It is good.

The service was very helpful and friendly. Smiles, efficiency, recommendations, and please-and-thank-yous. What more can you ask for?

The food was very strong, indeed. I most particularly enjoyed the salmon sushi. I found it to be the most authentic in Vancouver, yet. Every dish that came was enjoyed by the 4 people in our party. I found one of the sashimi dishes to be a bit slimy in a sticky way, indicating to me that it could use a stronger acid counterpoint in the presentation (they do serve their sashimi on a bed of greens and vinagrette, so a sharper vinagrette would have been nice). But this is the only point to note.

We ate, and ate and ate and ate. We kept ordering this and that - fresh, grilled, meats, fish, you name it. We had a bottle of wine, too. It came to less than $170. For 4 adults who got full, with booze, that's not bad at all.

The ambience is really nice, though I'd give it a 5 if it didn't have those infernal wooden benches to sit on, and that seem to be all the rage right now. :(

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I will absolutely be back. Soon, too, I hope.

Well , there are so many Izakaya bars in Vancouver now, it seems to be the latest rave.
Kingyo is yet another form of these tapas restaurants that delivers smiles and good Japanese tapas.
Service is excellent , food is good, maybe not as plentiful as the Guu's but very tasteful just the same.
The seating is maybe a bit awkward, if you get sat down at a large table with a table screen, you will be rubbing elbows with your neighbours.
All in all its a solid deal...
We might return soon!

I love going to Kingyo for lunch on weekdays. They never have a line, lots of seats, fast service and the washrooms are clean.

I usually order one of the following three:
1) Pork Kukuni bowl
2) Negitoro bowl, or
3) Tofu mobo bowl (spicy! watch out)

They also have a great homemade ginger ale that I like, and the hot teas are good too!

The bowls above are under $10 and come with soup. The Tofu bowl comes with this almond dessert too!

I love this place!

Went with a friend 2 weeks ago, got high expectation from the reviews, but end up a bit disappointed. The food is decent, but couldn't recall anything that's really exceptionally good. We ordered prawn sashima, it's fresh. Dan Dan noodle, their menu said it is the best in the world, but I feel it's taste is bit too strong, but I did manage to finish the Dan Dan noodle soup too. We also ordered a duck hot pot, it was decent but same problem, the soup tastes a bit too strong. I couldn't remember what else we ordered as they were nothing memorable. We tried their two desserts on the menu, the Tiramisu cake is tasty, probably the best dish for that night's meal. I end up paying the bill, 80.00 including tips, which is reasonable for a downtown Jap restaurant, but since the food is not as good as expected, I only give it a 2 stars on value.

If you like the food at Guu, you will like the food at Kingyo. I heard a previous chef from Guu left Guu and opened Kingyo. This place seems to be always crowded. It's best to make reservations, but they don't take reservations the day off, so it's first come first served. Great ambiance. Place is very nicely decorated. You actually feel like you're in Japan when you walk in. It's a good dining atmosphere as you don't get all the yelling you get at Guu. The yellow tail carpaccio is really good. I wasn't a big fan of the bibimbap (Korean rice in a hot stone bowl). The plum wine is a must try. There is hot pot here too. It's kinda cool. Service is really good too, except my waiter kept on saying "cheers" after every dish was placed on my table. Overall, I'd recommend this place if you love izakaya food.

We had a party of 9 recently visit Kingyo on a Friday night. Just to be sure we had a table, we made prior reservation, which they were initially hesitant in accepting. I told them we'd be gone within 2 hours so they agreed to a 6 - 8 p slot.

Once there, we just ordered a bunch of food, from the raw squid in wasabi to the karaage to the ebi mayo to the hot pot etc. Needless to say, we enjoyed each and every dish we ordered.

As you'd probably expect from some izakayas, some of the food were in portions that were too small. However, it's not out of ordinary and pricing is comparable to other authentic establishments around the city. With tip and drinks (each of us had at least one), our bill came to $23 each.

All in all, we couldn't have asked for a better meal. I highly recommend this place. Even better if you can find a group to go with you so you can taste more dishes.

My wife and I have been wanting to try Kingyo since it first opened but just didn't make it until recently. I knew it was going to be a good night out when I found free parking about 2 minutes from the restaurant!

It was a Thursday night about 7:00 and we were lucky to get seats at the big central table right away. The hostess and waitresses were all very efficient and pleasant with better English skills than at some izakaya. The food was served quickly and tea and water refilled as needed. We never had to look for service. The only slight downside of this service was the not-quite-pushy sales technique of our particular waitress who was a consumate salesperson which didn't bother us but could become an annoyance for some people.

It's a nice room, deceptively simple but with enough authentic decorations to show that the design has been considered to make a comfortable dining experience. We sat at the big central table where you sit next to other parties, but with the tall bamboo in the middle of the table you don't feel like you're sitting directly across from other people. The section of Japanese roof tiles above the sushi bar is also a nice touch.

But what about the food? We were not disappointed with anything we ordered, if not overwhelmed. The karaage was excellent - meaty, crispy, and tasty. It comes with three kinds of salt which on the finger do taste slightly different, but don't make too much difference once you dip the chicken in. The sashimi salad was good with a reasonable serving of hamachi and... I forget the other fish now on a bed of mixed greens with a nice dressing. The beef tongue is served raw with a very hot rock to cook it on yourself. If you think the rock will cool off too quickly to cook the meat enough, don't worry. I'm a big tongue fan and this was a special treat. The calamari was quite good as well. Not the best I've ever had, but the shiso salsa was good.

I had the kingyo cocktail which is shochu based. It was a pretty typical "sour" with the addition of a little gold pepper (?) that looked like a goldfish in the drink. I nice touch for their signature drink.

Kingyo isn't the cheapest izakaya out there, but the food quality is consistently good. The menu is somewhat smaller than other places which I think helps to ensure that each dish is more carefully constructed. The quality/volume/price ratio is fair and won't kill your wallet.

If there weren't so many other izakaya out there we'd probably be back soon. Alas, there are other places to get to before a return visit. But I think that Kingyo is going to be around for a while, so I'm sure we'll have the chance.

Because this place is so good, it was packed the first time we went and that was on a Wednesday evening. Because of that, we had to sit at the bar. Like Guu, it is very loud but I found it enjoyable to listen to the language and observe their culture. The food was outstanding, especially the carpaccio! They also put an interesting spin on things like the calamari that came with salsa, it was surprisingly REALLY good. Basically, everything we had at that place was amazing. Definitely a place to check out!

After the dinner we just had at Kingyo on Denman I'm feeling like giving all 5 stars, but culinary perfection is something I hope to continue to look forward to for a long time.
We arrived shortly after they opened at 5:30pm and of course enjoyed the hospitable shouts of welcome from the entire staff as you enter, making you feel that you belong.
The place has a creative decor with a mix of traditional, modern and whimsical touches that give a brief view of modern Japanese life. Well maintained from every corner I could see from the dinning area to the washroom.
Many dishes each sufficient to satisfy starting with the daily special fresh baby yellow tail sashimi artfully plated with a tea candle glow through a ribbon ring of radish served with tamari soy sauce. Next daikon and jellyfish salad, tart and tasty, a wonderful healthy dish from their everyday menu. To balance the greens karaage chicken served with 3 kinds of salt from different ends of the earth, very nice, best Karaage I've been served. How about sizzling agedashi tofu dancing in a stone bowl with a delicious enoki mushroom and okra sauce.
No disappointments yet so more to come.
Seared scallops with seaweed plum sauce all in a row on a long narrow rectangle of glass, crab and cream fried croquet, tan tan noodles that I could not get enough of, yes I'm a glutton.
More, eight local ama ebi for just over 8 bucks, great deal.
Finally off the daily specials menu a generous slice of pork belly covered in barbecue sauce and served with a radish cup of stone ground mustard. Bliss.
Handmade unique pottery, beautifully crafted wasabi carrot sculptures, details with every dish that entertained our minds and put warm feelings in our tummies.
Can't wait to visit Vancouver and Kingyo again.

It was a Monday night out on Denman and it was a toss up between trying Yoshi’s or Kingyo. Since Kingyo’s was nearby and didn’t look busy, those were the deciding factors. Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted warmly by the staff and shown to a table quite quickly. Nice hot towels were served to us and our drink orders taken. There was a daily special sheet folded into the menu and the difficult thing was deciding on what to try. We asked the server and he recommended a few dishes. Knowing it was izakaya (tapas), we weren’t expecting huge portions, but trying out several sharing plates. We started with the ahi tuna sashimi (melts in your mouth), then had the calamari (loved how it was made) followed with the Ebi Mayo and the Black Cod. After a brief lull, the tan tan noodles and the petit chicken kaarage don arrived. Both of these dishes were by far the best and we had wished they had come out at the beginning since they seemed to have opened our hunger palette for more food. The don was made uniquely and held a lot of flavour. The broth with the noodles we didn’t waste and used the rice in the don to lap it all up. All in all, everything was very good and tasty. When we got the bill, it was accompanied by a small flower vase with a flower and 3 skewers. We didn’t think anything of it until we realized that the skewers had a grape on each end and the grapes were frozen. Biting into them was like biting into some frozen sorbet. A nice ending to a delicious meal.