Kyo Ya

I really love the Japanese restaurants on the Michelin star list because the food is definitely a lot lighter than the majority of the French restaurants on the list. I made a last minute reservation to Kyo Ya and was definitely happy that I did; my date and I had a great time and loved the food and atmosphere.

We started off with the fugu with a pickled waxberry and grated radish:

The fugu was pan seared and a little on the dry side (this was probably my least favorite dish of the night but it wasn’t terrible).

Next, one of my favorite dishes: Famous Sweet Potato Tempura served with soy sauce and mongolian salt:

Japanese sweet potatoes have a better texture than regular American sweet potatoes and they have a hint of sweetness; these were lightly fried and tasted really great with the pinch of salt (the server recommended trying the it on its own first, then with some salt, then with some soy sauce).

Next, we had a lightly battered white fish in a broth with tempura vegetables:

The broth was very thick – it tasted as if fish were cooked down in the broth to use make the broth more gelatinous. I really enjoyed the dish and thought it was very soothing, especially for the harsh winter weather.

We also ordered organic chicken:

I really love the organic chicken at Sakagura and thought it might be somewhat similar; this chicken was a little on the dry side and also didn’t have much flavor or crispy skin.

Next, potato croquettes with dipping sauce:

And then the Kurobuta Kakuni slowly cooked pure pork belly:

And my favorite dish of the evening -Kani Ikura Donburi taraba king crab and dashi marinated salmon roe over rice:

Such a simple preparation of rice (uni, king crab legs, and salmon roe) but so unbelievably delicious. I could definitely eat this once a week (at least!)

For our last savory dish, we ordered the broiled tsubu miso marinated cod:

Another simple dish that was well executed and just as delicious as all of the other preparations of fish.

For dessert, we ordered chocolate chip ice cream that was a little bitter and not too sweet:

And their specialty, the black bean an mitsu:

It’s a combination of black beans, homemade vanilla ice cream, and different types of mochis and jelly. There’s also a special black sauce to pour on top of the dessert:

Not too sweet and it definitely reminded me of eating patbingsu in Korea.

I had a great meal at Kyo Ya (one of my favorites of the year) and definitely thought it was Michelin-worthy; the hostesses were very kind to us and offered us a table instead of having us sit at the bar (we decided to sit at the bar because we were pretty comfortable in our seats) and the servers were very knowledgeable in the different types of sakes they served.

I would definitely love to return to Kyo Ya – there are so many stand-out dishes at the restaurant that I really enjoyed. David ended up going there last weekend and enjoyed it just as much as me!