Kaiyo - Japanese Restaurant

I had lunch (pan-fried fish of the day with Japanese rice, spinach and a sensational yuzu-butter-sauce). Never had such a good sauce; fresh, creamy, simply delicious. Also, the rest was on point. Service very good and friendly. Also, the atmosphere is great. It's a real hidden gem, you have to see the hidden inside with cozy corners and jewelry decoration. An absolutely recommendable restaurant, especially for price reduced lunch (up to 4 o'clock). Love it.

The most expensive and unsatisfying meal I’ve had in a while… We went for lunch there and I order a 20€ sushi plate with different kind of fish. I honestly have never get such a small pieces of nigiri before. In the picture looks like you get a lot of fish but it actually looks like that just because the rice is such a small portion (see in picture).The salmon was great but the rest of the fish besides butterfish was super dry. First I thought the size of the food was because of the quality but the quality wasn’t also good. I never paid 20€ before just for a plate and still ended up still so hungry… I also ordered a genmeicha tee for 5€ and it was a very small pot with a teabag that tasted just like water. My partner order the ramen. The fried chicken was great but the ramen was tasteless and it seemed like and instant soup…. Very bad experience here. The place is very nice and it looks like its a fancy place but when you try the food you see it’s all kind of a fake experience.

I was looking for some asian fusion food in Hamburg and found one! I ordered the karaage (fried chicken) for an appetizer, it comes with a tasty mayonnaise sauce. The chicken teriyaki with rice as a main dish is also delicious. The price is on the high end side, but considering the atmosphere, big portion and nice service, it’s tolerable.

Definitely one of the best restaurants I have visited in Hamburg! Very friendly and efficient service, cozy ambiance, and absolutely delicious menus. The food was served beautifully and the taste was amazing - especially the Gyoza was the best I ever had. Still, the place can become quite noisy, lots of guests with extremely loud children were there, which disturbed the nice ambiance. But overall, a great experience.

Key take aways: 1. Too expensive for the food (bad Quality/Price ratio), though food is overall good. 2. Atmosphere : decent but a bit too dark 3. Nice staff Context: we went to this Japanese restaurant to get some nice meals and sushis during the evening (note: they have a lunch menus with nice deals but it is still expensive though). The overall conclusion of this restaurant is that they want to make you feel like it is a premium / high-end restaurant, very chic and all the fancy stuff but for me the food was not as « high-end » as they want to sell to you. I have tested many sushis around Europe (bad ones and excellent ones) and for the price, really this is a joke. Don’t get me wrong, the taste is good though, overall decent. But the price you pay for it is indecent. We looked carefully at the menu and despite the price we wanted to give it a try (as we were also hungry). As the sushis (even as menus) were too expensive in our opinion, we went for the ramen (see pictures). Overall they were good, the broth was nice, veggies were plentiful and the noodles also. But we were not amazed by the ramen. It was good, but for a very popular dish in Japan that normally costs around 9€ there, 8-10€ in Paris, and 12-14€ around Europe, we were a bit disappointed by the staggering 18€ asked. As I really wanted to get a true feeling of the place and to check if the sushis were worth the price, i ordered two nigiris (see pictures). The rice was well made, the vinegar as well was well seasoned and didn’t taste like a cheap sushi. The fish was fresh but the piece was so small that I couldn’t have the full flavor. All in all, this is disappointing, everything is made to make you feel like a premium sushi place but the quantity and the prices are so off of what it is really that you get disappointed. The atmosphere is also quite bizarre as they have these « rooms » that gives an intimate feeling (in addition that you are in the basement floor, not the ground floor) but it was so dark that I was not enjoying myself when I ate at this place. The restaurant in general feels like if you don’t mind pricy food and you don’t mind spending a lot (with almost unlimited budget) this is for you. But if you are like me, that tried many other sushi restaurants, especially in Paris where the quality was excellent for around 25€, i advise you to pass. The restaurant is also located nearby the city hall, and rents might explain the prices, but really, there are better cheaper alternatives elsewhere (even in Hamburg). Staff is very friendly and reactive, 5/5. Beer is cheap, but this is normal, we are in Germany. Hence my 3/5 in general, too pricey for what you get, although it is « good ».