Kyoto Japanese Restaurant

Ate at this restaurant tonight everything I ate was delicious the place is old and dingy and not very clean hope I don’t get sick will be back if they clean it up

Early in the night, there’s no wait. We had a table to ourselves, which perhaps accounted for the lackluster cook. the server was very friendly, and provided prompt service. Having been to many similar restaurants in bigger cities, many cost the same but come with soup and salad (here you get 1 or other) and they often come with a shrimp appetizer (none here). Our cook barely talked and didn’t have a single trick– he in fact could hardly cut things correctly and dropped instruments. Vegetables were cooked well, rice wasn’t very fried. Meats were good quality but the sauces are nothing special. Overall, wouldn’t return for the grill experience. We tried the sushi as well, and thought the quality was better for the price than the grill food.

We have been here plenty of times. The food is good and the show is worth the price. We like the rice, which gives to some bad jokes that work very well. We look forward to them on every visit.

Terrible service, way to expensive, the chef dropped some of our food on the ground and didnt replace it and just left it on the floor. Definitely better places to eat in Salem or anywhere else.

As I have read «the best place in Salem to get Japanese style food prepared by Hispanics «. This place is amazing. We have eaten here several times and not had a bad meal yet. Thank you!

I have been to several different teppanyaki places, and this place compares in many ways. The hostess was prompt and attentive, the staff friendly and well groomed. The foods were all tasty and properly prepared.
This is the first hibachi where I had to pick between soup or salad, everywhere else it has been both. But, I did get a chocolate covered strawberry at the end, so that was a nice touch.
The show itself was non-​existent. He didn’t really say anything, and the only hibachi trick I got was the onion volcano. Other than that, he cooked just like I do at home. This may have been because I came in alone and at 8pm, and sat alone at my grill. Between that and the lack of salad, it made the experience feel extremely overpriced.

Sushi in Salem that isn’t awful! Probably the best you’ll find in the Mid-​Valley.

My husband and I have been going to Kyoto for years. There was a time when it was almost a weekly habit! Even though the wait time at the sushi bar can be kind of long and they sometimes forget to make things we order, it’s still one of our favorite sushi spots. When we went in yesterday, we got our usual order at the sushi bar and got a surprise we weren’t looking for. A cockroach ran right over our food! This is not the first time we’ve seen a cockroach (the last one was on the wall) however it is the first time one came in contact with our food. C’mon Kyoto, clean up and get rid of the bugs so I can enjoy some cockroach-​less spicy tuna rolls!

My family and i have gone here for at least 20 years and it is my absolute favorite place to go with my grandparents (they live in Salem and we live in Troutdale). I usually get the steak and chicken teppanyaki with fried rice and salad and have only been disappointed once (the rice was undercooked).
I know that a big part of the reason I rated this place at a 5 star instead of a 4 is the nostalgia factor, but I will say that I have eaten at Benihana’s and at Tokyo in Corvallis and the food, to me, was way better at Kyoto’s. The show, however, is better at Benihana’s, if I’m being honest. Tokyo puts potatoes in its stir fried vegetables. Why?!
Anyway, check this place out. BTW, the complaints that some of these reviews have about the employees not all being asian is ridiculous to me. Are we suppose to be better chefs of certain cuisine because we come from that continent? Lame.

Overpriced and slow service at the sushi bar. It took over 45 minutes for our group to get 2 sushi and sashimi platters. The platter had 4 pieces of sushi and 6 sashimi for $ 19.95. This restaurant seems generally unclean with greasy menus, sticky tables and dirty bathrooms.
The service from the waitress was ok. There are much better places for sushi in this area. We did not experience the grill area but based on this experience we will not be back to try.

A little spendy but definitely one of the best places in Salem to get quality sushi.

Always a favorite place for special occaisions. The show is always best with people who do not know what to expect.
Having on various visits been a spectator for both the tabletop cooking and the sushi bar, I can honestly say that I have never been bored while being here.
Be prepared to spend a little money, but you will find the expense well worth it.

I did not eat steak here, only sushi, so I can’t speak to the quality of the tempanyaki or whatever they call it.
the service was unusual in that you don’t get a little slip of paper to mark off sushi by the piece with a pencil. Other than that it was prompt and courteous. Typical of US sushi houses, the front of the house was asian while the back of the house was all Latino. Even the tempanyaki chefs were all latin american.
I found the sushi to taste and feel less than fresh — not enough for me to say «yuk» to the whole plate, but enough to say «yuk» to certain pieces. The wasabi was the weakest I have ever tasted.

Not the place to come for sushi… very limited sushi menu. The items I did order weren’t bad for say… but weren’t great either. Service is really good though. That’s the only reason I gave a 3 star vs a 2.

Pretty similar to most Japanese steakhouses, yet different in design. The dark hallway at the entrance is like a portal into a different world. You step out of that strip mall parking lot, through a dark entry way, into a whole nother world of flying eggs, onion volcanoes and freshly off the grill meats.
I especially enjoyed the sense of privacy. Not only do you have your own grill, but the dark, mysterious atmosphere and the way tables are separated really makes you feel like your dinner is a private experience with your personal chef.
The food is pretty average for these kinds of places. The chef throws eggs, sets fire to stuff, and the food is tasty but predictable. Come here for the atmosphere, enjoy the food, and giggle at the chef’s tricks.

We met here for a family dinner as we’re all spread out between Portland, Corvallis, and Eugene; Salem works great for the middle.
The place is in a kinda run down strip mall. The decorations inside are nice and give the ambiance of a Tempanyaki type Japanese place.
The Nigiri we had was excellent, we had Salmon and Unagi and they were top notch. My entrée was lacking. My Fiancée had the special seared Ahi that was just ok. I had steak Katsu, that tasted more like chicken friend steak. Had it have been slather in gravy from a diner I would have loved it. Over rice in a Japanese restaurant, not so much.
If you want some sushi this is your place.

This place puts sushi kyo+ momijis to shame.
Hands down, this place is authentic and delicious. Very clean too!
My mom order this bento, had tempura (fried shrimp + fried veggies), shortribs, and grilled chicken. The short ribs are to die for! They are well marinated and tender!!! Highly recommend!
I had the katsu (fried chicken) very delicious. The sauce was tangy and good!
Our food came with a side of rice, miso soup (yum!) and lots of cucumber salad and the people are friendly, they gave us a sample of this wild rice mixed with soy beans. Delicious too. (we are chinese and not japanese so the fact that the workers are so nice dont have to do with one’s race)
The double shrimp roll was amazing. It is mouth watering but the short ribs was the best.
Things to keep in mind
— it is only open for dinner!
— the servers are super attentive! It’s crazy, it is like you having a standing butler next to you!
— this place is soooo clean, I looked at the carpets and around, there is no sign of spider webs.
— the sushi chef constantly washes his hand!
— I think the tip is split between waiters and chef !
— There were a lot of Japanese people there ordering food, truth is I hardly see Japanese people ordering at other sushi places.

My wife and I went here after hearing about it for a while.
Well, it was mixed for me. She loved it, but she got pretty much exactly what she wanted.
I was disappointed for a few reasons. Number one, it took quite a while to get our order in. We were seated next to a very rowdy children’s birthday party, which wasn’t really the restaurant’s fault, but in the setting, which is fairly dark and, I imagine, desirably peaceful, it didn’t quite reach it.
Essentially, you order your meat dish and it’s cooked on the table in front of you. Salad and soup were average, which came out first. When the cook did come out, it felt somewhat lack-​luster. The side dishes were good, although I recommend the fried rice over the yakisoba noodles. The noodles were alright, but the fried rice was really the best of all the options.
My main disappointment came with the meat. My wife ordered the steak and lobster, I ordered filet mignon, and the people they sat with us ordered steak and prawns.
The prawns and lobster went off without a hitch. The filet mignon, however, was cut up and mixed with the regular sirloin steak, and was then portioned out to everyone! Some of my steak was filet, some was the sirloin. I paid the extra for it, but everyone, including the people I didn’t even know who didn’t say a word to us the whole time (though we didn’t say anything to them either, but we –were– seated there first), got filet with theirs.
That was… disconcerting, if nothing else. I would think they would have paid more attention to that.
The onion volcano was interesting, but not twenty bucks interesting.
My wife says that Kyoto is very similar to Benihana’s, which most people seem to know about. She did say, however, that the showmanship was pretty plain. They didn’t do much in the way of tricks, the cook wasn’t really big on bantering, and two of his four tricks (spinning an egg, flipping things into his hat, etc.) failed. One egg broke immediately while spinning and a toss ended up on the floor. The other egg spin and a hat toss went off just fine. But that was about the extent of the showmanship.
For all that, and no free refills on drinks, it was about $ 80 for the both of us. That seems like quite a bit for what we got. The food was alright, but not spectacular for me. I’ve had better, though I’ve certainly had worse.
My wife enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t volunteer to go here again. If she wanted to go, I would take her, but I would prefer other options. Just seemed rather pricy for what was provided.

Kyoto Japanese. In a City with all you can eat oriental buffets, and sushi track diners, Kyoto stands out as an example of a formula that works.
My partner and I ate there last night. He is a sushi fanatic and I don’t care for it, so Kyoto was a great compromise for us. He ordered three sushi plates through the course of the evening, and I had the Steak and Chicken meal.
The steak and chicken were cooked perfectly, however the vegetables and the rice were overcooked and undercooked at the same time.
The restaurant is ‘performance food’. The chef comes and cooks in front of you. Our chef seemed a bit ‘off’ as he dropped the cooking implements, mumbled the canned jokes, and generally flubbed up all the usual things such as the flaming onion ‘volcano’ and the ‘egg in the chef hat’. His preparation tray was missing several key items to prepare the food and he had to go to the kitchen twice to retrieve things to make the meal. When my meal was served, it was hot and adequate, but since it wasn’t up to snuff, I thought it was a little overpriced at $ 20 for what I got.
My partner had three different sushi plates and ate all of them! He said that they were perfectly made, melted in his mouth, and were ‘perfect’. The quality of the dishes were higher than he expected for the prices.
One of the things that struck me when I was seated is that the table grills are old and in need of replacement. Kyoto has been in Salem for over two decades, and their grills look like it. While the cooking surface was clean, the rest of the grill was grimy and showed it’s age. Presentation is everything with performance cooking, so Kyoto should invest some money in new grills.
Three stars is my rate for this restaurant. Price point is moderate, but is a good value for the sushi.

Three stars, you may ask. Three stars? Really? Yep. Because it’s all we’ve got. Actually this is hands down the worst teppanyaki place I’ve ever tried. The «chefs» are tattooed white trash dropouts who wouldn’t even be hired to bus tables at a Benihana. Their «tricks» are simplistic but at the very least they can make your fried rice with no egg shells. The tools they use are covered in duck tape. Corners have been cut that no other teppanyaki restaurant ever dared (no bean sprouts and double your cabbage for instance).
And the clientele! Remember at a teppanyaki place they’re sitting at YOUR table. If you’re in Salem and you must have teppanyaki adjust your expectations and enjoy!