Kyotofu: Sweets with a Far Eastern flair

I've been waiting for Kyotofu to open since September - a dessert shop supposedly imported from Japan and evoking the exquisite nature of Kyoto cooking sounds exactly like my type of shop. It certainly didn't disappoint.

The Decor: 9/10 - The interior is gorgeous - they made great use of the space and made it very cozy. It somewhat resembles a giant cube of tofu, which ain't a bad thing at all.



The Food: 9/10


Daily Selection of Otsumami Appetizer Plate: (From top left, clockwise) 8/10
- Tofu Chicken Tsukune meatballs: delicious! These were really light and airy and well flavored. I'm not sure what the sauce was but it was a bit soy saucy and a bit sweet.
- Edamame: unlike any other edamame you've ever had. They must have boiled these in some sort of stock because they were bursting with flavor.
- String beans with miso/tofu/sesame paste: Nice and crunchy with a light sesame flavor
- Japanese pickles: very refreshing and a good palate cleanser

Kyotofu Kaiseki Prix Fixe zensai, choice of dessert, petits fours - 9/10


Zensai: 9/10
- Black Sesame Sweet Tofu hoji-cha tea syrup, white sesame tuille, goji berry: Ooh, this was so, so good! Really creamy because of all the sesame and tofu and a slightly bitter, mild tea syrup to balance it all out. Not overly sweet at all.
- Sansho-pepper Tofu Cheese Cake shiro-an vanilla cream, shochu ginger, fruit carpaccio - slightly tart and nicely crumbly.


- Yokan with pomegranate - japanese jelly-like dessert - not a huge fan of these but this was pretty good nonetheless.
- Toasted Walnut Tahitian Vanilla Parfait maple soy-mascarpone mousse, caramel apricot sauce - delicious! Everything on the tasting menu was well balanced, just the right amount of sweetness and offered so many contrasting flavors and interesting textures that you wouldn't normally think of.
- Warm Chestnut Mochi Chocolate Cake green tea-anko cream, fig yokan - one of my favorite things in the tasting - the mochi chocolate cake was chewy, bursting with chocolate flavor and the green tea-anko cream was smooth and creamy - a great replacement for boring old whipped cream.
- A rice pudding (can't remember the details)


Okara cookies: 8/10
To polish everything off, we finished our tasting with okara cookies. These cookies are made from soybeans and are supposedly one of the most popular diet foods in Japan. Very dense, chewy cookies with a yummy green tea glaze.

All in all, a wonderful tasting - this is probably the best dessert tasting I've ever had next to the tasting at WD-50. The array of dishes offer a lot of novelty but all the dishes are rooted in Asian flavors and have the subtlely that defines truly great Japanese cuisine.


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