Disclosure: I have a work partnership with Kyotofu and was invited here for a work meeting
Kyotofu is mainly known for its Japanese desserts so I was actually surprised to discover that they have a real menu of non-dessert food as well. Unlike what most people may think there is a lot of Japanese food that's not sushi or ramen and Kyotofu tries to showcase that here. While Kyotofu does not have an extensive menu, there is a nice variety of hot/cold food selections to make a very robust meal.
We started with the pulled pork sliders ($12), the Kyotofu mac and cheese ($12), and the Artisanal tofu ($10). None of these dishes are what you would typically think of when you think of Japanese food and maybe they're not, but they were most definitely delicious. The pork sliders were made with honey glazed berkshire pork and served with pickled slaw on the side. It seemed more like a BBQ pork slider and it could have used a bit more pork in between the bread but that might have been because I was starving too. The mac and cheese was made with gruyere cheese, truffle pate, shichimi, and panko crumbs. It was super cheese-y and the top was nice, toasty and crunchy thanks to the panko crust. Despite its small size it was very filling and rich, so don't be fooled by the size when you first see it. Next came the tofu, which is definitely the most "Asian" dish of the three. It's a housemade tofu with 3 different sauces. The tofu almost looks like a giant ball of mozzarella because it's white, shiny and served in a ball formation. The tofu was extremely creamy and soft and very much on the silky side vs. the firm kind of tofu. The tofu was super fresh tasting and you can definitely tell that it's made on in house. On its own, the tofu doesn't have a lot of flavor but you should definitely drizzle on the different sauces to add more flavor. I was a fan of the traditional soy sesame on the tofu the most and it was definitely a nice palate cleanser after the mac and cheese and pork sliders.
After all of appetizers, I was getting pretty full but I actually had my main entree to look forward to. Even though I typically like to have a light lunch, I opted for the pork belly ($22) dish because well, I can never turn down a pork belly dish. The pork was slow cooked in soy sauce and sake and served with a mixture of pickled cucumbers and purple shiso onigiri and a side of white rice. I was originally a bit hesitant to go with the pork belly but the owner, Michael, talked it up and said it was delicious and not super heavy and he was right. I mean, yes it's still pork belly at the end of the day so you can't really get around that but I honestly didn't feel full and gross after eating it. The belly was very tender and soft and had a great mixture of fat and meat. I was trying to not eat all of it because I was told to save room for dessert but I couldn't help myself and ate the entire dish. It's really hard to get pork belly wrong but they did do a great job here with the dish. Despite all of this food, I did manage to save a small space for dessert. We had the warm chocolate mochi cake ($12) and the soymilk soft serve sundae ($9). The chocolate cake was nice and soft but I really enjoyed the soymilk soft serve more. It was a mixture of black sesame and vanilla flavors and served with some kind of crunchy topping to it. You could tell that it was made from a milk base and not a cream base because it was less thick and creamy and had more of an ice-y texture. But it made me feel like I was eating a somewhat healthier dessert even if I actually wasn't.
By the time I was done eating I had no desire to go back to the office. I just wanted to curl up on a couch somewhere and take a nice nap (the 2 kinds of sake probably didn't help either). All in all, I was very surprised at the non-dessert items mentioned here. I don't think many people associate Kyotofu with restaurant like food since they're mostly known of their cookies and desserts through their other distribution channels, but its definitely worth checking out.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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