Kyoto Sushi — Restaurant in Greater Strathcona

Have always seen this place in passing but had no reason to check it out until I was really hungry and in the area. Upon entering the business it didn't seem the cleanest, especially the bathroom which some what made me lose my appetite temporarily. We ordered bento a and b to get a wide variety and the beef tataki.

With Japanese restaurants, I find if you wish to gauge the business, try their beef tataki. It will tell you right away if you should attempt the sushi or cooked only. While the beef was perfectly cut and presented, the taste was unlike any other I've had. Quite over powering in lime and whatever they use for "ponzu" sauce. Definitely not how beef tataki should taste, and now understand why they offer tobasco sauce with it (really, Mexican sauce in a Japanese restaurant?) ... to cover up the over powering lime taste (and they even give extra lime...).

With that, I did not order my usual order of toro and random house rolls and stuck with only the bento boxes. The tempura that came with it was very good but not anything that is more special than any other restaurant (or home made with planko breading). The beef teriyaki was good, but the chicken from the other bento was quite dry. With the Bento B (beef with sushi and maki) the tuna sushi was NOT cut properly at all and had to spit out an overly chewy piece.

Overall, I would eat here again if I were in the area and had a hard craving for sushi and could not wait to drive the extra 10 minutes to any other sushi restaurant (Sushi Wasabi literally just down the road on 111st).

Needed Improvements to increase rating: -Beef tataki, please - don't over power it with lime, it needs to be balanced to enhance the flavour of the beef. -Clean the place! The carpets were dirty, the walls beside the table looked like they had never been washed or cleaned ever. The bathroom was disgusting. -Place could use a fresh coat of paint, take a day or two off and paint the place. Clean the bathroom, and put a fresh seal around the urinal so it doesn't look like someone did a quick sealing job on it and walked away, it harbours all the dirt and bacteria when you don't smooth it out and...

We ate in, and the first thing I noted was the smell. A wave of stale, musty, unclean air. I was unsettled, but I thought I wouldn't judge by appearance alone without trying the food. Overall, the food was average: tempura batter very heavy (KFC, anyone?), salmon sashimi not too fresh (starting to get sticky), and small portions of fish, but one of the maki rolls (Tropical roll?) was surprisingly good. Chop chop cones were disappointingly light in scallop portioning, and the california rolls were overly creamy without the expected pack of crab meat. The green tea ice cream was quite nice with a flourish of colorful sprinkles. The men's bathroom was poorly maintained: unclean, with globs of browning silicone caked around the urinal. Friendly, attentive waitress, average food, overly pricey for portion size, and...

Not great. The fish isnt fresh. Anything that smells or tastes "fishy" or leaves a fishy stink on your breath is old. Fresh fish doesnt have a "fishy" stink or taste. As far as the tempura goes; who uses onions and red peppers for tempura ?! One piece of broccoli and two pieces of yam. (Broccoli and yam are expensive right now, onions and peppers are not) stop being cheap. . The rolls were ok but you can get the same, if not, better quality from a fast food sushi like edo japan. Wasabi serving was good and the shrimp tasted ok which is why i gave it 2 stars. I would reccomend this place for their spring rolls, dumplings or anything cooked but as far as anything else goes.... no go. Would not reccomend. Im going to go brush me teeth for 3 hours now to try and get this awful smell out...