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2011-03-11
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Just a quick review on this Japanese all-you-can-eat in Central - been here way BEFORE the annual Openrice election began and i did not realize that one of the place i had been to was competing for the price of best Japanese restaurant in town.In Central there are the major three big heads serving all-you-can-eat dinner deals, and sadly they share similarities in their names and thus it is often a fuss telling one from another. But i vaguely remember that I had been to the other two, namely 大吉
In Central there are the major three big heads serving all-you-can-eat dinner deals, and sadly they share similarities in their names and thus it is often a fuss telling one from another. But i vaguely remember that I had been to the other two, namely 大吉 and 吉壽 on different occasions, and despite their seeming popularity (you cant always book a table here, its always so packed), I did not think the two of them were really that good. The environment was a mess, you basically get a share of a 1.5m x 1.5m square of space for limited movement-the tables are so packed that you can basically grab a piece of sashimi from the opposite table without making a fuss out of your stealing. The variety of food was okay, but the quality of what you get arent that stable. Worst of all is the hygiene - I remember spotting a really dirty kitchen floor which looked as if someone had just vomited onto it. And you have fresh, uncooked sashimis passed from the kitchen through the hands of ever-busy staffs who constantly moved in and out of the kitchen. Urgh. Disgusting. So basically there was no point of returning to the two places for dinner, no matter how cheap the dinner deal might be.
Luckily they got a third twin brother. 大喜屋 obviously charges more, but from the ADs it seems that they got a better interior. And better food, too, and so we went for a try.
We only made the booking 15 minutes before our actual arrival, and it was purely luck that we could get a table. Upon the opening of the lift door i was stunned to see the TABLES - they were right outside the lift in the corridor! the place was packed with tables, what a familiar sight, i thought. But everything looked less greasy and newer, since this outlet is the newest and youngest among the three.
We were amazed by the thickness of the order forms we were presented with - it looked like a honey crunch cake when you look from the side! There were six to seven forms, so i remember vaguely. We have food from the categories of sashimi, sushi, roasted sushi, hand rolls, rolls, salads, snacks, tempuras and deep-fried food, main courses and noodles. Sadly, after a closer inspection you will realize that the food offered here is not of a VERY rich variety - you cant find familiar names such as grilled ox tongue here. But there are also the more special ones such as grilled eel and scallops.
You cant help but praise the way how they presented their sashimi here - they put everything nicely on a pile of ice. And they give you the exact number of pieces you write to order. The slices are always thick and fleshy too, when contrasted with the cubical salmons and yellow tails you usually get from other all-you-can-eat outlets. The 帶子 were small but quite fresh;三文魚 generously sliced and sweet;劍魚腩and油甘魚sweet and fat;甜蝦were literally freshly sweet as you can see from the cleanliness of their heads. No wonder everyone were ordering 20 orders of everything - the waiters were always carrying huge heaps of freshly sliced sashimi here and there, which is a pleasant scene to watch, haha. The sushis here are quite okay as well-especially love the 火灸壽司 which carried a nice hint of roast,especially the 火灸帆立貝壽司 Did not get to order the sea eel sushi tho, which i will consider a loss as it looked promising and tasty. ><
Afterwards a quick note on the salad offered here - we tried the 芥辣煙三文魚沙律 as well as the 生果. The wasabi was basically non-detectable in the dressing, but if you put that aside and treat the thing as a purely oriental salad, it was quite nice indeed. And all credits to the fruits salad-for every order we have 2 slices of watermelon, which is constantly sweet and 起砂, and the orange was fleshy and juicy. A perfect end to the scrumptious all-you-can-eat dinner treat. Snacks - tried the 有機甜酸蘿蔔 which was good - chippy, sour and refreshing, it was a must-have item!
Main course - ordered the 雪花牛肉鍋 which came early. The soup was just lukewarm but they beat a raw egg into it, which could not be cooked in the merely lukewarm soup and i thought it was really dangerous - you could suffer from food poisoning had there been salmonella in the egg! >< Anyway, i skipped the egg as i ate. The soup was sweet, and the beef was of a higher quality than what i have expected. It was not tender and juicy, but nice enough to be called 'decent' in a all-you-can-eat restaurant. Especailly loved the tofu in the soup - it was tender and smooth and flavourful! The 牛油炒粟米 was okay, but it was quite hard to eat it as there were no spoon. Last, 牛油燒帆立貝 turned out to be fine - at least the portion was acceptable instead of as small as a fingernail. They tasted good with a hint of butter and soy sauce as well.爐端燒-not many kinds are offered here and it was a huge disappointment. I want my ox tongue back! Anyway, we attempted to order some softbone skillets, 燒香草羊胺,焗廣島蠔, 燒冬菇,燒鰻魚, 鹽燒海蝦 and 鹽燒五花腩. The softbone skillets never came But beside that, the foods were of a stably high quality! The lamb chop was the worst among all as it did not carry a strong taste of 'lamb', if you get what i mean, and was overcooked and thus a little tough. The oysters were quite alright and the mayo sauce was tasty; sea eel was a pleasant surprise as it was fat and sweet, but there were small bones so it is a must for you to eat slowly and carefully-but a nice source to absorb calcium indeed. The shrimp was dwarf-like and not very tasty;but the 鹽燒五花腩 was not as fat as it might have sounded to be and was appropriately salted and seasoned! Last, the grilled mushroom was just okay.
Deep-fried and tempura - a true delight beside the sashimi! 芝士年糕-VERY chewy and funny with the moshi texture,and i love how the cheese is half-melted inside. 天婦羅蝦 was quite crispy when eaten fresh, and luckily the 炸粉 was not thick. We also sampled with the tempura sweet-potato, pumpkin, eggplant and mushroom, and we agreed that the pumpkin and sweet-potato were the best among all. 自家制吉列蠔 was really good. The oyster was juicy and sweet, and was not overcooked. It kind of recalled what i got from Hokkaido Ramen house at Central few months ago - which charged me $80-ish for four pieces! Rounded up our meal with the 雪米糍 we each got. It was of mango flavour and did not tasted good, so i just left it for good - could not bother to waste the calorie quota for something not worthy and tasty. It would be a delight had the ice cream been on a all-you- can-eat basis like what's done at 松屋-they have a few nice flavours to choose from as well!
Guess that's is for the food, which are generally acceptable and tasty. Now some comments on the interior and service:
Environment - a defintely no-no. It was way too packed and i sat with elbows pushing against each other. The air-con was also too strong and blew our head off-and our food cold and stale!
Service - the staffs worked with energy and walked briskly. Their working attitude was also quite positive as one apologized for a number of times as i complained that the softbone never came. They were also quick in picking up empty dishes and refilling the tea cups.
Drinks - a narrow variety was offered here and all we could pick are but soft drinks - if only there were hot drinks! And a quick note on the tea served by the waiters - they were just lukewarm and was not hot enough to warm our hards.
Misc - the food did not require much waiting time, which was good for a timed dinner deal. But their limit of last-ordering was 30 minutes before the end of the time frame, which was a bit unreasonable. They also attempted to shove us off precisely at 8:30 quite harshly by presenting us with our bill as early as 7:xx. I wonder if there is a need to, as it made me feel really uncomfortable.
All in all - a so-so. Will consider paying $198+10% S.C. for dinner here again if i could not think of a better place to eat - but you can always get something more economical and more tasty in other parts of the HK Island, methink.
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