⛩️ Salt Lake City｜One Step to Kyoto｜Kyoto Sushi

The most atmospheric Japanese restaurant in Salt Lake City! Wooden lattices, white lanterns, tatami-style booths — stepping through the wooden door feels like a dream trip to Kyoto 🍵. Unlike the trendy industrial-chic sushi bars today, this decades-old spot has a homey, workshop-like warmth 🎏 — cozy and simple, like a bowl of miso soup on a snowy day. The original owner, Tada, is now retired in Kyoto ⛩️. Today, the restaurant is run by Peggi Ince-Whiting, who trained under a sushi master in Tokyo and later opened several restaurants in her home state of Utah. She’s one of the few female sushi chefs around! 👩‍🍳✨ ⭐️⭐️⭐️ SABA SHIOYAKI (Salt-Grilled Mackerel) A bit dry, but comes with miso soup, salad, and rice. As a set meal 🍱, it wasn’t quite enough for me — a Chinese girl with a big appetite — though it does match the modest portions often seen in Japanese TV dramas 😄. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Nama Chirashi (Sashimi Bowl) 🍣 The fried shrimp head was so fragrant — instantly whets your appetite! A great value bowl loaded with salmon, tuna, grilled eel, sweet shrimp, octopus, mackerel, tamagoyaki, carrot, sautéed onion, pickled burdock, and escolar (aka oilfish — fair warning, it might upset your stomach!). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ SAKE OYAKO DON (Salmon and Salmon Roe Rice Bowl) Beautiful to look at and delicious to eat — I really loved this one! 🌸 ⭐️⭐️ BEEF SUKIYAKI 🥘 Not the high-end sukiyaki where you dip thinly sliced beef in broth and raw egg. Here, the beef and noodles come pre-cooked together in an overly sweet sauce — too sweet even for my Southern Chinese taste, and the beef wasn’t tender. Not recommended. They also serve oyako don, unagi don, teriyaki chicken rice — all generous portions and solid lunch choices. The clientele skews older; last time I was there, four elderly ladies were celebrating a birthday, each with a donburi, asking each other how their meals were. So heartwarming and cute! 🥰 📍 Address: 1080 E 1300 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84105 #LifeAbroad#SaltLakeCity #SaltLakeCityFood #SLC #Utah #LifeInSLC #FoodReview #WeekendEats