Sushi Kuu     壽司喰  

Last monday while I was downtown, we decided to meet up with my girlfriend to have dinner. But once we were in Central we actually did not know what we felt like. Initially we wanted to go for a wonton noodle soup as it is my favorite but then I was too hungry to have just a soup. So we decided to have Sushi at Sushi Kuu. I have been there few times already and it is my favorite Sushi place. And once again it would be proven to be right. It is the best sushi in town. This time we decided to seat at the bar and to have some kind of all you can eat sushi menu kind... I am not sure how it is call but it definitely fits for the night. We ordered it for two. Nicely enough the Chef there and the waitress asked us if there is anything we wanted particularly or anything we did not like or want. Once our choices were made we were serve promptly and generously. The service was present without being too overwhelming but, for me still lack of smile or genuine generosity. they have push us right and left instead of asking us to move when necessary, and it is a little bothering when you have such an excellent food and a good time otherwise. But we did not let this bother us. The chef that was serving us asked if we wanted any hot dish which we accepted and the alternance between the sushi, sashimi and hot dish was great. I had the Clam miso soup for the first time in my life and that was really good. (and i am not a big fan of miso soup usually) the oyster we received was fresh and tasty the sashimi was somewhat not as good as i expected but nonetheless it was good. the sushi were good and tasty, since they are made in front of you at the bar you have a real interaction with your chef which is interesting. you can actually request any fish or sushi as you desired. Personally i am not a big fan of all those fatty tuna and such but I order a hand roll regular tuna and it was so gooood.... I ordered a second one after that... But in all of this what struck me the most is that the rice is actually so tasty. cooked so well if not to perfection. and that for me as made the whole difference between this sushi at Sushi Kuu and any other sushi place I have been in hong kong.
For drinks we choose tea and this is was a little bit disappointing on how the service handle it. I know it is only tea but I believe it deserve to be serve correctly nonetheless. the waitress keep pushing me every time she refills, she never asked if we wanted a refill or not and actually when the dessert came she took away my tea without asking and replacing it with Green tea which I do not drink...
on the hygiene part, I am confused. on one side it is very clean and you can see that Chef Kuu seems to be strict about it. the reason I am confused is because they have some rags to clean their cutting board and knife as they make sushi or cut fish and such but then i did not see them cleaning those rags...ever.... they wipe the knife, wife their cutting board.... even wipe their hands but never wash the rag... never rinse it... never sanitize it.... it is just there on the corner or in from of their cutting board... Isn't there a risk for food contamination? Maybe not since it is only fish treated there. and finally I was sad to see the aquarium with a fish at the bottom that seem dead... maybe he was not but it doesn't look nice to be in a sushi place with a look like dead fish in a tank.... I think it should be taken off the sight of costumers at least.
Anyway, if you do feel like sushi, and although it is expensive, you will have such a great time eating at Sushi Kuu. Everyone is friendly and contribute to help you having a good time.

I have been to Sushi Kuu a few times but always had a la carte as I didn't even know they offered omakase.
The last time I was here I sat at the sushi bar which is always my fave place to sit at Japanese restaurants if you are there with just one other person. Chef Satoru will feed you shots of sake called "samurai" which tastes stronger then vodka!!!

This time as there were 3 of us we had reservations for a table as it's easier to talk. 2 of us ordered the omakase and my other friend opted for a la carte.

The server asked if there was anything we don't eat, we both said we prefer more seafood instead of meat.

We started with the onsen egg with uni and fish roe. It was just divine! its served cold, nice and refreshing way to start the meal. Next up was the fresh oyster with ponzu sauce. The oyster tasted fresh but nothing too special. Although i did wish there was more then 1. My favorite part of the meal was next, the plate of sashimi. The sashimi was all very fresh!! My favorite being the toro, it just melts in your mouth with a very rich flavor. The thin slices of hamachi wrapped in uni were also a fave. The saba sashimi comes with ponzu dipping sauce, I usually find saba to be a bit on the fishy side. Next was seared salmon salad with a sesame dressing and something on top which I couldn't really tell what it was. But I quite enjoyed this salad nice a light. After this salad came a plate of tempura which I forgot to take a picture of as I got temporaily side tracked. The tempura consisted of squash, 1 prawn, 1 pepper and the deep fried prawn head. Tempura was good not too oily.

After the tempura I was feeling quite full. But then came the grilled fish, the server told me what fish but I wasn't listening. The fish grilled perfectly and came with a wedge of lime which gave it a bit of citrus kick. I think it was grilled hamachi. When I thought I couldn't possibly eat any more food out comes the plate of sushi!! The sushi was bite sized pieces of goodness. My favorite one being the salmon in lettuce wrap. Not quite sure what sauce they had in the wrap but it had a sweet taste to it. The seared tuna also had a drizzle of sweet sauce in the rice. The teapot soup was next and a great way to end the salty part of the meal. It comes out in tiny little tea pot with a wedge of lime.The last part of the omakase was of course DESSERT!
This was a milk pudding like panna cotta topped with fresh strawberry puree, not too sweet and great with a glass of green tea to end the meal. A very enjoyable meal! Will definately be back again!

Reservations are a must at this popular eatery!

The sky high prices means that Sushi Kuu is a treat to satisfy that craving once in awhile. The lunch sets seem pretty decent, though i have yet to sample it. The prices also mean that the quality of fish is excellent and freshness is guaranteed, however, where sushi kuu falls exceptionally short is the service aspect.

from the hostess to the waitstaff, their faces are constantly sour, and they seem reluctant to be there - The high prices should reflect the service I expect to receive as well.

If I return for my next splurge, I'll be sure to reserve a seat at the bar

Sushi Kuu is my favourite of the various Japanese restaurants in LKF to grab a quick lunch. At lunch yesterday we went for their typical set lunches and were impressed by them.

I went for the beef set which came out promptly and with expertly cooked medium rare strips. My friend's sets were similarly good.

On the downside it has the typical LKF atmosphere at lunch - crazy and harried with forgetful waiters. But you can't have everything.

For more reviews - www.tomeats.com

We came here purposely for their 海鮮魚生飯 ..... as it's hard to find one that taste like the one we love the most in Tokyo. It's good that we went during lunch time, as they have lunch set for $220, else on the menu, for the same rice is $320. The ingredients were very fresh, and gave us the same satisfied feeling that we had before in Japan. Now we don't need to wait for our next Japan trip for this 海鮮魚生飯 la!

two visits in one week. ordered sushi set, grilled sushi set, toro & uni sashimi. all ingredients were fresh and i like how their sushi rice is a smaller piece so i can sample more variety. will come back for lunch next time to try out their chirashi

Came for lunch one day a month and a half ago with my fellow foodie friend. I remembered that the place was crazy packed, noisy and it was freezing, I had a headache when I left. We had:

Seafood Don ($220)
I came for the seafood don and that was what I had. Everything in there was very fresh, succulent and delicious. The botan shrimp was the most memorable for me. It was bigger than usual, sticky and gooey, which is how I like it, and insanely sweet. I thought that this was the only reasonably priced dish.

Shrimp Tempura ($160)
This was just ok for me. Tempura is all about the coating for me. The coating got a bit soggy after a short while, which is disappointing. The shrimp was very fresh and yummy but that soggy coating just bugged me way too much.

Grilled Cod ($220)
I tried a bit of the grilled cod and it was pretty well done. Moist, flaky and filled with fish oils. The sauce was sweet, fragrant and yummy and the skin was crispy. I've never been a huge fan of cooked fish though, so to me it was just like cooked fish in any other jap. resto.

Overall, I would say that everything is good except for the tempura coating, but its really pricey! So I would only recommend coming for the Seafood Don, and only when you're confined in Central. Cuz as most of us know, affordable but good Japanese restaurants are practically nonexistent in Central.

As recommended by many of my friends, we finally decided to go give it a try.... for lunch first...
The lunch menu had a reasonable amount of choices -- all lunch 'sets' had no drinks or desserts and the prices were $150 up. We ordered the eel rice and the sashimi cube rice. The presentation of both bowls of rice were very nice, but the taste was nothing special, and was really just the usual.

My friends must have been over-selling this place, since I'm sure we can find many similar quality japanese restaurants in HK at a much lower price.

My girlfriend and I went to Sushi Kuu for dinner out of a recommendation from her co-worker.

This restaurant is probably the worse for Japanese sushi; of course it is different if you don’t mind to pay good money for a small piece of sushi.

My girlfriend ordered a California cut roll. The roll itself is very tiny and the rice rolled around is extremely thin. Maybe sushi rice is expensive nowadays! This is the same for the deluxe sushi set that I ordered; paper thin slice of fish on top of a tiny crumb of rice. I understand that some fish you have to slice it very thin, but this place give you paper thin slice regardless of the fish.

Overall, the dining experience was disappointing and for sure will not frequent again!

Original Blog with more Pictures: http://jason-bonvivant.blogspot.com/2009/10/sushi-kuu.html

After my rather disappointing visit at Sushi U last time, I was on a quest to find better Japanese restaurants in the LKF area for lunch. My friend and I picked Sushi Kuu as recommended by many of our friends. According to my sources, this joint is run by the chef from Kiku. Once again, we took the bar table because I can get a first hand view of the sushi chef. There were plenty of choices for lunch sets, which most of them being sushi or sashimi dishes. We both picked the sushi platter set.

(1) Miso Soup
As part of the set, it came with Miso Soup. It was very nice indeed. Not many places in Hong Kong would serve miso soup with dried bean curd and sliced onions like they did here. Also, the msio flavor of the soup was not too strong, letting the flavors of the bean curd to stand out as well.

(1) 9 pcs Assorted Sushi
One of the reasons we ordered the sushi platter was because I wanted to watch it being prepared. The fish looked fresh like at Sushi U but they were being PRESSED RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU! NOT from the tin can. (except for the maki / roll)

The fish were fresh and the the sushi rice were tightly pressed in front of us. Although the maki was picked from the tin can, they were refilled constantly by another chef who only focused on the maki at the other end of the sushi bar. In other words, executing a fine division of labor in front of the customers.

Among the 9 pieces of sushi, I liked the sweet shrimp sushi the most.

(3) Udon in Soup
The set also came with a bowl of udon in soup but because it was served around the same time as the sushi, the udon became a bit too soft by the time I started to eat it after the sushi. No surprises but the soup was nice because it was not too strong and salty. I think this dish should be served closer to the end of the main dish if they have enough resources to do so.

Likes:

* sushi pressed in front of you and not form a tin can.
* ingredients were fresh
* miso soup - not too salty and with the sliced bean curd added for extra flavors.

Dislikes:

* Udon being served too early, making the udon too soft and the soup cold.
* can be quite noisy during peak hours

Avg Spedning: HKD 100 - 200 per person

Original Blog with more Pictures: http://jason-bonvivant.blogspot.com/2009/10/sushi-kuu.html

So I went here the other day with 2 other people. It was somewhat of a quick meal so we didn't order all that much. Here's what happened.
I and another ordered "iced water" and I left to use the bathroom. When I came back I saw that they actually served us a bottle of Acqua Panna (sneaky !). Here's what we ate:
Shabu Shabu Pork Salad. We were shocked how big this was but it turned out to be an easy eat. The dressing (tasted sesame based) was good and as long as you had a piece of pork in every bite it was pretty yummy. For the price it was quite worth it.
Sushi for 2: Nothing spectacular but it was very fresh and quite tasty.
BBQ Grilled US Beef: This I didn't quite get. Considering it wasn't wagyu it was kind of pricey to charge $150 for 5 little pieces of beef (no bigger than your pinky finger) with some tofu, eggplant and some veggies. The meat tasted very ordinary.
The service there was quite good and honestly the atmosphere there was pretty good as well (although a little on the dark side for my tastes). Overall a pretty decent meal but not spectacular.

Was soooo looking forward to go back to Sushi Kuu ... However, this lunch totally disappointed me. Both me and my ex-colleague noticed the size of our seafood sushi rice set was smaller ... and I even noticed the miso soup has less ingredients than before.
Wasn't trying to be picky, but for the price we pay, I expect some kinda quality .
Instead, during this financial crisis, we noticed the price remain the same but quality just deteriorate, just like the economy.

=================

Out of the Japanese restaurants in busy Central Lunchtime - this is a great choice, i went there with my Mom last week at 1pm. no reservation and we only had to wait 5 minutes.

Tempura set - it take a long time, but it mean that the tempura is freshly deep fry, but not too much oil. The Prawn pieces are big and you also get fish, carrot, pumpkin.

Eel set - the eel rice set is VERY GOOD, my mom had it. they also make the rice in the similar taste and sauce to the eel, with some fried egg too.

Sushi set- lots of pieces and seemslike ths fish is very fresh

Codfish - was not as good, the serving is small and seems overfried.

they very busy during lunch hours but the service is not bad

food is quite good. but not many choices

i had a sashimi set for lunch. 8 pieces of sashimi with rice and it came with noodles and miso soup as well. at first the portion seemed too small and the fish choice didn't look too appetizing (salmon 2, tuna 2, shrimp 2, scallop 2, and some white fish 2) but its actually not bad its jus the way they presented it.
i was quite full afterwards indeed. however the sashimi is a bit too thick -made me feel worth the buck but also too filling...

my friend had a sushi set which looked soso again.
but another friend had a sukiyaki set which smelled great i cant wait to try it!

overall lunch is quite good but i had better experiences for dinner.

A surprisingly inexpensive Omakase dinner for 2.

Green bean + sweet corn: The sweet corn tastes so sweet that no doubt it is a GE food. (8/10)
Appetizer: Half boiled egg + squid + Salmon roe + Urchin : Very Good! (9/10)
Sashimi (6-7): Pretty good (8/10)
Roast Tuna Chin: Excellent (but prefer the side dish to be grilled instead of deep fried) (9.5/10)
Steam Tofu with crab meat : (My frd said the Tofu has a strong flavour of bean curd of which I had no idea.) (5/10)
Sushi (6-7): Pretty good (8/10)
Clam miso soup: Pretty good (8/10)
Water Melon + Lime/ Green Tea Jelly (8/10)
2 Saki

A restaurant with a very energetic atmosphere. Superb treatment for people who suffer from depression.


$2000 for two