京一 Kyoichi — Restaurant in Boston

One of the most decent late night Asian food options in the city.

Found this place while searching for some loaded hangover food after a night out. Usually, late-night Asian options in Boston are disappointing, so I tend to just go to El Jefe’s or Felipe’s. This spot turned out to be a nice surprise.

From the name and the menu, I assumed it was Japanese fast-casual at first. They had karaage, omurice, and the usual Japanese sides. But the real good stuff here were actually the Chinese-style bowls.

Braised Pork Hock & Intestine Combo Rice – The pickled veggies on the side were okay, but the bowl itself was what convinced me this place was worth a second visit. The hock was tender, the intestines soft rather than crispy (my usual preference), but still enjoyable enough.

Karaage Tornado Curry Omurice – For $20+, the portion was comically small. Just four tiny pieces of karaage when I expected at least double. I did order close to midnight, but still not acceptable. The curry was bland and the omelette too thin and joyless. Closer to a mid hotel buffet than a proper omurice.

Crispy Fried Chicken with Honey Wasabi Sauce – Much better. Dark-meat chunks fried to a solid crunch and glazed in a sweet, lightly pungent sauce.

Crispy Longjiang Berkshire Pork Hock Rice – “Crispy” was a bit misleading. It was more of a fall-apart braise. Still, beautifully done: meat collapsing off the bone with plenty of richness. Could’ve used something sweet or bright to cut the fat, but it was hands-down the best bowl...

A pretty low-key, self-service situation where the food is only okay. The food doesn't look at all like the pictures, and the taste is average. In the BBQ pork and braised pork hock rice bowl, the photos showed nice thick juicy slices of both types of meat, but the pork hock was more like shredded pork and the BBQ pork was more like thin end scraps of red braised Chinese pork that were on the drier side. And the chicken filet tornado curry omurice was similarly okay. The tornado omelet was super thin, possibly a single ladle's worth of scrambled egg, when omurice is traditionally made with a lot more eggs than 1. And tornado omurice is made with even more eggs in order to get the twisted appearance. The curry sauce was thankfully enough and flavorful and the chicken cutlet was thick and delicious (albeit with too thin of a breading that it was slightly burnt). 😢 The meal was squarely in the "just fine" category and we're likely not to come back again....

Very disappointing experience. Ordered a sauteed spicy chicken noodle dish and a fried chicken curry tornado rice. What we got was a sour fried chicken noodle SOUP dish(could not see anything that could have been sauteed) and a curry with rice that was practically just a ball of dough. The rice was all mushed together and could not distinguish where the grains started and ended. The noodle dish that we ordered looked nothing like the picture that was provided on the kiosk we ordered in. When we went up to the counter to confirm if we got the correct dish, they insisted it was correct. We are relatively new to Boston and really love trying new spots and are always on the hunt for great food, but this wasn't it, fam. For a meal costing over $50, would rather have taken my business elsewhere. We just picked at the food and ended up not being able to eat the majority. At the very least, the owner...