604 Foodtography

Thanks to Raymond from ChineseBites, I’ve been invited out to biweekly dinners at various Chinese restaurants, and on the most recent one, Raymond mentioned that KiBo had invited our small group to try them out. While not Chinese, it’s still Asian and hey, it’s free food…

Located on Hamilton Street near the end of the block close to Rodney’s, this section of Yaletown is notoriously difficult for restaurants, it just can’t sustain enough foot traffic and retain customers to the other better established venues down the block. Here’s to hoping that KiBo can do a better job then the previous tenant. Billed as a fusion restaurant and lounge, the menu is seemingly a mash up of concepts from Hapa and Minami.

To start the night, we were served Negitoro ($8) served with toasted crostinis.

Kibo Sashimi Platter $24 (Red Tuna, Salmon & Hamachi). The sticker price shock of 24 will subside after you see how thick the slices are, and the accompanying sauces paired pretty well.

Rick, Janice, Romina and I ordered some cocktails to try. I believe the general consensus was that they could use some more ‘punch’.

Beef Carpaccio with wasabi parmesan dressing

KiBo Salad, mixed greens w/ tuna, salmon, red onion and mango. Pretty good, sweet, salty with a hint of spice.

Chikuwa Cheese. While some others found this a great dish, I was indifferent to it, it’s just fish cake tempura stuffed with cheese..also available at Ebisu

Aburi Kibo Sush Set ($17) - I can’t say much as I only had half of one sushi as we had to share for the entire table, but visually they all looked very good!

Bacon Ebi … meh, fat chewy bacon that was hard to eat, and it was grilled rather than fried. Good idea, poor execution imo.

Hamilton Roll - ebi tempura, avocado and cucumber on the inside. On the outside, tuna and salmon and then topped off with sauce.

I’m not really a roll person, so this Volcano Roll, spicy tuna and avocado roll deep fried in tempura batter was meh to me as well, especially since the tuna was cooked from being deep fried.

I will however make execptions for rolls if they include unagi, which is what the Dragon Roll, ebi tempura and cucumber and avocado offers.

Mango Roll, with smoked salmon and basil underneath the mango slice with ebi and avocado inside.

Nearing the end of dinner, we had some hot food, such as the Grilled Sablefish.

Kibo Beef - BBQ Angus beef with Chef’s sauce. Cooked medium rare and on top of some shiitake mushrooms, asparagus and green beans.

Rack of Lamb, which was kind of strange ..how is this Asian or Fusion? Whatever, they were great little lamb popsicles, a little moist and chewy.

To finish the meal, we were served some soup, or specifically, Seafood Dobin, a seafood broth with clam, salmon, shitake and enoki mushrooms, served in a little teapot.