The UK has more than 2,500 Japanese restaurants and Sushi bars, so it's not hard to find one nearby, espcially if you live in London. The UK has even more Indian restaurants, estimated 8,000, and Chinese estimated 11.500. For the adventurous eater, plenty of choice. Why not Japanese?
The Kiyoto sushi bar has five branches in London, Hatch End, Boreham Wood, West Hampstead, Cockfosters and Mill Hill.
Does the name sound familiar? Japan has a city called Kyoto. To make it easier to find the restaurant rather than the city in google searches, the restaurant name is spelled differently with an etra i before the y.
They are open seven days a week, noon to 3 pm for lunch and 1700 to 22.00 with last orders at 9.30. p.m
But what should you order? The menu has little pictures but it helps to have some translations.
Some of the dishes have explanation underneath but in small print, so if you need reading glasses or are not by a window it helps to know in advance.
Alphabetically
FOOD
agedashi - dashi is a stock/sauce/soup/marinade for cooking, based on fermented, dried anchovy, sardine, tuna or kelp, used for deep-frying tofu to add flavour. age-dashi, means deep fried in dashi.
carpacchio - raw meat
chicken katsu curry - deep fried chicken in breadcrumbs with curry
edamame (vegetarian) a green raw soy bean which looks like a big green bean, think of it as not baked beans but those big white oval beans without sauce
gunkan - literally war-boat, I think of gun-can. Shaped like a little boat with points at both ends and a casing of seaweed like a painted boat. Made of rice and maybe a filling on top.
gyoza - in Chinese jiazi, could be pasta dumplings or envelopes and filled with a stuffing such as minced pork mixed with a vegetable
hand roll (or temaki) is cone shape, pont at one end, flat at the other, shaped like a small doll-size ice cream cone to be held in your hand
inari pocket - tofu pouches (unlike sushi which are rice). They look like teeny opened purses with fillings.
inside out (also called uramaki) has rice on the outside, filling seen in the centre from on top, like a bullseye
maki roll
mayo - mayonnaise
miso dressing - miso soup is made from fermented soy.
nigiri
poke
ramen - noodles
sashimi - thickly sliced cuts of raw fish
scallop shellfish (not to be confused with shallot which is vegetable)
spider roll
sriracha sauce
sushi - bite-size or two-bite size pieces of shaped white rice with fish or vegetable in contrasting colour (eg pink raw fish or yellow wafer of sweet omelette, laid on top of a brick shape block of sticky stuck together rice, like a white brick with a coloured topping)
tataki
tempura - deep fried chicken or other food
tofu - made from soy milk, low cost and nutricious
udon
wakame
yellow tail - a big fish, but given different names in different countries
DRINKS
Ozeki sake dry 180 ml 8.98 GBP
Ozeki Saki sparkling 250 ml 11.95 GBP
asahi/kirin/sapporo 33.95 GBP
Vegetarian Dishes
Appetisers
vegetable tempura
Salads
Spinach and crispy onion
Sides
edame
Japanese pickles
rice
seaweed
Other Vegetarian dishes
Maki roll - asparagus / avocado / cucumber / omelette (not for vegans)
vegetable crunch roll
vegetable set
Home Guests For Take Away and Health converns
A pink topping to Sashimi which looks like smoked salmon has less flavour because it is raw fish.
Health & Raw Fish
Make sure any guests like raw fish. I bought sushi as a treat for a Malaysian friend and she refused to eat it because she said she never ate raw fish. This was in tropical Singapore where the temperatures are very hot.
When I looked up Sushi in Wikipedia, I was dismayed to learn that the risks are not only fish going off in the heat. Raw fish carries flukes, a polite word for worms! Not just one kind of worm, but three different types. Flat worms. Tape worms. And - enough!
Maybe, if I am not tempted by the pink fish, but still feel nervous, I should stick to deep fried chicken on skewers or toothpicks. Tofu sounds safe. Maybe rice with omelette topping.
Let's end with a happier vision. Let's dream of Japanese desserts!
Choice of Restaurants
The Kiyoto restaurants are all over north London.
In addition, Brent Cross and central London have many branches of Wagamama.
For eating Japanese at home, you can order take away from Kiyoto from Deliveroo.
Supermarkets in the UK stock sushi.
In addition to the supermarket fare, you can buy from the website of the Japanese Centre in Leicester Square.
Desserts
The Japanese Centre website shows a large variety of desserts, bite size pieces with flavours such as green tea. I subscribed to their mailing list and every few days I get an offer of a discount and/or free postage.
Hello and Goodbye
If you said or heard or thought of good evening in Japanese, when you arrived,
こんばんはKonbanwa
おやすみOyasumi good night.
Happy birthday in Japanese isお誕生日おめでとうOtanjōbiomedetōLuckily for English speakers, the Japanese sing happy birthday to you in English.
You might like to recall
Sayonara. (Goodbye in Japanese.)
Useful Websites
https://www.kiyotosushi.co.uk/menu/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashi
https://www.designmynight.com/london/blog/10-best-japanese-desserts-in-london
https://www.designmynight.com/london/restaurants/clapham/kibou-london
https://www.japancentre.com/en/categories/11102-desserts
https://www.ibisworld.com/united-kingdom/number-of-businesses/asian-restaurants/14532/
Inari recipe and picture from a vegetarian society
https://vegsoc.org/recipes/inari
https://deliveroo.co.uk/brands/kiyoto-sushi?https://deliveroo.co.uk/brands/kiyoto-sushi?
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