Bianca's and Jordan's Mom: Kyoto Japanese Restaurant - An Afternoon Play-date and Surprised Dinner

Yesterday was Friday, daddy went home from school and hurried us to go out for some play-date at park. So we went to Emily Murphy park and played with the kids at the playground.

They only have small playground there, and kids were quickly bored playing the same thing over and over. So we decided to leave after 20min playing.

Then we stopped at William Hawrelak park, where the kids ran around chasing birds and ducks.

It was quite amusing how the kids ran around and screamed to the max. I was screaming too to warn them not to get too close to the water, since I did not want them to fall into the water and get soaked. We left when they got tired with the birdies and duckies.

Daddy drove around the town and suddenly make a turn to an unexpected place, Kyoto a Japanese Restaurant. This is a small, busy, but fancy Japanese restaurant. I love the entrance where they have this calming fountain.

And the familiar interior items next to the reception and sushi counter.

They prepare fresh sushi and maki right in front of us, which I thought was very nice. And yes, the waitress and all the restaurant employees got to wear yukata, except for the reception (No idea why they don't).

They have two different seating areas. The ones with tatami and the ones with regular tables and chairs. Since we were with the kids, it would be so much easier for us to sit on the regular table and chairs. (Unfortunately I did not take a picture of the tatami one, since the place was so busy at that time).

So at first we were offered some drinks, our choice went for hot tea (indeed it was a very good one) and apple juice.

They have various kinds of appetizers, sushi and maki and cone, some udon soup, soba, rice dishes, and of course some dessert. They also have special menu of the day (we did not try though).

After the drinks we were served with some miso soup and one small plate of salad (I think this salad goes with daddy's order). To my note, the miso soup was very tasty, if only they put some seaweed, that would be perfect! It only has some tiny tofu and spring onion. But still it was delicious.

The salad was yummy too, it was lettuce, tomato, cucumber and celery with some tangy sesame dressing.

It was a bit hard for me to choose what to have for dinner, since I was not really hungry, but I know I got to eat something. So my choice was this tempura udon. The tempura consists of prawn, squid, sweet potato, eggplant and cucumber. The broth was tasty enough, but the tempura was bland.

Here is daddy's choice, chicken teriyaki dinner. He gave excellent mark for this dish. Jordan and I got to taste the chicken too, and indeed it was delicious.

We also had some maki (California and Dynamite rolls) and sushi (Smoked Salmon and BBQ Eel). As for me, the maki taste so so (or I might be too full by the time they served these), but the sushi were sooo good and fresh.

This is the dynamite maki with prawn tempura inside.

Overall, we were content with what we had for the amount of money we had to spend and definitely we'll be back again. So if you are in town, I recommend this Japanese restaurant, it is worth to try. Be prepared for some extra money to spend (compared to food court or franchise class restaurants).

Happy Mother's Day!