Kansai Kitchen — Restaurant in Bristol

This is one of the best place to get authentic Japanese food here in Bristol (the other being the food stall DonDon in St. Nicholas Market, according to my Japanese hairdresser. Indeed, this “restaurant” did live up to its expectations. The reason why I used quotation was because this restaurant is actually located inside a bar, which was a surprise to all of us. There wasn’t a wide range of selection of food, but all were beautifully made. The chef has been in Japan for at least a decade and he mastered the art of Japanese cuisine. You can definitely feel his passion by enjoying his masterpieces. Do bear in mind that the portion is generally not large so you might to order at least 2 items. One of the must have item is the okonomiyaki, which is Japanese for a hearty vegetarian pancake served with different kind of sauces. As a person who routinely goes to Japan, I can confidently say that this is really authentic and it’s better to spend your money here than any other so-called authentic Japanese restaurant...

We went to Kansai Kitchen during the EoHo scheme. In terms of their COVID-19 precautions, they took a temperature scan for each of us as we entered and took contact details from one of us. First of all, KK is set inside a pub so they spaced out the tables to their best efforts. It was table service only, including when ordering drinks. I asked for the okonomiyaki with oysters, chicken karaage and a cider.

Perhaps I’m not a huge fan of okonomiyaki in general but theirs had very few actual oysters. My companions weren’t too pleased with the amount of prawns too. At least the chicken was crisp on the outside and juicy inside. Service was staggered because understandably they were overwhelmed from the demand of EoHo diners. All in all, we paid £9 each which would equate to a little over one okonomiyaki normally. Would I pay the regular price? Probably not. Service was good but decent Japanese cuisine is still hard to come...

Hidden gem. Overall 10/10.

Went for the first time with a small group this week. Had never heard of it before someone at work recommended.

I was very confused to begin with - from the outside and the inside it’s a classic style British pub….however it serves amazing Japanese food!

We ordered the following: Homemade kimchi Edamame Ankake fried tofu Okonomiyaki (veg pancake with Ikari sauce) Gohan rice bowl (miso and spring onion) Chicken tatsuta-age Fried kushikatau (sweet potato)

My personal favourites - the veg pancake, the fried chicken and the miso rice. But it was all delicious.

For dessert we shared the matcha green tea ice cream and the black sesame ice cream - both of these were very tasty. It was a lovely experience too as the chef came out to ask how we found the salt levels in the black sesame ice cream. It was nice to have a chat in general about the food with the guy...