Kyoto Japanese Restaurant @ Ningbo City

Travelling alone to different places just for business can get pretty lonely at times. Despite meeting different people the conversations always revolve around work. Don’t get me wrong my hosts are really nice people but sometimes it’s nice to know people in the city who are not related to what you do. You know the kind of people where you can go out and talk about absolutely nothing important. Yes... FRIENDS!

In Ningbo, I was fortunate enough to meet Ivan who is a guest relations manager at the hotel that I usually live in when I’m there. Initially, our conversations were pretty formal and usually begins with a greeting from Ivan; “Hi Mr. Yong welcome back!” but now it’s “Hey Ah Weng what are you doing tonight?” Weird as it may sound but how we became friends was purely coincidental as we were on the same flight to Hong Kong a couple of months back and were sitting next to each other. The rest as they say was history.

Anyways, back to the food... After the crappy lunch at Cafe Gino, I didn’t really have much of an appetite for dinner until Ivan asked if I was free for some Japanese Food at Kyoto Restaurant.

The restaurant was quite small and we were seated in one of the four tatami tables they had available. The place had quite a few Japanese diners which was an early indication that the food must be quite good.



Going light I ordered a few small dishes to share. They were Sashimi Moriawase, Grilled Beef Tongue, Green Salad w/dressing on the side and Grilled Flat Fish. Ivan ordered the Cha Soba. Before our dishes arrived we were given an amouse bouche of pickled noodles and radish.



My sashimi Moriawase was very fresh especially the tuna. However I did wish that the fish slices were cut a little thicker and longer.



The Grilled Beef Tongue was also very good. Simply grilled, lightly seasoned with some salt and with a squeeze of lemon this dish was delicious. I really liked the chewy texture of the tongue which is different from the meaty texture of beef.



I didn’t quite fancy the Grilled Flat Fish. It is my first time having it but I felt it was a little over-salted and dry. It did not have much meat either. I still prefer the meatier Hamachi Kama Shioyaki (Grilled Yellow Tail Neck) which wasn’t available that day.



Salad was typical of many Japanese places I’ve eaten at where it’s just shredded cabbage with some home-made dressing.



Ivan’s Cha Soba came last but was very good. The noodles were not too soft and had a nice bite to it and the soba sauce wasn’t too sweet which I prefer. I liked it so much I couldn’t help but ate half of his noodles.



The meal ended with some ice cream and fruits. Although not as good as Akitaya (a much more expensive Japanese Restaurant in Ningbo), Kyoto serves up some pretty decent food. Price is not too bad as well. Our bill only came up to RMB199.

Contact Information:
Address: 1. 117 Leigong Lane, Caihong Bei Lu
Tel: 0574-8771-6503