Kingyo: Japanese Izakaya birthday dinner in Vancouver

Kingyo is a Japanese izakaya serving up small plates and drinks, located in downtown Vancouver. We came here previously for a double date, but came again this year for our 30th birthday dinner with some friends.

Recommended: Read about my last review on Kingyo from 2022.

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Food and drinks review

Here is everything we ordered for 5 adults. Prices are rounded to the nearest dollar.

Mango lychee soda ($10), Yuzu calpico vodka ($9), Strawberry mojito ($10)

We order some drinks from their special cocktail menu. The mango lychee soda has nigori-sake pearl (3oz), mango juice, club soda, and fresh lychee puree. The yuzu calpico vodka has 1.5oz of vodka, calpico, soda, yuzu juice and yuzu zest. And the strawberry mojito had 1.5oz of rum with homemade strawberry syrup, mint, soda and sprite.

All the cocktails were very fruity and had a very cute look to them. I found the strawberry mojito to not taste very strong at all, but the yuzu vodka one did taste stronger.

Minus some points for the bamboo straws because some of them were flimsy/broken and it was hard to drink out of it.

Stone grilled omakase 2 kinds shiro wagyu beef ($35)

On their limited time special menu, there is a wagyu omakase option. For $35, you get 2 kinds of chef’s omakase daily fresh wagyu. The hiro wagyu is one of the few certified 100% wagyu beef in North America and is raised actually in BC.

To share between 5 people, you maybe just get 2 pieces at most per person. But it is kind of fun to grill it ourselves on this big hot rock. The shape of the rock is a little awkward because it can literally only fit 2 pieces of meat at one time without sliding off. We wondered if they just picked up any rock outside and used it for this 😂.

The first piece of wagyu that I had was delicious – fatty and melty like butter. But the second piece I had was a bit more chewy.

Stone grilled kobe beef ($31)

This is their regular stone grilled meat menu item with kobe beef. Just like the wagyu, it is served to us with a hot stone grill that we grill ourselves. They provide 2 types of dipping sauce.

The kobe beef is pretty good as well although it wasn’t as fatty as that one piece of wagyu I had earlier. Between the two of them, I think it doesn’t really matter which one you choose (wagyu or kobe beef). I didn’t feel like the wagyu we had was extraordinary better, but it’s only a couple of dollars more so maybe it’s worth a try.

Stone grilled beef tongue ($12)

By now we have so many rocks cooking at our table, it feels like we are at Korean bbq instead of a Japanese izakaya 😂.

This one here is the beef tongue, which is cut into a thinner slice and is also seasoned with salt and green onion. My friend really liked the beef tongue (he likes meat), but I found it to be a little saltier due to the seasoning.

My ebi mayo ($13)

I love my ebi mayo 👀.

The ebi mayo at Kingo uses tiger prawns and they are deep fried in tempura batter and then dipped in a spicy chili mayo sauce. The order comes with 5 so each person got one.

The ebi mayo was actually really good! Beause they use tiger prawns, they are larger and I really liked the chili mayo sauce they put on (it’s not spicy).

Crispy chicken karaage ($12)

Next came the chicken karaage, which are deep fried boneless chicken thighs served with some salt and red pepper threads. I usually prefer my chicken karaage with some sort of mayo or aioli sauce, but the salt was fine. The chicken was juicy and although the portion is small, each piece was quite large.

Pressed bluefin tuna sushi ($21)

We order some pressed bluefin tuna sushi, which I wasn’t sure how I felt about because sometimes I feel like bluefin tuna is fine on its own and it may be a waste to have it seared or paired with sauces.

The roll came with 6 pieces, and each piece was pretty large. There are a variety of toppings such as ikura, tobiko or some seaweed/greens. The sauce was a mixture of spicy and a mayo aioli. I could still taste the bluefin tuna underneath it all, but there was definitely an explosion of flavour due to all the toppings. It was delicious, but I think I still prefer bluefin tuna eaten in a simpler way.

Tan-tan noodle ($15)

On their menu, they list their tan-tan noodle as “famous”, “invincible”, and “undefeated”. This encouraged us to order it.

The ramen noodles are presented in a pork bone and shrimp broth, seasoned with sesame, miso and cashew nuts. They top it off with ground pork, chili marinated chinese chives, spicy chili oil and black sesame. The bowl looks pretty appetizing as it is colourful and big.

Unfortunately, I found it to just be too heavy and salty. But the first few bites were pretty good.

Truffle bibimbap ($18)

The truffle bibimbap was available on their special mother’s day menu (we came here in May). Inside the hot stone bowl, they use Kingyo’s original truffle sauce, truffle slices, king oysters, shimeji, green onion and rice.

I think we were too focused on truffle to see that this is really a vegetable dish as there is no meat and mostly just mushroom and greens. The truffle was quite subtle and even after mixing it all, it just tasted very healthy like a salad, and not rich and full of truffle flavour. Overall, it was nice to have as a clean item, but I don’t think it’s worth $18.

Uni miso udon ($17)

This one may have been my favourite carb dish of the night. It is on Kingyo’s regular menu. The udon noodles are coated with the savoury uni (sea urchin) and mixed with a sweet white miso cream sauce. This sauce coated the noodles really well! On top, they add ikura and some miso herbs.

Wagyu roast beef udon ($24)

Lastly, we add the wagyu roast beef udon from their special mother’s day menu. The udon is coated with mushroom cream sauce, topped with pieces of wagyu beef, parmesan cheese and a half boiled egg.

I didn’t really like this dish very much because I found the parmesan cheese to be too cheesy (if that makes any sense). The wagyu beef also wasn’t very tender.

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Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

We had a really fun and filling dinner at Kingyo. The servers were really nice (as expected in Japanese restaruants) and they were able to put our cake in the fridge and bring it out at the end of the meal for no extra charge (ex. no cake cutting fees).

Compared to the last time Kelvin and I were at Kingyo, we definitely ordered more meat dishes this time. From the last time, I recommend their sashimi omakase, the deep fried corn (even though it’s so expensive for some piecse of corn… I love corn though) IT’S CORN 🌽. I also really liked the beef rib but I feel like it’s no longer on the menu.

From this time, I would recommend ordering the ebi mayo, stone grilled kobe beef, and the uni miso udon.

They always have different rotating special menu items as well to try out. Prices do add up quickly as you order each small plate.

Sincerely, Loewe