Iroha     伊呂波燒肉   (Under Renovation)

i came here yesterday for a friend's birthday dinner. we ordered the sashimi set for 3. then added on a soft shell crab sushi rolls and some other light dishes. i have to say the food quality was very impressive. the chef did a good job! wanted to order the sea urchin but was expensive and decided not to. it was around $300 for tiny bit. also ordered a bottle of sake. tasted very good.

even thought i was very happy with the food, i have to say i hated the service. our waitress, this woman who looked pissed off at our presence or simply she just hated her own life. she never once smiled. she never once said thank you. she never once tried to help in any way. i was very annoyed at her service. two people at our table spoke mandarin (not cantonese) and she gave a dirty look at them when they were talking. i thought that was very RUDE. she looks like she is in her 30s or maybe she is just going through menopause.

WHAT KIND OF RESTAURANT HIRES WOMAN THAT GIVE DIRTY LOOKS TO CUSTOMERS?!?!?!?!

i will NEVER go back there just b/c she made me feel like i was below her. she belittles people. i don't go to restaurants just for food, "services" is another big part of the whole experience.

i promise you and myself that i will never go back there again.

My mum and i always reserve a meal's quota for BBQ whenever we were in Tokyo - the beef there are always more sweet and more tender than those offered in Hong Kong. My mum always recalls how lovely the beef rib were in the restaurant in Shinjuku, as it is a taste not to be found in Hong Kong.

Since my mum's birthday is in early February, clashing directly with the chinese new year, it is impossible to hold a table at any restaurant on the date of her birthday. Therefore, we opted for an early celebration - and after 'consulting' her opinion, I secretly booked a table at Iroha in Causeway, and led her to the surprising dining place in the evening.

I did not specially requested for a room when i made the reservation - therefore i was equally surprised when the waitress led us to a private, separated room.

We spent quite a long time digesting the menu - and finally we decided to order in two rounds:Tomato salad: freshly cut wedges of tomatoes were mixed with an oriental sour salad dressing. Very fleshy and refreshing.Sashimi combo (5 variations) - with Tuna, Salmon, Squid, Kampachi and medium Toro, the sashimi slices were thickly cut and very sweet and fresh. The tuna and toro were surprises - they were much better than what's offered in other sushi bars! Premium assorted meat ($450) - with salted wagyu tongue, outside skirt, diced sirloin, rib eye in a roast sauce, we all agreed that the diced sirloin steak tasted the best as it carried the most taste of the 'beef'. Thickly cut and lightly grilled, the beef were juicy and very tender - a taste i have long missed but failed to find in Hong Kong!Karubi in Jar - a must-order in Iroha, i suppose. The rib eye stripe came in a lovely japanese jar and was soaked in a sauce with onion, garlic and misc. We cut the rib eye into dices with the scissors and grilled until just medium rare-and it was heavenly. The beef was not too dry because of the appropriate amount of fat it carried; the sauce gave it a little tint of sweetness to the beef, enhancing the sweetness of the beef; and it was tender. It was oh-so-good.Kimchi and tofu soup - more sour than the authentic Korean version, it was however great to have when grilling beef by its side!Selected thick sliced wagyu tongue - heavenly. I should call them 'steaks' cus they were just so thick! We grilled them until they became pinkish on the surface. The juice exploded as we bit into each of them. Expensive, yes, but the experience of eating them was marvellous! They reminded us of the tongue we ate in Sendai - the home of grilled Ox Tongue, but this one is even more sweet and tender and tasty!Mushroom platter - Literally a big plate of assorted mushroom with some soysauce graced on them. Equally lovely as they were juicy.Stir-fried vegetables - Tasted very Chinese i'd say.Karubi thick slices (Salt) - surprised by the loveliness of the Karubi-in-jar, we ordered another plate of Karubi. We asked whether it'd taste better in salt or in soysauce and we got the response that the salt variety is better. However, what we got was quite tough in texture.....what a pity. We should have sticked to the Karubi-in-jar, albeit being slightly more expensive.Grilled onigiri-we ordered one salmon onigiri and one with dried bonito. They came raw and we had to DIY - first, grab and turn the onigiris with a special clip-we had to turn slowly and gently as the onigiri may break. Then, we grazed them with the sauce which came on the side with a special silicon brush - turning the onigiris into a lovely, brownish magical food. They were excellent. Crunchy on the surface and tender in the inside, they rounded off the birthday meal nicely.

The meal was certainly an expensive one - but given the privacy we enjoyed, and the quick and efficient ventilation, and of course the high quality of the grilled meat, it was a lovely meal afterall.

My dinner at Iroha was nothing but delicious.

There were 3 of us, we ordered the HK$360 set dinner plus some more wagyu goodness.

The set comes with a variety of good, such as giant prawns, thinly sliced ox tongue, pork neck, super sweet corn, onion, mushrooms, green pepper, pumpkin, salad with japanese dressing, marinated beef, pork and chicken...all delicious!

We also ordered some spring onion pancake, yummy, eat immediately while it's hot

...and of course we order a serving of thick cut ox tongue and wagyu beef, both were amazingly delicious after grilling.

We also ordered some rice, beer and veggies which were all necessary to perfect the meal

http://mochachocolatarita.blogspot.com/2009/12/bbq-japanese-wagyu-beef-at-iroha.html

We went to Iroha at 6.45pm without a reservation and were lucky to have the last available table.
For appetizer,we had an avocado and tuna salad, which was refreshing and tasty. The sesame dressing complemented the avocado well.
For BBQ, we ordered: an assorted Wagyu Beef ($250), salted ox tongue ($70?), chicken marinated in miso sauce (60?). The Wagyu Beef was excellent although there were only some 12 thin slices of different cuts of beef.
For rice, we ordered an ox tail soup with rice. The soup was served piping hot in a clay bowl and the ox tail was tender.
The service was efficient.
Although it was not particularly filling, it was a satisfactory meal .

This is the ONLY place for real Yakiniku in Hong Kong, which is the same quality as good Japanese ones in Japan. All the rest of them are just pretenders.

The selections here are way more consistently better, especially the Wagyu dishes which always has well distributed marbles.

Having tried the other places, would never go to those again - stick to 伊呂波燒肉!

Yum.

As a fan of Iroha for their lunch sets, I went there with my colleagues today hoping to enjoy the sashimi rice + BBQ beef set.

I could still remember that when I went there, I thought it was the best quality Japanese lunch deal around....with sashimi rice, BBQ beef, steamed egg, miso soup, ice-cream and kimchi.

To my disappointment, almost ALL items were served in HALF SIZE!

Literally, really, HALF SIZE!

Steamed egg - half size
Sashi rice - half rice
Miso soup (how expensive is the soup?) - half size

I was so surprised that I actually asked the waitress whether they had changed management or not, and was told they didn't. Also, gave them some feedback on the 'half size' of everything and no comment from them.

The only positive thing from today is that the beef quality is still Japanese Wagyu Beef and quantity is ...surpringly...the same.

To conclude, I just don't believe that just because Iroha offers lunch sets at a 'reasonable' price ($90 + 10%) means that you can serve HALF size to rip off customers' pockets.

They had too many kinds of beef to choose from, didn't know what to choose, so ordered a "selection plate" (costs $410).
It's intended for 2 persons and has 5-6 kinds of beef.
The beef was ok but...... after eating all that we were still hungry lor..
Apart from beef we also ordered 2 beer, a bowl of rice and a friend mixed veg.
The meal costed almost $600 but I am telling ya - We were both still hungry after dinner.
Paying $600 and not getting fed properly, I was kinda disappointed.

My friend keeps recommending this place that the price is more reasonable (i.e. Cheaper) than 盛八, and the beef has about the same quality (as good as) as 盛八. However, after I tried, my bf and I are both not think so. We are still the fans of 盛八.

We booked the table at 730 on one Friday night on Jan 2008. When we got there, there is another couple in front of us. I beg they are the regular customer, so the waitress knew them. The waitress just server them, and make us wait for so long that to take us to the table. No other waiter will come and help. Either waiter or waitress just passed by and no one asked about why we stood there.

As we are only two people, we have shared a table with another couple, which is ok for me. They have a small separator in between us and other couple, which is nice. However, no one serve us. The waitress was busy taking order for the couple next to us, but won’t even give us tea until we asked for.

We ordered the aji sashimi (around $120 per fish), and sth cheese (like yogurt kind and dip with the crackers provided) as appetizers. The aji is fresh, but the bone can not be deep fried (normally the restaurant will do it if ppl order aji). So, we missed a dish for our alcohol. The cheese was nice too, but I was expected the cheese should be in cube size. The flavor is very light that don’t think I am eating cheese at all. Just different expectation.

For drink, we have ordered the Korean sake (Jinro), which is $90 per bottle. Very expensive. In Jusco, it’s only sold $19 per bottle. I understand that restaurant must sell more expensive that to cover their expense. But, shouldn’t be that expensive. I have been ordered the same drink in other Korean restaurant b4; it’s only $50 (the most). So, my bf and I only drink one bottle as we think it’s really not worth. Other alcohol is very expensive too, like a small bottle of Asahi cost almost $50, while盛八cost only $38 for one draft. Other Japanese Sake was cost at least $200 per bottle (150ml).

For entr嶪, we order the beef & seafood combination (the same combo as the previous food reviewer). Ours was not as good as his. First, the seafood is still frozen. The shrimp was so ‘hard’and still can see the ice was cover its. So, we have to wait till the end to eat it. The shrimp is big, but still can’t taste the frozen smell. For other seafood, scallop was ok, but not fresh. The squid has cut too thin, and no taste at all. The salmon fish belly is above average. I can tell they have put some salt on it. For the beef, the short ribs had a bit beef flavor. The rest didn’t have any beef taste at all, but still tighten. The beef tongue had many pieces that can fill up my stomach.

End up, we have to look around for waitress to get the bill. In 10 minutes, no waitress will walk around to see if we need anything. I don’t think I will go again.

5 of us booked a table for lunch on WED.

This is the 4th/5th time I went there but just wanted to share my same thoughts as the previous 2 comments that food is OK, but service is not good.

Not sure if you noticed some waitresses are young ladies while the other one or two are relatively older. The younger ladies are impatient and "black face-ed" us often.

So perhaps this is something that they should look at to improve.

I\'d lunch there in May. It is around $70 per head. Portion is enough for a guy. Wide range of choice and pretty delicious. Clean and comfortable environment.

Will definitly go back (but not in Summer time).

I came back to Hong Kong to visit my family and my girlfriend this summer. I love japanese food a lot and that's why I choose this restuarant after a warm recommendation from a magazine. The reviewer from the magazine was a former Miss Hong Kong. I believed every word she wrote and with some expectation we went to this place. The interior design was comfortable and delightful. The service was good. We decided to have the japanese beef with various classification, the beef tongue, slices of chicken, sashimi and fresh shrimps. We had sake and beers to the dinner.
Ok, now, the price ended up 1200 Hkd for 2 persons. I didn't mind the price if the food quality was good enough. 2 medium size of shrimps, 5 small pieces of chicken, 6 pieces of beef tongue and 5 small pieces of beefs. The taste was ok, nothing special. The only good thing of our dinner was sashimi. In conclusion, 1200 Hkd could have a lot of other choices and I am sure any other good quality japanese restaurant could beat this one.
Arrgggg....damned Miss Hong Kong. I would never trust your words again.