Lunch @ Kingyo

I love lunches that offer bento boxes–love trying a little bit of a lot of things. Kingyo in particular offers one really interesting dish called “KINGYO’s super famous delux Makuno-uchi” bento (limited only 10 sets per day) for $17.

Here is a bit more about the restaurant…..

Kingyo is another Japanese restaurant that has made the move from Vancouver to Toronto, following the success of Guu, Guu Sakabar, Kinton, Hapa Izakaya and Ramen Raijin. Koji Zenimaru, formerly head chef at the original Vancouver location, is joined by a team of former Kingyo and Guu staffers. The 120-seat room has plenty of goldfish paraphernalia (kingyo is goldfish in Japanese).

Well, what sold me on this restaurant is that they offer their lunch menu on weekends! And after reading many reviews, reviewers consistently noted that the lunch menu gives you more value for your buck.

The Good

The reservation process was very straightforward—can be done over e-mail
Most dishes are under $20 – only items over $20 are the sashimi (3 Kind Assortment $22.00 & 5 Kind Assortment $35.00)
They offer their lunch menu on weekends
I love that on their website you can see an image of every dish

The Not So Good

Service was slow and staggered – I had to get my own water and had to refill it myself
The food – I ordered the Makuno-uchi bento box and I only liked 2 items out of 10. I don’t even know what 75% of the items were. We asked our waitress for an explanation, and found her description of the items to be unclear. Also, although I knew that I would not be able to eat several of the items in the box (they had lots of onions), you are not allowed to substitute. Nevertheless, I was too curious about this box to go with something else.

Thoughts?

I don’t get the hype. The restaurant is clean, spacious, and the menu is extensive with reasonable prices. The food and service however did not cut it for me. I was starving when we left the restaurant because I did not like or could not eat some of the items in the box. And because the portions were so tiny, the items I did like, I did not get much of.

The friends that got the bento box with me agreed with me—food was not great and no value for money. Those that ordered something else from the menu were satisfied with their food. Not blown away, but it was acceptable. We all agreed however that Kingyo is not worth a second visit.