Update 2021-Aug.-28: Sadly, Kyoto House, one of our early favourites, may be gone. It's listed as Permanently Closed on Google Maps, but not on Yelp, and its phone # sounds like a personal phone and has a full mailbox, rather than being out of service. So for now as I can't confirm it's open I will remove it from the active list, but will follow up later to confirm.
It's been a favorite long before I started blogging anything, and hadn't been there in years so returning was like seeing old friends. The same people are still there, so it seems to be a family-owned place, and the quality was still top-notch. I always liked the nice atmosphere with wood-framed booths (there are some tables in the centre, but rarely used.) We were lucky enough to get there right as the doors opened, and they were happy to allow me to fully take pictures before the crowd moved in, and they did within 30 minutes of the start of lunch hour.
Once
we were seated in the cozy booth, it was on to lunchtime! Starting with
salad. The dressing is among the best I've had; lettuce was fresh and
crisp. The miso soup (at least when we were there) was red miso, with a
distinctive and different flavor... nice touch. Spicy salmon roll was
excellent with chunks of fresh salmon, whereas most restaurants use
minced salmon in order to get the seasoning in. The soy sauce was sweet
and fresh, not salty like some other places. Salmon sushi was delicious.
In
fact, "fresh" summarizes the entire meal, which is one of the reasons
we keep returning to Kyoto... quality food with fresh ingredients that
never disappoints. As with Maki Zushi, it's good to find
higher-than-expected quality in a smaller town setting, better than some
found in Toronto.
Overall Rating: 8.5-9/10
