Hidden Kitchen     秀殿  

昭和風的懷舊洋食屋;
裝修有特式，服務友善;
由海外修讀洋食大阪來的大廚主理。
主打的奄列飯不錯但懷舊茄汁燒豬扒反而更有驚喜!
推介!

Hidden retro kitchen in a commercial building at CWB;
Very good Nostalgic Pork Chop;
Pretty good omelette;
Reasonable sets.
Worth a try.

Bar Bogie:

My wife was thinking about OMURICE (Omelette Rice) a few days ago. I brought her here to see what she thinks about this omurice specialist in Hong Kong.

The whole place was decorated like a bar with a prominent bar area and bar equipment. The reason being - this place really used to be a bar. It's a somewhat mysterious Japanese bar called "Bar Bogie".

It's so mysterious to customers that it folded.



There were 6 counters seats and 8 tables for two persons. There was also a small alfresco area with two small tables for 2 persons. Excellent for smokers.

All the table seats were full when we arrived but bar counter seats were available immediately.



Menu:

This place is most famous for their Japanese omelette rice (choice of tomato sauce, cream sauce or beef sauce) and stewed beef cheeks (?!) There are two types of Omurice. Those with an omelette placed on top of the rice and those with rice wrapped inside an omelette:There is also a weekly recommendation (which apparently remained the same for months): My reflex action was to explain the English menu to my wife

but was gently reminded that it wasn't necessary as

she could read Japanese...



(That's the problem with having lunch during a busy weekday! )



Anyway, we ordered an "Original Omurice" (with tomato sauce) set and a "Nostalgic Pork Chop" set.

Service:

Good service. Staff from Hong Kong and Japan were all very polite and efficient. Multilingual.

Talking about efficiency however, be prepared to wait for at least 15-20 minutes for your order as there is only one chef, Suzuki San from Osaka making your food to order. Suzuki san used to study cooking overseas (France?) and worked in some famous restaurants in Japan. The amazing thing is that she was smiling naturally as she was cooking throughout our stay. Seemed like she was really enjoying it.

Set Soup & Salad:Soup: Cream soup. Less than 100 ml . Treat it as an appetizer. Smooth with what seemed like fresh herb de province.

Salad: The veggies were very fresh. The mashed potato with sweet corn was very good. The texture of the potato was firm and the sweet corns inside the mash were - sweet.

Egg:

HK$98 for omelette rice with original tomato sauce:The sauce on top tasted very much like a minestrone. The herbs used were all fresh.

The omelette was placed on top of the rice as opposed to a layer of egg wrapping the rice. The former type is suppose to have more egg sauce in it.

The egg taste was decent. The omelette was similar to those served in Japan at the famous omurice specialist "Pomunoki ポムの木". Rice: This type of rice stirfried with ketchup is interestingly called "Chicken rice", as shreds of chicken are usually added into it. Those served at Hidden Kitchen had no chicken meat but just fried with tomato sauce.

The timing of the rice was not bad. Some omurice uses pretty wet rice and others uses dried fried rice. The texture at Hidden was somewhere between the two types. As opposed to Chinese fried rice, there is no absolute correct way for omurice as far as I'm aware.

However, it did not have as much egg sauce as I had initially expected it to have. The texture was also not as smooth as I had expected it to be. Those at Hidden had pretty good egg taste. As far as eggs are concerned, those at Kitchen M in Hung Hom were not bad at all.

All in all, pretty decent. I wouldn't be too pleased if I had to book three weeks in advance but I'd be happy if I walked-in. Then again, I've never been a fan of Omurice anyway. I ordered the Pork Steak Set instead.



Nostalgic Pork Chop ($128)

The Japanese name is "Nostalgic Pork Chop":This was very good and definitely worth the trek and the time.

Thick Cut (3 cm) and covered in mashed apple, vinegar plus something like a Worcestershire sauce base. Very fitting for a Yo-Shyokuya to provide this (restaurants serving Japanese/Western cuisine, usually with retro decor.) I believe this sauce definitely had quite a strong British influence.

Every single bite of the pork chop was tender and flavourful. Fittingly called a "Pork Steak" instead of a normal "Pork Chop". The strong, aromatic pork taste complimented the (nostalgic) sweet & sour sauce very well. I believe the acid from the apple and the vinegar based sauce also helped to tenderize the pork steak. Very good!Excellent with the cabbage with ponzu sauce and the (small amount of) Japanese rice.

Highly recommended!



Finally, tea or coffee:The special point about the tea or coffee is that the ice used was either frozen iced tea or frozen coffee. So the taste will remain the same even as the ice melts. Good attention to detail.

Conclusion:

-Interesting retro decor. Slightly smokey.
-Good service.
-Price of the set was reasonable.
-No complaints about the omurice but the Nostalgic Pork Steak was really good!

I feel nostalgic about it already!

Recommended.

Last week, I read an article on a newspaper promoting this special Japanese restaurant in Causeway Bay. Therefore, I decided to try it with my family. This morning at 10, I called the place in an attempt to make a reservation for lunch today. To my surprise, the man who answered the phone said they do not accept reservation. He said in English, with his heavy accent, that “many people walk in and no reservation. So I asked if it was wise to go at 2 pm. He then said the last order is at around 2 o’clock and they may not have a table for us. I was surprised that this guy did not sound he wanted us to go at all.

At 1230 hours, we walked into the restaurant. The place was very small, but it was not even half full. There was an emptied table for 4, and 2 small tables for 2 were also vacant at the far end. A young man behind the bar asked how many of us and I said 4. He then said no table. I asked him what happened to those emptied tables. Then a man who appeared to be the boss came to me and said in English, with heavy accent, that all tables were reserved for customers. I told him that I called earlier this morning and I was told that they did not accept reservation. He then repeated no table. Aided by his body language, his attitude held no reservation that he wanted us to leave. Then he simply ignored us and walked away. I was too shocked to react and I asked the young guy behind the bar that I was told this place would not accept reservation, and customers just walk in and try their luck. Now we came all the way from Central only finding out that there was no table for us because we did not make a reservation. This guy’s answer really blew us out of the water. He said those empty tables were reserved a month ago. Then even him ignored us and walked away.

This place may supply good food. However, very few customers are willing to accept good food but no service. If the owner thinks that he is already making good business and no new comers are required, then he is making a big mistake. This was the first time we visited this place, and certainly is also our last time as well. I will also share my terrible experience with my relatives, friends, and colleagues so that they won’t be treated unreasonably.

Its really a kitchen hidden in CWB to be honest, I would have never realized until I was told. So went there for lunch, ordered Original Cheese Hamburg Set (limited) set first. The Soup was pumpkin soup, well balanced creaminess and pumpkin texture, but a bit too sweet. Then comes the hamburg patty. It was very good, it was crisp on the outside with melted mozzarella and a very juicy patty. You may think it is really heavy with the cheese and meat, but actually it is at light as you can get, because

1. the patty is really soft and juicy
2. there are onions in the patty that cut the greasiness
3. the sauce, which I suspect is also the demi-glace sauce, has a bit of acidity which helps to keep it balanced

oh and the sauce, it is a key player itself, it tastes different to the hamburg patty, but it doesn't over power the patty itself, so that you have more combinations in the dish.

meat X rice, meat X sauce, sauce X rice, and of course my favourite meat X sauce X rice

then since it was nicely executed my gf suggested we should order another dish. So Omelet on rice with tomato sauce.

since it wasn't ordered with the first dish and the place starts to fill up they forgot my salad and soup in this set.....

but the eggs

OMG it was f good. I have to say it is plain and simple, fried rice with egg omelet topped with bacon and tomato sauce. But it boosted the flavour of the egg really well. The egg omelet technically speaking is scrambled egg wrapped in a fried egg.
The egg itself is slightly flavoured, you can feel the smell, sweetness and smoothness of it.

It is another story when you cut the omelet open and let the egg's juices to mix with the bacon and tomato sauce and the fried rice. It like ice cream and chocolate they just match on a chemical level. On a taste bud level it makes me hungry as I am typing it now, or may be because it is almost dinner time.

But if you are going to have both. You should have the omelet on rice first, then the Hamburg set.

And always book.

Happy tasting!

The omelet rice in Japan is one of the many I miss everytime, having tried many 'alternatives' here is finally one I would recommend, it's the top rated but the taste and texture is compatible with the standard one.

It's been a long time since I wrote foodie's comment, but this little Japanese 洋食's style restaurant has inspired me to write again. The place is run by Japanese with a lady chef. I think they use local ingredients, that's why the taste is not authentic enough, but it has captured the solunof omelet rice, soft, melty with the aroma of egg, yet, the tomato sauce was too veggie taste and the rice is not chewy enough, I would it was a bit too moist, a slight twist on these would be appreciated.

Worth a they, will come again

I love eggs and everything with egg, and I have yet to find someone who does not like オムライス (omuraisu or omelette rice) in Japan. I always have to have omuraisu at least once whenever I go to Japan.

In Hong Kong, there are only a handful of places that over Japanese style omelette rice, let alone GOOD ones. When I saw Hidden Kitchen秀殿 being featured in Eat and Travel Weekly (飲食男女) last week, their omuraisu immediately caught my attention. Then all of a sudden we decided to go there impromptu as I could no longer behold the temptation of having a good omuraisu in Hong Kong. In fact I went there twice within 24 hours, first for dinner and second for lunch.

With only 4 small tables and some bar seats, the whole décor and look and feel of Hidden Kitchen closely resemble the small yōshokuya (洋食屋) in Japan. The female chef and the staff (only 2) are all Japanese, and a sneak peek at the tiny kitchen reveald that there is actually just one stove and a very small oven at the counter.