Kyo Ya - Review

Intro
Kyo Ya - Highly Recommended
94 E 7th St, New York 10079
At 1st Ave
Phone: 212-982-4140

As part of the chaos from dudes night last week, our fellow dudette Ami recommended checking out Kyo Ya. Not sure what to expect, but she mentioned this was her favorite restaurant serving traditional Japanese food. This place completely blew me away and changed the notion of what Japanese food could be. The balance of flavors - especially the sweetness - was very shocking to me. Overall, I give the restaurant an 89/100.

My Menu
1) Bay Scallop ***, Octopus *, Tuna ** Sashimi
2) Abalone **
3) Yuba and Uni Yoshino Style **
4) Gyu Tan *
5) Thinly Sliced Duck, Onions, and Garlic Chives ***
6) Shirako *
7) Udon

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) Beautifully plated pieces of sashimi that was out of this world good. Scallops are maybe my favorite seafood and these bay scallops were a complete what the f moment. Insanely sweet and such a great scallop flavor. Next - the tuna. I'm so desensitized by having so much o-toro and chu-toro that all other pieces of tuna are usually a let down. This maguro was nicely charred and smoked with a really creamy texture. Definitely the best maguro I've ever had hands down. Finally, the octopus was insanely tender and very flavorful.
2) Abalone was very tender and had such an amazing balance of sweet and savory. Completely eye-opening the subtle sweetness of the dish, which I've never experienced at an authentic Japanese restaurant. I've only experienced the sweetness at the fake teriyaki restaurants which are disgustingly sweet.
3) Perfectly made yuba (tofu skin) with a great tofu flavor and creamy texture. The uni added a nice briney flavor and adding the fresh wasabe put this dish over the top. Great stuff and such a contrast with the yuba made at Ko which was pretty bad.
4) Miso marinated beef tongue, thinly sliced. Nice beefy flavor and again a nice subtle hint of sweetness.
5) Another what the f moment. Thinly sliced duck where you can add garlic chives, thinly sliced onions, a squeeze of lemon, mustard, and a touch of subtle teriyaki? style sauce. A perfect mix of fat and smoke from the duck with the crunchy bite from the garlic chives and onions, tart from the lemon and sweet from the sauce. Writing about it makes me want some more now!
6) Porthos has always raved about this dish - a Japanese delicacy. This dish is basically cod sperm, but with a texture and flavor very similar to ankimo (fish liver). Now that I've had it, I don't think I can eat it anymore...something about eating sperm seems wrong even if it's in fish form.
7) I only had a tiny taste of this dish and it was a great delicate broth, but I wasn't too into the noodle texture. A little too soft for my liking...

Overall Restaurant Experience (89/100)

• Food 8.9/10 – Perfect cooking techniques that completely made me rethink what authentic Japanese food is. A what the f restaurant for me.
  
• Service 9.0/10 – Very friendly and polite servers. The food came out very quickly. Ami knows the chef, so not sure if that helped with the service...don't think so, as almost all authentic Japanese restaurants have perfect service.
  
• Atmosphere 8.8/10 – I've walked by this street plenty o times and never noticed this place. Head down the stairs and you enter this serene Japanese setting with lots of blond wood and black outlines. You can be seated in front of the chef, similar to a sushi restaurant. We arrived there at 11:30pm on a Tuesday and were seated immediately. Place was basically empty except for some customers - equal mix of Japanese and white customers.
  
• Price 8.5/10 – Place was moderately priced and definitely worth it for the quality of the food. Entrees were around $27 and apps around $12.
  

Closing Comments
Definitely need to come back for a full meal experience. This was a complete what the f experience for me and want to try the full Kaiseki menu next time.