Kyoto

Sushi #4: Kyoto – spicy tuna, Kyoto roll, and dragon roll – $24.50

Miso soup

Holy jeez I am behind in this!  It’s been 3 weeks since my last post but an insane amount of life has happened since then.  I mean I did finish my third semester of grad school and did my second half marathon at the 6:30 in the morning…  Have I mentioned how much I hate the morning?  How about 6:30 in the morning?  Ok, then remember I have to eat 2 hours before a 13 mile long race, and let me tell you how much I now hate 4:30 in the morning!  I mean, usually I’m drunk at that point late on a Sunday night in mt. Adams, so you can see where I’m going here.  Anyways, this was my second and it was a beast!  I never really challenged myself and my body like I have been these past few years and since I never ran more than 3 miles non-stop before and I’m finishing my second 13 mile race, you can too.  J  I should probably add that the price you see above is because I eat like a fat man trapped in a skinny man’s body…oh wait, that’s what I am!

           

My friend to my left had a crunchy red snapper,
spicy tuna, and salmon sashimi.  

            Also, I’ve added a much needed search bar and some fun fish that you can feed to go along with the sushi!!!  Just left click on their tank.

Tempura roll

Kyoto had been hyped up for me from some of the reviews I read online, but never trust the critics, me included.  Go out and try shit for yourself I always say!  This is the 7^th review I’m doing this year from my list.  If you’ve missed them, so far I’ve done sushi reviews for Sung, Miyoshi, and Matsuya.  I went with 5 friends for dinner on Thursday, February 23 and had a 25 minute drive out to what my list says is Loveland, wherever the hell that is I don’t know, because I think it falls off of the face of civilization that far outside the city.  Hahaha!  J/k suburbanites, I used to work out there so don’t come and slap me for my jokes.  Kyoto has been one of the more memorable experiences to date of a place I won’t be going back to.  Everything about the atmosphere here was wrong.  It’s out in the strip malls and when you walk in it’s bright, there are cheesy pictures on the walls ( lots of them) and you can’t NOT get irritated by J-pop, our Japanese neighbors version of Justin Beiber and Brittany Spears (I don’t care if I misspelled their names).  Plus, the seats are very close together and there was constant pounding of fish by an assembly line behind me at the sushi counter. 

Spicy tuna, kyoto roll and dragon roll

You’ll find that the menu is rather extensive.  The breadth of the menu I saw online made me think the food here was going to be awesome.  The price tops off at 11-14$ at the most expensive, which is 3$ cheaper per roll than other places for their signature sushi rolls.  I really do like when you get a large variety, because honestly, it’s all the same ingredients, just different people like them put together differently.  I went with the spicy tuna, my measuring stick, (6.95$), Kyoto roll (8.50$ shrimp, tuna, salmon, yellowtail, avo, cuc, masago), and the dragon roll (9.95$ shrimp tempura, cuc, eel, avo, eel sauce).  I liked that they added some garnish and a purple flower to add to the presentation.  They also used ginger that is the real color of ginger root instead of the bright pink stuff.  The spicy tuna is the first thing I tried, and it is kind of right down the middle on quality since it has a mixture of the premade goo, like the cheap places, and fresh pieces of whole tuna, like the high quality places.  I hadn’t seen this mixture yet, so they rate higher than most on quality, but a real spicy tuna should be just whole pieces of tuna with a dollop of spicy mayo on top, not mixed at all, like Matsuya.  For an idea of this go out and try Miyoshi, Jo-An, or green papaya.  I did like the dragon roll which has avocado and eel wrapped around the roll and a shrimp tempura inside.  I was actually disappointed by the Kyoto roll.  Every other place uses a very flavorful roll for their house special, and this one was ok, but not great or memorable. 

Spicy tuna, kyoto roll and dragon roll

If I had a sushi place to go to again this year, Kyoto wouldn’t be it.  If you are looking for a new place for sushi because you’ve been everywhere, or you live in the burbs, then go try it.  Their large selection, cheaper (not the best) prices, but lower quality makes Kyoto fall in the lower middle on this quest for me.  

Matsuya

Sushi #3: Matsuya – spicy tuna, tuna roll, octopus, shrimp, salmon, tuna, makeral – $17.25

I do love miso soup and the asian salad dressing
you find at sushi places.

I went rock climbing for the second time in my life Saturday for a friends birthday festivities at Rock Quest up in the northern suburbs.  If you have never tried rock climbing I’d highly recommend it!  Don’t be scared, they have 6 year olds doing this, so I’m pretty sure you can too. 

My sushi lunch: tuna roll and octopus, salmon,
shrimp, mackeral, and tuna nigiri

My review this week is for Matsuya.  I am able to get to Matsuya during lunch in the Florence, Kentucky area, so it might be a long drive for anyone else reading this.  This is the 6^th place I’ve hit in 2012 and the 3^rd sushi place from my list, which has been updated since that last posting.  I met my company for lunch on February 7^th, 2012 and like most places in Florence it was fairly empty.  And again, like everything in the suburbs it’s in a strip mall that looks like every other strip mall.  It’s very hard to distinguish quality food when everything looks the same and that’s why I read and write reviews.  When you walk in you see the sushi bar is fairly large, but that everything else in the place isn’t very different than any other sushi place you go to.  Go to Kyoto and then Miyoshi or Green Papaya to see the opposite ends of the spectrum. 

The spicy tuna is my measuring stick between sushi places. 
I get one at all of the 25 sushi restaurants I'm hitting this year. 

The menu is fairly straight forward for lunch and you can eat much cheaper than at dinner.  I went with a special sushi lunch A $(12.75) then I added a spicy tuna (4.50$) since that is my comparison item for all of the sushi places I hit this year.  It’s kind of like my yard stick.  My sushi came with a miso soup and house salad with a ginger salad dressing on it.  While I like the Asian salad dressing, my company didn’t particularly care for the dressing.  I am always a fan of any Asian soups, and we both enjoyed the miso soup.  My sushi included a tuna roll and octopus, salmon, shrimp, mackerel, and tuna nigiri.  All of these were very fresh and colorful and tasty.  There was a simplistic presentation, but it was still a good presentation.  The tuna was a deep red.  The only problem was that the spicy tuna was in a chopped up form and for me that shows bad quality.  Fresh tuna and spicy mayo should be distinctly visible in a good spicy tuna.  My company had some trouble with the chop sticks and ended up screaming.  I laughed my ass off when she didn’t notice that she screamed “I don’t know if I can fit all of this in my mouth!” HAHAHAHA!   Man, I’ve heard some funny shit on my food quests this past year.  After her sushi fell apart I tried taking a picture and laughing at her lack of coordination, and she thought I was taking the picture from a “bad angle.”  No, the sushi was just a mess on her plate. 

My friend's failed attempt at chop sticks... and I mean failed!

If you are going to try some sushi this year and you don’t live near Matsuya, I probably wouldn’t make the trip.  If you are in the area, I recommend Mai Thai down the road on Industrial.