ottawa foodies

During my Friday lunches out I recently re-discovered Kyoto Sushi. Looks like my last visit was even longer than I thought. Despite the reviews below I have been quite satisfied with the meals I've ordered here. I've been back three times in the last couple of months. The first time back I ordered chicken with udon noodles and got chicken with rice. The dish was very tasty and I liked the stirfry sauce they used but was disappointed when I opened the take out container and saw rice when I was expecting noodles ;( It was probably an honest mistake since the server and I were both wearing masks so between that and the protective shield it's possible she didn't quite hear what I asked for. The next time I went back I ordered an udon noodle soup with chicken and it was really good - nice rich broth with lightly steamed vegetables. On my last visit last Friday I got combination A which came with salmon and stirfried veggies on rice, tempura, and a side salad. Everything was very tasty. It has been pretty quiet on each of my visits - usually just myself and one other customer picking up - I hope they make it through the pandemic.

Decided to have lunch at Kyoto today. I've dined there before but it had been a very long time.

In one word, the food at Kyoto is 'satisfactory'. As long as you don't have any high expectations, the food serves to fill you up, not to tantalize your tastebuds or pique your culinary curiosities.

I ordered combo A (itemized by Tina below) with beef. I guess they ran out of gyozas since I was given two mini spring rolls instead.

Overall, nothing great but nothing to spit out either. Simply good enough for a quick lunch.

Just went for lunch with my husband. He got the salmon lover set...the salmon on the nigiri looked good, but the salmon in the salmon roll was definitely mushy, pale, and, in his words, "just ok".

I had combination A with chicken (chicken teriyaki, gyoza, tempura, salad, sushi), and I asked for an avocado roll instead of a california roll, and veggie tempura instead of shrimp tempura. The substitutions were no problem at all. All in all, I would give my food 5/10. While the tempura was hot, crisp, and fresh (best part of the meal) and the avocado roll was....well, an avocado roll, the salad, gyoza and chicken certainly left much to be desired.

The gyoza, while fresh, did not have any flavour. There was a bowl of liquid that came on the plate that I assumed was dipping sauce, but I swear it tasted like very slightly salty warm water...incredibly strange. It definitely was not a dipping sauce of any kind. The dressing on the salad was unidentifiable. The worst part of the meal was definitely the chicken teriyaki. The chicken was extremely mushy and did not taste like chicken at all, and the flavour of the chicken together with the sauce was disturbingly remeniscent of the generic brown gravy you get at a diner with some sweetness. The rice was quite mushy as well.

Our two meals were $30, and for that price we could have had stellar meals at Genji.

It is unfortunate, as the (I presume) owner who was making the sushi warmly greeted every customer like an old friend and seemed very proud of his establishment. Perhaps they just need to source better ingredients, as the desire to please seems to be there.

This was the worst sushi I have ever had. The salmon was so thin it flaked into the soy sauce and it tasted old!

I was feeling lazy and hungry tonight so I went to Kyoto Sushi to get some take-out as it is very close to my house. The two ladies that were running the show mean business. No smiling, no hello or thank you, just straight up food time. The menu is printed on the wall behind the cash, and it reminded me a lot of the more proletarian sushi shops in Japan. I got a vegetable roll and a futo maki with tofu and egg. They were both pretty good - didn't blow my mind or anything, but for 13 bucks I was quite satisfied. I'd go back.

I went for lunch at Kyoto Sushi today formerly home to Teriyaki Plus. The restaurant has a casual décor (think cafeteria style) but they have a number of items to pick from. Included on the menu is sushi, udon, curries, and donbury. They also have a few side dishes to pick from and two bento boxes. I picked “combination A” which included rice and beef teriyaki, six California rolls, a green salad, about a dozen tempura (3 or 4 shrimps, broccoli, and I “think” sweet potato), and two gyoza. (You actually have a choice between chicken teriyaki or beef teriyaki – I picked beef and my friend picked chicken then we shared.) We had a generous portion of food for the $13.99 we paid and left the restaurant feeling very full. Even though they have quite a few choices on the menu they only have a few items of each (maybe half a dozen or so types of sushi, three or for types teriyaki, etc.) so if you are looking for an exhaustive selection of sushi to pick from you won’t find it here. However Kyoto Sushi is a good reasonably priced place to eat lunch.