Anyone been to Kiyokawa recently?
My sushi-eating buddy is flying down from SF next weekend and he wants to try a new place (so no Kiriko, Sasabune, Shunji, Sushi Zo, or Urasawa). We're trying to keep it on the westside, so I was thinking about either Kiyokawa and Mori. There have been reports of recent meals at Mori, but I haven't seen any re: Kiyokawa, so I was wondering how it was (specifically with regards to their omakase). I'm also open to other suggestions.
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At Kiyokawa, the sushi is quite good, not shockingly amazing, but a fine effort. Everything is pretty fresh and of adequate quality for the price you pay. Nice little touches like the artistic plating and unusual dressings make you happy.
If you're sitting at the bar and have a viewpoint, the chef's knife skills and handwork are quite a fun show. He moves very fluidly, as if dancing or fighting.
What really bothers me about the place is the ratio of chef to customer count (1 sushi chef to 20-30 customers). Food comes out far too slowly as only one person is making everything, and he does so accurately step by step. Even the wasabi is freshly grated every time he makes a piece of sushi. Look forward to at least 2 hours if you go the omakase route (about 14 types of sushi plus dessert).
In comparison to Mori, I do not know how it is, as the original chef no longer works there I hear. But at Mori, you get your sushi at a fairly consistent pace, and the fish quality is a bit higher, with some rarer finds if you ask whats in that day. I also think the venue is more charming, it feels like an art gallery, while Kiyokawa has a mixture of high end izakaya decor.
I've only been to both places once, but my experience at Mori was more memorable.
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re: andrew_eats
Haven't been recently, but the Kiyokawa omakase hasn't changed has it? Did you have a sushi-only omakase?
I think Kiyokawa shines in the interspersed prepared dishes. That combined with its relative value. I can't remember exactly, but I think an omakase meal at Mori would be at least $50 more.
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re: andytseng
The sushi omakase.
Comparatively speaking if you were looking for a pure sushi experience, in terms of quality and especially the pace at which you receive your food, I'd pay more at Mori (assuming the original chef is there). The sushi omakase would cost you about 40 bucks more.
We were given some of the cooked items from the chef's tasting omakase at Kiyokawa. I agree its quite good. But since a great deal of that menu is from the raw bar, if you order sushi omakase, you have to wait a long time, which doesn't seem right... 15 to 20 minutes in between plates of 3-4 pieces sushi.
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Forgot to report back. It was great! Although I have to say that the sushi itself was the low point of the omakase, since I got very conventional pieces (bigeye tuna, salmon, etc.). Then asked for another 5 pieces of Sato-san's choice, and got bluefin tuna w/ caviar, fresh octopus, and even "it that must not be named" nigiri - delicious!
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sarahbeths
Jul 12, 2012 11:27 AM
I went to Kiyokawa for my boyfriend's birthday meal. I had high hopes, we got the omakase. The presentation was beautiful, I was a bit disappointed in the food. It might be a matter or taste and this might not be the best way to explain, but there is a deep sea flavor to much of the fish that isn't pleasing to me. Perhaps it is quite "authentic" but it is not my favorite preparation or profile. I also went to Mori a couple of months ago, that meal was far preferable to me, though more expensive. I think I spend 250 or so all in at Kiyokawa and 340 at Mori. Also at Kiyokawa, they brought live shrimp to our table, moving and walking around... I don't even know how you would begin to eat that, but I have no desire to do so. So when they saw we were freaking, they offerred to deep fry the shrimp for us. They were quite tasty fried.
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re: chrishei
sarahbeths
Jul 12, 2012 03:21 PM
Can you give me a short, non graphic description of how you eat the live shrimps?
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re: sarahbeths
lol sorry but your post made me laugh.
the sushi chef will peel the live shrimp and only serve you the "meat" of it on sushi rice, just like a normal piece of sushi. Putting the live shrimp on your table was strictly for presentation. No one would expect you to kill your own shrimp to eat it.
the frying of the head is also a standard way to serve the head. Kiyokawa and almost every other sushi place will do this.
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re: TailbackU
sarahbeths
Jul 13, 2012 02:28 PM
Ok, I did not get that at all. Then again I didn't let the plate get all the way to the table before I sent it away. Do you mean that there will be a piece of prepared fresh sushi next to the live shrimp and the live shrimp is just supposed to hang out on my plate while I eat his friend? Or that they put it on the table, then take it away and bring it back as a piece of prepared sushi?
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re: sarahbeths
"Or that they put it on the table, then take it away and bring it back as a piece of prepared sushi?"
This. It's presented to you to show you why you're paying $20 for 2 (live) shrimp.
They show you what's up, take it back, cut it up, and give you the amaebi as sushi. Then in 10-15 minutes (or whatever) the shrimp heads come back fried. Some places have an option of miso soup using shrimp heads instead of fried shrimp heads.
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re: ns1
sarahbeths
Jul 13, 2012 04:27 PM
Thanks for clearing this up! I did get the sushi and the head, so now I know that i did eat the "live shrimp", and here I had been telling everyone I couldn't do it. I feel much more bad ass about the whole thing now ; )
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re: ns1
i think there used to be all-live sashimi Korean bar in k-town a few years back. Maybe called living fish center.
and i just noticed on pico and crenshaw a joint that really does look like a Korean live seafood sushi-sashimi bar, it has a korean name, can't remember it, not exaclty sure about that though.
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re: kevin
There's a live-fish place in the corner of the plaza that Kang-ho -Dong is in... it also served hard liquor by the bottle. Last time we were there for a roll to kill time waiting for a table at Kang Ho dong there was a 4top of Korean men devour a hubcap sized plate of sashimi and washing it down with a bottle of Johnnie Walker.
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re: ns1
TonyC
Apr 24, 2013 09:32 AM
That is such a bad idea. Koreans just want their (large, cheap, poorly cut) halibut (if you're lucky, oft it's just fluke/flounder) served in jumongous amounts, dipped in a thinned gochujang, to wash down the soju (or johnnie, or crown, or whatevs). If you're unlucky, they'll mislabel fluke/flounder/sole as halibut and charge you as such.
They're all called "live fish centers" in 1 way or another. There's wassada, there's LA hwa-ul, chung hae jin, island, blah blah blah. Doesn't matter tho, the food all comes out looking like this more or less: http://s3-media1.ak.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/YyK5TXIx0DDh7D8osWAGbw/l.jpg
Mentioning this 회 style of raw fish in the same thread as Kiyokawa is kinda a crappy thing to do. You can get the exact same thing at home by going to Assi and buying a platter of sliced "halibut" and mixing your own cho gochujiang: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/hoedeo... (same sauce used in hwe dup bap and a gazillion other things).
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re: ns1
TonyC
Apr 24, 2013 10:28 AM
well, this beats regurges of every.single.damned Squid Ink post. =)
FWIW, Chow/board/2 went thru this subject in '07: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/379384
Not much has changed except the restaurant names.
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I haven't been for a while for dinner (we had omakase)... but i recently had take out chirachi for lunch and while they completely ruined the brown rice (yes, it's an option there and i was trying to be healthy), the fish itself was great. lesson learned... no more takeout... no more brown rice there either! too mushy.
