Georgina recommends … Kyoto Japanese Restaurant
I love Japanese food, particularly sushi and have been delighted to see more Japanese restaurants popping up on the Costa del Sol. However, for me most of the restaurants here are prohibitively expensive and feel like a real rip-off so I don’t like to go there. A few months ago we were recommended Kyoto Japanese Restaurant in central Marbella by a friend and we haven’t looked back since. The food is fantastic and the prices are very reasonable for sushi, so it’s well worth a try. One thing you have to be prepared for though is a total lack of atmosphere as it’s normally empty and pretty ropey service, but in my opinion the food more than makes up for it.
Read on for our review.
The location – C/ Nuestra Señora de Gracia, 10. Local 11. If you’re coming from Ricardo Soriano, walk to the central Burger King, cross over the road and walk down towards the sea. The road forks, take the right hand fork and you’ll see Kyoto on your right. If you’re coming from the paseo, come up the road the Piave ice cream shop is on and walk up towards Ricardo Soriano and it’ll be on your left.
The food – The food here is exceptional, the sushi is incredibly fresh and tasty and prepared to order. The miso soup is yummy and if you get one of the set menus you have miso, a delicious pickled salad and then your sushi which is a nice balanced meal. If you want a blow out and want to try lots of different types of sushi I’d suggest getting the Menu Kyoto for two people which comes with the miso and salad and then an enormous wooden boat packed with a delicious variety of maki, sushi and sashimi and of course lots of pickled ginger and wasabi. It’s a real feast and is 48€ for two people, certainly not cheap but you are really spoilt for choice.
The service – This restaurant seems to make most of its money through take aways and so they seem constantly busy even though the restaurant is empty. They are quite sweet, but incredibly slow, so if they come to your table make sure you order as much as you can before they go away again. There’s a Spanish waiter/delivery driver who is quite nice but deeply inefficient and then the Japanese chef who will serve you if he’s not around – I find her a bit scary!
The decor/atmosphere – Although I heartily recommend this place for the food and it’s actually quite nicely decorated in traditional Japanese style, there’s very little if any atmosphere as there’s rarely people eating in there and they don’t put any music on to disguise the silence. If you just love sushi I’d suggest getting takeaway, but if you want to actually go there take at least 4 of you so you can create your own atmosphere as I find going there with just 2 people a little embarrassing.
The price – This is by far the cheapest sushi place I have found on the Costa del Sol. You can get carried away if you have lots of sides and alcohol, but if you just have one of their menus and a few drinks you can eat really well for around 25€ per head.
Contact – They have a surprisingly good website with their full menu and contact details http://restaurantejaponeskyoto.es/ which also has a map to show you where they are.
I know I’ve been quite negative about the service and atmosphere, but for a sushi lover the food and price more than makes up for it!