Kissa Tanto: $150 omakase in Chinatown
Kissa Tanto is an Asian Fusion restaurant located in Chinatown. They offer a mixture of Japanese-Italian dishes and have recently been ranked #29 for top restaurants in Canada. We came here to celebrate our joint-birthdays and tried their most expensive omakase option at $150 per person.
Interior
The entrance of the restaurant is just stairs so the restaurant is only 1 floor. The inside is very stylish and has this 1960 Tokyo jazz hotel look and feel to it. We are a table of 2 and we are seated in the area by the window facing the street, so it’s a bit brighter here. The other side are booths near the bar and have a darker vibe.
Our table for 2 is quite small but they don’t bring all the dishes at once so don’t worry too much about it. Seating was normal (not super plush) as we were not in a booth seating. The ambiance got a lot more intimate in our dining area after the sun set (they give you candles).
Drinks
Over the course of our dinner, we tried 2 different cocktails each.
Salaryman’s Song ($17) & My Private Tokyo ($17)
My boyfriend orders the Salaryman’s Song because he likes yuzu-based cocktails. This cocktail uses gin, yuzu cordial, yuzu juice and grapefruit oil. It is a fruity and slightly sour drink. The name of the drink is quite funny.
I order the My Private Tokyo after looking up some reviews. It has Amaretto Disaronno, Takara plum wine,
Martini Dry vermouth, lemon, egg white and a salted plum rim. My drink had a strong plum taste but I liked it because it kinda touched a little bit of my childhood (memories of eating plum candies after drinking yucky Chinese herbal tea). I really liked the salted plum rim and found myself happily licking my glass lol.
Japanese G&T ($14)
On our second round, we both got a Japanese gin & tonic. They use gin, yuzu-honey and Fentimens’s tonic. We found the big block of ice interesting but also wondered if we removed it, how much alcohol we actually get lol. This drink tasted very light and wasn’t strong.
Food – $150 omakase
The server tells us they are offering omakase, which is not actually listed on the menu. Omakase means “let the chef decide”. We are told that we can choose within a price range of $120-150 per person and the dishes will change depending on the price point. The server was not actually able to tell us what dishes the chef will make, so we decided to opt in for it not knowing what any of the dishes would be. We only knew it would be around 6-8 courses. And since it was both of our birthdays, we decided to ball out and choose the most expensive price at $150 per person.
Course 1: Fried stuffed olives
Our first dish is a small plate of fried stuffed olives. This is on their regular menu and it is stuffed with yuzu and smoked chili sausage, regular price for this dish is $9.
Now I don’t usually like olives so I wasn’t too excited to eat this, but it was surprisingly better than I thought (because it doesn’t taste like olives haha). Mostly, the smoked chili sausage took center stage in terms of flavour. The olives had a really thin layer of crunch on the outside from being fried. Overall, it was a nice one-biter appie.
Course 2: Octopus salad
The next dish was one that I would’ve ordered if we chose to order al le carte. It is their octopus salad with crispy smoked octopus, fresh and pickled radishes, parsley and chili purée. Regular price for this item is $24.
Well first of all, this dish is very pretty. The salad is very colourful and the vegetables that are used are really thinly sliced and almost see-through. The smoked octopus had a great texture to it – slightly chewy but not overcooked. Most of the flavour came from the chili puree, which was smooth and not grainy and had a really vibrant green colour to it. Overall, a very sophisticated salad and a light way to start off a meal.
Course 3: Miyazaki A5 wagyu
Our next course is something that is not on the menu. It is 2 servings of Miyazaki A5 wagyu. They didn’t really do much to it, just lightly seared on all sides as to let the flavours of the wagyu speak for itself. They serve it with a little bit of salt, ginger, or a dipping sauce.
So the portion here is not large by any means. We had around 4 pieces of wagyu each and of course, it was melt-in-your-mouth, very savoury like butter. We liked to eat it just with some salt.
Course 4: Hiramasa
Our next dish is also not on the regular menu. It features hiramasa, which is a yellowtail amberjack fish. They gave us big portions of what seems to be the neck/collarbone area, served with a yuzu puree/sauce at the bottom, a little bit of grilled shiso peppers and some sort of marinated seaweed or pickled vegetable.
The fish was very tender and tasted really great with the yuzu sauce at the bottom. It was very savoury and we couldn’t stop eating it, although it’s not the easiest to eat (use chopsticks and kind of pick at it). The shiso pepper that I had was really spicy but my boyfriend’s was not lol.
Course 5: Truffle Agnolotti
Our next dish is also not on the regular menu. It is a truffle agnolotti cooked with 4 lbs of truffle butter. Unfortunately, I don’t remember what the stuffing comprised of but it was definitely meat-based (maybe duck?).
The pasta was cooked al dente and I could taste the truffle they used so it had a rich flavour. I don’t think I’ve had a pasta like this before so I felt it was very unique. Each little agnolotti was in perfect condition and had just the right amount of filling inside.
Course 6: Yaki onigiri
Our next course comes together (so course 6 and 7 arrive together) and it is a giant onigiri. Onigiri is like a rice ball and this item is on Kissa Tanto’s regular menu for $16. This onigiri has grilled pressed rice stuffed with himematsu mushrooms, parmesan, roasted chicken consommé, pickled shiso, and Piave vecchio.
We are a little surprised to see it sitting in a little bowl of broth, as usually onigiris are not served with broth or soup. I like mushrooms so I liked the stuffing of the onigiri, but overall, we didn’t love this item as much as all the other dishes we had so far. We just thought it was a tad bit strange.
Course 7: Lamb
Our last main course is a lamb dish, also on their regular menu for $48. It is a fennel and chili rubbed Te Mana lamb sirloin with hijiki tsukudani, brassicas, and miso bagna cauda.
I am usually not a big fan of lamb because I find the meat too gamey for my tastes. This lamb was actually cooked really well and had a texture and taste similar to steak for me. The only thing I didn’t like about this dish was the hijiki tsukudani (cooked seaweed) was too spicy for me so I couldn’t eat as much of that when paired with the meat.
Course 8: Matcha olive oil cake
Our last course is dessert and they give us matcha olive oil cake with candles for our birthday. It is served with an ice cream and crumble and some cherry sauce.
The cake was moist and had a slightly dense texture (wasn’t fluffy). Tasted great with what it was paired with and I wish there was more!
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
In total, we spent over $400 on our meal, making it one of our most expensive meals in Vancouver (if not the most expensive one so far).
We had an amazing omakase dinner at Kissa Tanto for our birthdays. We were very impressed by the dishes and the variety. Most of the dishes we had I would say lean towards the Japanese side vs. Italian, but all the dishes were delicious and unique. Out of everything we had, we liked the wagyu (obviously), hiramasa fish, and the truffle agnolotti the most. Basically, the 3 dishes that are not on the regular menu lol.
Things we would probably not order the next time we return are the onigiri, fried olives and the octopus salad. Not that there was anything wrong with the octopus salad, but simply we don’t like salads that much compared to (meat) dishes lol. As for the other dishes, we just don’t find it worth the price point.
Service was excellent. They were always checking up on us and refilling our drinks. Also, they were able to explain each dish, which is really helpful because some of the dishes are not on the menu. They also change your plates and cutlery after every course, which is also a lot of work but you will see this kind of service often at Italian restaurants.
Our first cocktails were really good and I would order the My Private Tokyo again for sure. However, we didn’t feel the cocktails were very strong.
We will definitely return to Kissa Tanto because we had such a great meal here and we are happy we chose the most expensive omakase just to try it out and have a little taste of some of their menu and off-menu items.
Sincerely, Loewe