San Francisco, CA — Kyoya

Kyoya 2 New Montgomery St San Francisco, CA

(415) 546-5090 map

Kyoya is that rarity among restaurants, a hotel restaurant worth visiting. Kyoya is located in the Palace Hotel in the heart of Market Street in downtown San Francisco. Sushipilgrim was teaching a class across the street and needed a sushi fix. I have been to Kyoya before, but it had been a while.

Kyoya is a rather formal Japanese restaurant with a complete menu. When I walked in it was full of Japanese people (always a good sign). The menu I am told is more traditionally Japanese wthout the normal Americanized rolls seen on many sushi menus.

I ordered the chirashi sushi. Chirashi sushi is a sashimi assortment served on sushi rice. The assortment was excellent. It consisted of two stacked dishes. The first contained tuna, yellowtail, surf clam, squid, tamago, a tempura pickle and Japanese radish. The other dish had a bed of sushi rice, salmon eggs, fish flakes (which were pink and somewhat sweet), straw mushrooms, daikon (which we called daigu on Guam) and some sort of sliced tuber. Several of the items were uniquely Japanese and some I had never seen before.

The service was first rate and professional. The decor was Japanese without being overdone. I enjoyed everything about Kyoya. The service was excellent and the fish was even better. The only negative is that Kyoya is also the most expensive sushi restaurant I have ever been to. I went in for lunch and no entree or combination ended up costing less than about $25.00. Oh well, there goes my expense account.

Kyoya is an excellent choice and highly recommended.

Kyoya: 4 rice bowls