Food Review

If you thought you had to go to a performance-style, high-energy restaurant for Japanese stir fry in Bowling Green, guess again. Kyoto Japanese Steak House has a low-key, unassuming atmosphere with a lot of potential for a delicious meal – as long as you’re not expecting a lot of variety.

From the gray walls to the soft-spoken, reserved wait staff, I felt a calming aura take over my otherwise keyed-up mood. We were seated at the only two-top in the restaurant, near the cash register, so I asked to be seated by the fish tank for a little visual stimulation while we ate. The large, brightly lit tank that housed three black fish, one large gold fish and a suckerfish was the liveliest part of our experience and I’ve read fish tank watching is sometimes prescribed to bring down high blood pressure.

I looked around the room at the traditionally Japanese, yet not overdone, paper light fixtures, paper scrolls and nature scene paintings to see something I didn’t expect. There were several young adult patrons dining in groups of four to six without their parents. My dining companion and I speculated it might be due to the reasonably priced food that is predictable.

This predictable speculation came while glancing at the menu and seeing the same meal descriptions over and over. Not being a young adult myself, at first I felt boxed into a lack of choices. Kyoto does not serve sushi; we thought they did, and my dining companion and I even considered leaving. It turns out the food choices are just another fraction of Kyoto’s simplistic style and what they lack in variety, they make up for in distinctive flavor. Once you’ve tried it, I predict you’ll be back from time to time, happy to know just what you’re getting before you even arrive.

There were two basic varieties of dishes on the menu: hibachi and teriyaki. Hibachi is served with mushrooms, potatoes, carrots, zucchini and onions, and teriyaki is served with the same except broccoli instead of mushrooms. The variation comes in your choice of vegetables, chicken, beef, fish or combinations. All dinners are served with fried rice with a ginger sauce – the same sauce that is used as their salad dressing, again, keeping it simple.

I ordered the seafood combination dinner, while my dining companion had the shrimp and chicken combination. Both were served with a generous amount of seafood, fish and chicken. The chicken and salmon were on the dry side, as if pre-cooked for easy serving (maybe keeping it too simple), the scallops, shrimp and other seafood were fork tender and moist. Both the hibachi and teriyaki sauces were light and, you guessed it, unassuming, enhancing yet not overwhelming the flavor of the seafood and chicken. There wasn’t a visual difference between the two sauces, but as far as flavor goes, the teriyaki was slightly sweeter.

The fried rice was rice alone without veggies, eggs or meat. It was refreshingly fried in a small amount of oil and soy sauce. We poured the faintly sweet, cream-based ginger sauce over the rice and enjoyed a flavor combination unique to Kyoto – me with my chopsticks, my dining companion with her fork.

I hope you’ll try Kyoto and that it has same calming effect while you benefit from a healthy Japanese stir-fry meal. I may be there, fork in hand.

Kyoto Japanese Steakhouse

2800 Scottsville Road, Ste. 4

796-6161

Hours: 11 a.m. -2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Thurs.; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Fri. and Sat.; and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sun.

Specialties: Teriyaki and hibachi

Cuisine: Japanese

Price range for dinner: $3.99 to $6.99 one entrée, $8.99 to $12.99

combinations

Libation situation: Beer, domestic and Japanese

Smoking: Yes