While I'm a sushi fan, my husband is a sushi FIEND - we made biweekly trips to his favorite haunt in NYC (Monster Sushi) and if he was on his own for dinner, I could always count on him to be there for a bite.  After relocating to Phoenix, he'd been jonesing hardcore for non-commercial, non-fussy sushi in epic proportions served with a smile.  Our trusted source told us that Kyoto was their favorite and we had to indulge.  The mixed views on Yelp made be a tad nervous, but I like to give places an unbiased chance.  Very glad that I did.

The interior of the place is a little strange given the shape of the restaurant and lack of windows, but we made ourselves cozy in a table next to the sushi bar.  I also did not notice a pre-club atmosphere - it was chill the night we went, but maybe it was because we went after work (which is probably on the earlier side for the see and be seens).

No teppan for us that night - it was all about the sushi.  We started with a pleasantly savory miso soup, flavorful seaweed salad and moist, tender tako (octopus) salad.  Next was my favorite dish of the night (and no, not traditional for sushi, but whatever) - a peppered, seared tuna with onion sauce.  Divine!  I could have had three plates of this and called it a day.  Most of the folks in our party ordered rather classic rolls, while I ordered an additional three specialty rolls (Candy Cane, Ichi and Shrimp Tempura - I love to crunch it out).  The rolls were so HUGE we struggled to eat it all.  Keep in mind that those specialty rolls are massive, particularly the Ichi (should have been called Ichi the Killer Roll) which you could barely eat with chopsticks.  I was a mess of dungeoness crab and spicy tuna by the end of the night, but I was happy.

Price was absolutely fair for the quality of the food - there are many (MANY) overprices sushi places in Scottsdale and many dirt cheap places in the valley.  This one charges fairly and keeps the quality up.  I don't ever mind paying if it's worth it.

Will most definitely come back and hopefully take in some teppan next time :)