Kyoto Japanese Restaurant, Cedar Square Shopping Centre, Fourways View, South Africa.
Ξ December 20th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ International Terroirs, Restaurant Reviews |
Japanese food seemed a good idea for a late Thursday lunch towards the end of a busy week and Kyoto a relatively new restaurant and is part of the Tokyo Sky nightclub in the shopping centre. We found it by accident as we were heading for another restaurant in the centre but it was closed for a private function – I’m glad it was!
The menu has a wonderful selection of sushi, sashimi, soup, noodles and main dishes and we went through it at least twice to try and whittle down the candidates. Meantime we ordered a superb Graham Beck Cap Classique, the South African Méthode Traditionelle sparkling wine. This was their non-vintage Brut, a very drinkable Pinot Noir Chardonnay blend coming in at a restaurant price of £9 ($18).
We watched the Japanese sushi chef at work for a few minutes until the first dishes arrived and I never cease to be amazed at the level of skill involved in quickly preparing good seafood. I’d already heard about the good match between sushi and Champagne, and this South African equivalent was spot-on for the food (it wasn’t bad on its own either!).
The Tempura prawns and Kyoto’s speciality spring rolls with dips were wonderful, while a combination of different sushi and sahimi made up the rest of our meal. I especially liked the Unagi nigiri (grilled eel) and the melt-in-the-mouth Salmon sashimi. The wasabi was really potent, an added bonus!
Seafood is popular in South Africa, and the quality is excellent - in Fourways itself (which is an offshoot of the Sandton suburb of Johannesburg) there must be at least 6 decent sushi/sashimi restaurants to choose from, whereas back home we’re struggling to reach that number in my whole region, which has a far greater population and area. This was the second time I’ve had Japanese food in this country and both times the food has been far superior to anything I’ve had in the U.K.
The bill for two of us, including the fizz, came in at about 350 Rand, less than £26 ($52) which makes me a little sad, since in the UK you’d typically pay double the price for something not as good. My local guide Caroline made a note of returning soon with her friends.
Greybeard– November 2007.
