Izakaya Koi

Rice. The foundation of sushi is rice. Real sushi chefs spend the first several years of their careers learning to make rice. With that said, the rice in our three different selections was simply terrible. We had nigiri, maki, and a custom roll. All three contained rice with the consistency of cooked oatmeal. We started our meal with tempura vegetables. Tempura is supposed to be quick fried with a light flaky batter. The batter on our order was as dark and crunchy as Kentucky Fried Chicken.
On the bright side, the chocolate cake dessert was excellent, and the service was prompt and attentive. But overall, I would not return.

Really great food. Fair service. Overall a cozy place. Beware: No knives and forks.
It is an awesome place to have a quick lunch or meal if on a budget.

Taking into account the central location and lavish decoration, I wasn’t expecting much from this place! So I ordered a safe-​sounding dish for lunch; teriyaki salmon. I make it myself at home sometimes, so I know it is hard to mess up! The menu also stated that it came with avocado cream and beetroot… I was raising an eyebrow, until i tasted it. Very nice! Somehow it all went together, the slightly sweet earthiness from the beets went well with the sweet teriyaki sauce, which was reduced down to a very thick syrup. The salmon filet was perfectly cooked and of course creamy avocado goes well with salmon. I also appreciated that they used short grain rice, instead of jasmine or basmati. It was a solid dish! I wanted to try some of the cocktails too but declined since we had more shopping ahead of us, so i opted for green tea which hit the spot! So don’t be thrown off by the cover of this book, you can have a pretty good lunch here while people-​watching.

I was skeptic when I heard about this place being in Lilla Torg where the tourist traps are, but the food is surprisingly nice and the price is reasonable for the good service and the well-​situated place (that made me skeptical in the first place).
I ordered the Beef Yakiniku with kimchi salad and garlic roasted mushroom while my friend ordered the salmon teriyaki. My beef was tender and smooth, but the best part about my dish was the champignon. I would say this place is more like Japanese fusion than the real Japanese restaurant although I didn’t try out the sushi and sashimi here.
However, we could feel that we could use this place as another option if we ever go hungry on the streets of Malmö after a hard day’s work that is called shopping :)
PS: Their matcha is really good.

Me and a friend had no clue what we were going to eat or where and we wound up at Izakaya koi !
We start with two drinks (waitress choice) while looking at the menu.
We had a really tough time choosing because everything sound so good.
After a while we asked what she would do.
She give us some examples and we chose to split four starters and one main course.
We choose the starters Hotade Gai No Ebi Age, Guychezzu Maki, Softshellcrab, Green dragon shake sashimi.
All starters were very tasty and looked nice on the hand crafted plates !
Then we ordered two more drinks and some minutes later we got our main course which we also shared.
We took the 16 piece Futo Moriawase (8 nigiri and 8 maki).
They were probably the best maki rolls I’ve ever had to eat.
The New Sensation Maki included Panko fried shrimp & cucumber, avocado, Japanese mayonnaise and sesame seed.
The staff were service minded, positive and happy .
Understanding that we had a tough choice to choose what to eat.
I thought the price definitely matched the quality of the food and quality of the service.
Love to see you next time when I’m visiting Malmö.

Quite nice if you are in a hurry to grab a quick lunch, but make sure you are there before 11.45 am to get a free table on sunny days. Reasonable prices given the location.

Izakaya Koi is a Japanese themed restaurant in the Lilla Torg square. It was quite expensive (i believe around 15 Eur per person for noodles with a little bit of meat to it). We ordered the soba noodle dishes and both wished we had ordered something else. It was a little plain and not quite as good as the sashimi dishes looked. Overall the location is amazing, the food was filling and okay but quite expensive for what you get. From a service perspective, I thought the waiter was good and brought a bottle of water almost immediately and the food was also very quick. However the person at the bar who you pay at the end was not as friendly. There are quite a few options in Lilla Torg and I would probably prefer other options if we were to return.