After wandering around Olde City on Easter Sunday when most of the restaurants that were open had hefty price-tags, were were hesitant to try Kisso at first. But we were also really hungry, and Messy was craving Japanese, so we figured we'd give ourselves a treat. To our pleasant surprise, Kisso is not super fancy: the inside is all rusty orange colored walls with no decorations save for one set of shelves displaying fancy sake bottles. (As far as we know, these bottles were for show only, as Kisso is BYOB). Everything is minimalist and clean (except for the carpet, which is kind of dingy). The space is quite intimate, with room for maybe 30 people or so. The sushi bar was manned by two chefs and a host and hostess who cheerfully greeted each new set of patrons.
The service was absolutely excellent. Our server refilled our water as soon as we got down to 3/4 of a cup. He kindly let us know that our sushi was ready and asked if Messy would prefer to finish her salad first. Speaking of Messy's avocado salad – it was awesome. Not only did it include a full sliced avocado, but it also had all kinds of other goodies like cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, red peppers, carrots, asparagus, lettuce, and a piece of lemon, all topped with a delicous carrot-ginger dressing. Messy also enjoyed the veggie maki, which managed to fit in an inordinate number of fillings: avocado, cucumber, asparagus, tomato, lettuce, and at least two unidentifiable pickled vegetables. It was only five pieces, but they were large and filling. In fact, they were a little too large for Messy to comfortably eat in one bite. Messy also had the inari: tofu skins stuffed with rice, which were sweet enough to eat as dessert.
Picky is slowly branching out in his liking of Japanese fare which is normally relegated to California rolls. After our trip to Morimoto where Picky had his first spicy tuna roll, he's wanted to try another one. He ordered a spicy tuna roll, a California roll and a Philly roll. The Philly roll consists of crab strips, cucumber and cream cheese in an inside out roll, which makes for an odd taste and texture combination. Picky's food was brought out artfully, on a large black stoneware circular plate. The mini kettle holding the soy sauce was an elegant black stoneware piece as well.
Kisso is no Morimoto, but what is? Kisso wins out in it's intimate setting and if you snag a window seat on a nice Spring day as we did, you get a gorgeous view of cherry blossom trees. Neither of us are fans of slabs of raw fish on a hunk of rice so we can't tell you how their nigiri is, but rest assured that the maki we sampled were great.
Messy ****
Picky ***1/2
The final word: Japenese food that looks and tastes good, in a simple, welcoming atmosphere.
Kisso
205 N 4th St
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215-922-1770
Lunch: Mon – Fri: Noon – 2.30pm, Sat & Sun closed
Dinner: Mon -Thu: 5pm – 10pm, Fri – Sat: 5pm – 11pm, Sun: 5p – 10p
