Kayu

Grill Salmon Sushi

Our dinner at Kayu proved to be a very nice ending to the birthday of our friend S (Happy Birthday again :-) ). It took us some time to find a parking lot because there were two wedding parties going on in Srijaya building. There was valet service but we are too stingy to pay for valet :D . Kayu is at the 5^th floor of Srijaya building. Accidentally, we went to a different floor at first (bad sense of orientation combined with bad indication), the floor where one of the two weddings was going on. For a moment, we were tempted to crash the wedding party but then decided not to because we were too hungry already!

Kayu is a very nice and cozy restaurant. The interior consists of a lot of wooden elements which create a quiet and warm atmosphere. Kayu really has soul. It is hard to explain what ‘having soul’ means for a place but if it was a person, he would be honest, true to himself and not trying to be someone else or faking something. We haven’t found a list of criteria yet which determine if a place has soul or not, but usually you can feel it when you are there. 

Okay, enough philosophical thoughts for now, let’s get to something more real: the food. As we were four people, we ordered quite a lot of dishes. Our friends S & H had Bento Kai (100K) and Chicken Katsu Curry, Carlo had Salmon Bibimpap (80K), I had Grill Salmon Sushi (70K) and we all shared Salmon Carpaccio. As you can see, we had a lot of salmon :D . S and I both love salmon and our previous experience at Kayu proved that the salmon they use is of high quality. The bento kai was a really big portion and S’ favourite was the miso soup. The chicken katsu curry (normally beef katsu curry, but you can replace beef with chicken) was delicious and the vegetables that accompanied it were cooked ‘al dente’ (not too overcooked, still a bit crunchy). Carlo’s salmon bibimpap was nice too, but we found that salmon did not really fit this dish. Chicken, beef or pork would have been better. It was also very hot and Carlo was sweating after he finished eating, so if you are planning to go to Kayu with your new date, do not order bibimpap (except you don’t like him/her and want to

scare him/her off). My grill salmon sushi was delicious as expected. I love sushi but what I love even more is Indonesian-Japanese fushion sushi! Heaven! When I just came back to Surabaya, I forced Carlo to eat sushi almost every day :D . The salmon carpaccio was delicious as well! For drinks, we only had ocha. Drinks are between 10-28K (unless you go for expensive sake).

Conclusion: Kayu is a place with soul where you can enjoy high quality food at highish prices.

Good to know: Not many vegetarian dishes (except if you eat fish & seafood).

Rating (max 6 stars)
Value for money	* * * *
Service	* * * *
Quality	* * * * *
Variety of menu	* * *
Atmosphere	* * * * *

Chicken Katsu Curry

Salmon Bibimpap (C was too hungry to take a nice photo)

Salmon Carpaccio

Bento

 

Details:

Kayu (Srijaya Building, 5th floor)

Jalan Mayjend Sungkono 212-214, Surabaya

Tel: 031-5622503