King Of The Lounge Lizard

I was in the East End for some yoga on Thursday, so I decided to stop by Kingyo for dinner. This Izakaya was an interesting mix. The tables and set-up had a quiet understated feel of dark wood and plush seats. But the wall niches held Japanese tchotchkes, pachinko machines were embedded in one wall, and a giant monster movie was being shown on a projection screen behind the bar.

The first dish, and my favourite, was grilled beef tongue ($10.20). A tray came with thinly sliced beef tongue with raw onions, oil, and lemon. You had to grill the meat yourself over a heated stone. The beef was tender and made a great base for the coriander sauce and yuzu pepper. The Negi Toro was also tasty (4 for $10.40). The gunkan (loosely-wrapped) maki was rich and messy. The tuna didn't come through but overall a good sushi dish.

The mackerel ($11.80) was the best value dish. A huge portion came nicely grilled and tender. With some rice, this could be an entire meal. The dried shallots didn't add much. The misstep was the ponzu sauce: too acidic and overpowering. The "death" chicken had the same problem. The bed of raw vegetables was drenched in a citric dressing and detracted from the dish. The diablo chili sauce does pack quite a kick so you should ease yourself into it. I would have liked smaller pieces so that they were crispier overall. But outside of some gristly bits, the chicken was soft and chewy.