that was deep fried Roe with sliced duck in a hot rice bowl and it was amazingly good (and surprisingly so). And of course to finish, frozen grapes, although their deserts look interesting. Kingyo is busy, reservations are a must, and they enforce their table time limits. So enough talking, you better get eating!