Kingyo

What happened to Kingyo? Why are they closed? This is the most authentic traditional Japanese restaurant in town. Not the new Asian confusion stuff.
Did something happen or is it that authentic traditional food is no longer appreciated?

Kingyo has summer appetizer specials for $ 3.00
Yes — that’s right $ 3.00 — for sizling AgeTofu with mushrooms (enoki & shitake) or 4 crispy Ebi (Shrimp) shumai.
Kingyo is rapidly becoming my go-​to spot for a sushi fix when I am in that area. Ben and Yama are very nice to me and to my 5 year old — who loves the steamed shumai.
Try the Tuna Citrus salad — served in a whole orange — or the spicy tuna tartar. I also like the tuna tataki over a bed of fresh greens — very diet-​friendly.
I have had all kinds of maki and te-​maki here — very fresh — and the best of all? Home-​made tamago (none of that frozen garbage.).
Yes it costs a bit more than Vic’s or Jay’s — but the preparations are more classic and pure. I like that from time to time.
Kingyo is much friendlier to me than Genji ever was. Hooray!
Dinner for 2 last night with one cocktail ($ 9) was $ 70 including tax ‘n tip.

What happened to this place?
Sadly, I have to reduce to two stars… for sushi/​sashimi.
I visited this place last week; and place was not busy at all — week day early evening. Well, I thought it was a good thing for me.
I ordered through regular menu this time; «Take» — the middle priced sushi dinner. I was totally disappointed b the quality and selections.
Yes, it was my fault to sit table rather than counter to begin with.
I ordered sashimi appetizer, agedashi tofu and sushi dinner.
Tuna was total disappointment — no flavor and very watery and very small and thin slices, Salmon had a bit of smell and fishy taste, which should not be. Hirame was very mushy texture…
What happened this place? Non one checks the quality anymore?
Imitation crab as it is, Eel was tiny piece with too much sauce on, Egg was too sweet… I was really disappointed.
Did they raise the price as well… was not good CP at all.
BTW, someone mentioned Agedashi Tofu?
First time I ordered it here… and two pieces of vegetable was accompanied by three small pieces of Tofu… soup tasted authentic; that’s only thing I enjoyed that evening.
I will probably try one more time at the counter… but…
Well, let’s see how it goes next time.

I’m a former sushi/​Japanese food waitress and have fairly rigorous standards for any Japanese restaurant. I work a couple blocks from Kingyo; this is my second time visiting.
Currently, I am devouring a bowl of tempura udon and a California, take out for lunch. I have to praise their packaging. It is expertly divided to stay with the integrity of the dish (aside from the tempura).
I went to get Japanese because I’m getting over a cold and thought udon would be a good cure since I didn’t feel energized enough to walk to Chinatown. I was thoroughly disappointed with the selection of soup, especially udon. The only choice was tempura udon, but it gave me a chance to break down the overall restaurant food fairly well.
Udon: the noodles were perfect. They weren’t mushy and they were perfectly slurpable. They absorbed just enough of the broth to hold some, but not over power. Great noodles. The broth on the other hand was slightly too sweet, missed that miso-​base flavor, and was not nearly hot enough (I walked literally three blocks and the broth was lukewarmish.), but for someone new to udon, I could suggest it. It definitely contained the «smoky» touch that many restaurants do not use.
Tempura: … Yeah. So… I’m going to assume it’s because it was in a CLOSED container which really was the only fault in packaging, but, (pardon me while I geek out about packaging tempura for to go) in tempura and fried food 101, you can’t put it in a closed container or the steam will make it mushy. So part were crunchy but for the most part it was soggy. I had the feeling it just was mediocre tempura regardless. When I go back, if I get tempura again, I’ll amend if I see fit. It was primarily why I didn’t give it a four.
Maki/​Rolls: I’ve had fish maki here and it was fine. I don’t remember how big the cuts were, but I don’t remember any significant problem with them. As far as the California roll, it had lots of great avocado, I couldn’t taste the crab much (I blame this on the cold though) and had the perfect crunch of cucumber. The rice lacked the bite of sake though. Another reason why I docked it…
Overall, I’m going back again, because it’s nice, clean, has friendly service, and is a few blocks from my work. But, I wouldn’t make a special trip into Center City for it. (My main sushi restaurant is Koi, because they make magic soup.)

It was one of those nights — bf came home much later than originally anticipated, I hadn’t made dinner since we had plans to go out that then fell through because of the time, and we were both STARVING to the point of not knowing what we wanted to eat. Somehow, our hunger brought us to Kingyo’s door.
All we wanted was quick, fresh, tasty food, and that’s exactly what we got. The moment the waitress sat us at a table we ordered edamame, which thankfully came out mere minutes later in time for us to order three rolls and scarf down those green beans of soy delight. Thankfully it was pretty empty on a Thursday night so our white tuna roll, salmon roe roll and their Hanabi roll were ready really quickly. I think we consumed that meal as fast as they were able to make it, and the fish was pretty fresh (I concur with Karen’s assessment regarding the freshness of the salmon roe). I was pretty pleased with the prices for the regular rolls, but the special rolls seem a little steep, especially considering how many pieces we got with the Hanabi roll. This is probably a great place for a quick lunch, but if you’re looking for more than the average sushi roll you’d be better elsewhere.

I love the dining room in this place. High ceilings, beautifully painted walls and nice tables.
The sushi was fresh and hit the spot. Tempura udon was very tasty indeed. However, the agedashi tofu was nothing more than tempura battered firm tofu with an extremely bland sauce. Seriously, can’t someone get agedashi tofu right?
I have to knock one star off for the service. It took around 25 minutes for us to get our check paid for and out the door. At least they were friendly.
Brad’s rating (out of 5):
Price: 3
Food: 3
Décor: 5
Service: 2
Wild card: The solo, elderly diner who was pounding Kirin Ichiban and white wine.

I had a wonderful dinner here a couple of weeks ago. The fish was fresh and had great portion size and the prices were very fair. The atmosphere was quiet and semi-​romantic.
The service was very attentive at first, but after we ordered another roll to add onto our order, it took a while. However, everyone was very nice.
Would definitely return.

Had a delightful lunch here today. Was shopping in center city and remembered that there were a lot of tasty looking Asian restaurants on Sansom street, so took a look.
It being about 2 in the afternoon, the place was almost deserted. I sat at the sushi bar and ordered the Take, which was five pieces of sashimi and california roll for around $ 13, and a green tea. The meal came with miso soup, which wasn’t too salty and had a nice, subtle flavor.
The sushi and sashimi were both excellent. I especially enjoyed the salmon, tuna and caviar sashimi. The waitress was very attentive, and the service was quick (though there was only one other person in the place, so that could be why). Would definitely recommend and dine here again!

Kingyo seems to be a Japanese-​owned restaurant because I was greeted and honored in Japanese and the employees all dressed in traditional Japanese clothing. The décor looked modern yet traditional with the Japanese styled curtains. In the front of the restaurant is the sushi bar but we were seated in the back which had mellow vibe. We went in since the Crêpe Café next door was closed.
We had the House Hot Sake that costed $ 9 bucks (the cheapest sake), and it definitely got a girl and I buzzed from it. The House Sake was pretty good although I am not a sake connoisseur so I wouldn’t be able to justify the quality. We skipped appetizer and we went straight to the entrees. First off, all the entrees do not come with soup and salad like how other usual sushi restaurants do. Also, I saw that the menu prices were $ 3 dollars more than the average prices. The small sashimi entrée (15 pieces) costed $ 24 and the maki combination costed $ 22. Our meal total costed $ 59 dollars without tip.
For two people, I saw that isn’t too bad and the restaurant is not too bad for a date. The quality of the food was better than I expected since I eat crappy quality sushi in Chinatown. The maki rolls were small however but tastful and worth savoring in my mouth. The sashimi was fresh as well.
However, the girl and I raved about the wasabi because we know what wasabi-​in-​a-​tube tastes like and the wasabi that was given to us was fresh and tasted homemade. I would love to return again.

Ok today’s lunch was a much better sushi experience.
The first thing you should know about Kingyo is that it is a full restaurant. not just a sushi bar. They have 10 seats at a long sushi bar in front and in the back they have tables.
I sat at the sushi bar because I wasn’t planning on staying very long. It is a bit pricey, but it was worth it to get some good sushi. I was very happy when I left and I will go again.

Holy smokes, this place is both awesome and slightly strange. From the décor to the food, it’s great but there’s something just slightly off.
First of all, I would like to say that the service was extremely friendly and attentive enough. That was 5 stars all the way. Also, there are several rooms. There are about 10 seats at the sushi bar when you walk in, a large second room in the back (the main dining room), and a smaller room off of the main room. I would assume that’s used for large groups.
OK, now to get back to this super and odd thing. My friend and I felt the décor was best summed up in the table decorations. On each table was a glass votive holder with black stones on the bottom and an electric candle that flickered daintily. At once both classic and modern (and slightly tacky yet wonderful) we decided it was very much like Japan itself. But the entire restaurant is like that, classic and modern. They have traditional screens and curtains between rooms that you expect from a Japanese restaurant in America. They also have walls that have pretty wooden paneling and a warm purple paint. The main room is a very warm (texturally, not temperature wise) room that would fit in any nice restaurant and was not overtly Japanese.
The food was also a little strange but wonderful. The miso soup had a delicate smokey flavor. The duck breast appetizer was amazing! 8 slices of a medium cooked duck breast with a large serving of absolutely delicious mushrooms, beautifully plated with sauces was way more than we expected for the $ 8.50 price tag.
Sadly, the sushi was not what either of us were expecting. The spicy in the spicy tuna was like no other spicy sauce I’ve ever had in sushi. Instead of the typical flavor it was a peppery flavor like Sriracha. I say that, but I’ve never actually tried Sriracha, I’m just trying to give an indicator that it was abnormal for sushi. Also, the special rolls appeared to be decently priced, they just weren’t the right size for the price. Which means they are actually not a good price. They were too small for the price tag.
Kingyo has a liquor license. For $ 7 I had a very nice glass of a Japanese white wine, a cuvee, to be exact. It was tart and refreshing and great with the meal. Plus, how many Japanese wines have you had in your life? They also have a cute display of attractive bottles of sake, if sake is your thing.
Even though I found the place to be slightly odd, I generally loved it. I really would like to go back, I’m just not going to order any sushi. If the duck appetizer is anything to go by, their entrees are where Kingyo really shines. I actually can’t wait to go back and order a meal, the duck was that good.