Kyoto- Winter Park — Restaurant in Winter Park

i don't often post reviews, much less negative ones. however, i felt compelled to in this case. if you want gentrified, mid-quality japanese food - probably a good spot.

i was disappointed, firstly, by the thai tea. a staple in thai tea is to make it with condensed milk. that is quintessential thai tea. unfortunately, the thai tea here is... made with half and half. other drinks were fine - but i don't recommend the thai tea if you've ever drank real thai tea before.

onward to the food. the noodles are... fine, if a touch bland? they're overcooked for sure, but i recommend adding heaps of soy and sesame sauce to add any kind of flavor to it. vegetables in the stir-fry are a bit hard, but i won't knock points down for that because that's usually how it goes in more casual restaurants. the sushi was a mixed bag? plate? not sure what a good metaphor is. the sushi i had was fine because it didn't have any fish in it... lol. the other sushi roll was... interesting. as you can see in the pictures, i pressed down on the salmon and it was certainly something! it quite literally flipped around on the plate. salmon should fall apart pretty easily in sushi, not be firm enough to bounce on the floor and catch it on the way up.

other than that, the service was wonderful. everyone was very, very kind. genuine compliments to the staff. however, i'd stay away from fish-based sushi and the noodles. a touch too expensive for the quality being given. disappointing. maybe they had a rough night. who am i to judge? - aside from being a google...

I’m so sorry but we came in for lunch we all ordered the Chicken lunch special and it was SO dry and hard we got dark meat but I’m pretty sure it was all extremely dry white meat. One of our friends sent his plate back and they tried to make him a new one and the chicken was all rubbery. The “White sauce” was cut with I’m guessing water? Because it poured out of the bottle like straight liquid with no flavor since it was cut with so much water. The server was very nice and we asked if the chicken had been cooked way earlier and she said yes they cooked all the chicken earlier to prepare for the “lunch rush” but it was basically dead in there so I don’t see the point in cooking it ahead of time for it to be old and dry for the customers. While we were there the girls at the counter had chic fil a doordashed to them and I’m not saying they can’t eat different foods but we were all like damn we should have gotten chic fil a too bc this...

I came here for a date night dinner with my partner, I got a smoked salmon sushi roll, and scallop ramen; he got a shrimp and calamari grill combo and a lemonade, everything totaled to 65$. We received our food within 10 minutes after placing our order and finding a booth to sit. remarkably fast yet everything felt super fresh. the scallops were AMAZING, the best scallops I’ve had especially for a place I would consider fast casual. the smoked salmon roll was really good as well, the lemonade was not too sweet and just perfect. my partner enjoyed his grill combo however the calamari was a little over cooked but other than that it was good. we definitely look forward to coming back, the portions are great as we both had enough food to take home for another meal later. i would highly recommend eating here. service was great and everybody was kind and accommodating as well so i want to acknowledge that about the winter park crew...