Kingyo: Japanese izakaya in Vancouver

Kingyo is a Japanese izakaya (pub) with small plates and bento boxes. We came here on a double date for some good sashimi and Japanese tapas.

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Interior

The interior of Kingyo kind of looks Chinese to me actually, due to the red wooden furniture (makes me think of my grandma’s house in Hong Kong). Seating is wooden so not too plush but they have tables for large parties and bar seating as well. It was really busy on the weekend so without a reso, they don’t have walk-in availability.

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Drinks

We order some cocktails off of their special cocktail menu.

Fresh chu-hi ($10)

My boyfriend ordered this drink and I laughed when this arrived because I didn’t realize we had to squeeze our own grapefruit juice? We are basically paying $10 for a grapefruit lmao (could we have brought our own?). Inside the glass is 1.5oz of Japanese vodka (sho-chu).

Anyways, my boyfriend does a good job squeezing the grapefruit so his drink tastes nice and fruity.

Mango lychee soda ($9) and Strawberry mojito ($9)

Our friend orders the mango lychee soda, which has nigori-sake pearl (3oz), mango juice, club soda and fresh lychee puree. I order the strawberry mojito which has 1.5oz of rum, homemade strawberry syrup, mint, soda and sprite.

All our drinks are very fruity and pretty and a good price too!

Food

We order everything to share between 4 people.

Deep fried corn ($7)

This is an appetizer I wouldn’t usually order, but it is a popular appetizer here. It’s simple – deep fried fresh corn with soy butter. It tastes really good but it’s expensive for the portion size.

Octopus karaage ($12)

This is from their daily special menu – deep fried octopus karaage served with radish sprouts, shiso and green onion. The batter of this is actually really light so it wasn’t greasy. The octopus inside isn’t overcooked and every bite of this is delicious! Super impressed with this and I only wish there was more on the plate.

Daily assorted sashimi omakase ($39) + Blue fin tuna Otoro ($29)

We ordered the daily sashimi 5 kinds for $39 per person and added the blue fin tuna otoro so in the photo you will see 6 kinds of sashimi. They have a 3 kinds for $25 per person.

In our 5 kinds, we have sweet prawn, big scallop, sockeye wild salmon, maguro tuna and of course, the blue fin tuna. All the sashimi was delicious – fresh, thick cuts and they also deep fried the spot prawn heads so we could eat that as well. My favourite was of course, the blue fin tuna, which is so fatty and sweet it just melts in your mouth.

Black cod sushi ($10/3 pieces) + Negitoro sushi ($9/3 pieces)

We order the black cod sushi and negitoro sushi, which are huge pieces actually. The black cod sushi has chopped grilled black cod and ginger with the original miso sauce, and the negitoro sushi had chopped tuna, Japanese pickles, green onions, tobiko (fish roe), wasabi sesame soy dressing and wasabi mayo.

I thought these two tasted ok, but I wouldn’t order again. I feel like I like black cod on its own more. The piece is big so I was pretty full on 1 of each already – lots of rice and lots of chopped fish topping.

Kani meshi ($19)

This is a hot stone bowl dish with snow crab meat, ikura, egg, green onion and homemade crab butter on rice. You mix it all up in the hot stone bowl and eat it like fried rice. This was quite yummy, but I feel like it wasn’t the best use of the crab meat as fresh crab meat can be quite tasty on its own.

I always like the hot stone bowl dishes though, because you can make crispy rice at the end.

Chinese sweetened balsamic sautéed dynamic beef rib ($36)

This is a really long name for a dish, but we order it on my friend’s recommendation. The beef rib is very very tender – like fall off the bone tender, but also quite fatty. The sauce is a sweet balsamic vinaigrette, which makes this dish very savoury. I really liked this dish and was impressed with how soft and juicy the meat is. I did lowkey wish they served it with rice though because the sauce and the meat have a lot of flavour.

Desserts

We order 2 desserts to share.

Frozen green tea brulee ($7)

This is served with a red bean sauce. The brulee is frozen so it’s actually really hard to eat with a spoon because the actual thing is HARD. The matcha flavour is quite strong though so that was nice, but yeah didn’t enjoy trying to eat it with a spoon and hearing the sound of my spoon hit the plate each time.

Black sesame panna cotta ($7)

This is served with sesame coca cream. The black sesame panna cotta had the opposite problem of the green tea brulee – it was super soft, almost like melted? The structural integrity of this panna cotta is questionable. Aside from that, the flavours were quite unique as I don’t often see black sesame desserts. It is “not too sweet”, which is probably the ultimate compliment an Asian parent can give to a dessert. Just wish the panna cotta wasn’t as melty.

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Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

We had a really wonderful dinner at Kingyo. All the food we had was delicious! My favourites and must-orders are the sashimi of the day, octopus karaage, and the beef rib. If you don’t mind the price points, I would also throw in the deep fried corn to try too as it was really tasty. I would pass on the desserts.

In total, we spent around $318 for 4 people after tax and tip. Kingyo is not a cheap restaurant, but I think the quality is there for the price point, so on this basis, I think prices are reasonable. There are a lot of small plates to choose from, which can add up in the end, but you get to taste a lot of variety and it’s more like drinking foods. Also their daily specials will always be rotating as well.

I will definitely return to Kingyo another time!

Sincerely, Loewe