I found this shop by accident when showing a friend around my Nagoya trip’s photos. He had told me that one of the only things he was interested in trying while he was in Nagoya was Unagi (Eel). Then search in open rice for best Unagi restaurant in HK, they serve Nagoya-style “Hitsumabushi”.

We ordered 1 Unagi set, Nagoya Chicken wings, a Chirashizushi and 1 bottle of COLD Sake.

A waiter told about Hitsumabushi’s eating methods when the Ungai set on table, but not very clear. Lucky my friends knew the details about the eating methods actually.


1) First you take about 1/4th of the rice and eel, put it in the little bowl and eat it just like that.

2) Next you take another serving of eel and rice and season it with seaweed (nori) stripes, wasabi and chives.

3) For the third serving you use the same seasoning but you also pour hot tea on top of it.

4) The fourth and final serving is meant to repeat the style you like.

Talking back about the Food taste:

The Eel (Unagi) was perfectly grilled without being too saucy, too crispy, or too greasy. In fact, it may very well have been the best Unagidon I’ve tried in HK.

These chicken wings (Tebasaki) are deep fried to perfection and then coated with sweet soy sauce. But for me, this is not sweetness enough and too dries, may be a bit overcooked.Scattered sushi (Tirashizushi), the portion is smaller than general scattered sushi, but the raw fishes are fresh and sweetness. Good to match cold sake.This is shop is quite small but cozy, putting many sake bottles on the wall makes a great atmosphere. Overall, we are so enjoyed to make dinner at TOBA…

This is one of the few Nagoya restaurants in Hong Kong so we decided to try it out.

Nagoya is famous for chicken wings, a special type of red miso (hachou miso) and Unagi rice (hitsumabushi). 名古屋名物：手羽先、八丁味噌&櫃まぶし（鰻魚飯）。

We arrived at 6:30 pm and already needed to take the counter seats. This was fine as the tables were pretty close to each other. The place looked modern and chic - especially the sake cups as ornaments.

First came the onsen tamago 炸腐皮溫泉玉子. It tasted pretty nice but I strongly recommend the restaurant to place the four eggs on a spoon as its a mess to eat with chopsticks

Then came the much anticipated chicken wings.手羽先-中辛 I have to say the the taste was apparently original Nagoya style but the wings were too dry. Pardon my taste but I prefer the KFC version of spicy wings.

The pork skewers 加賀豚味噌串燒were nothing to ring home about , especially at $138 for two. If you like skewers, I could recommend "kushi studio" at TST Woodhouse mall. It's similar quality but 1/7 the price.

The tsukune 焼雞𧢲軟骨串was the redeeming feature of this dinner. It's not too warm but were all pretty juicy with chicken soft bones inside.

About the service, the waiters were polite enough but weren't professional. They can't seem to place a single dish without disrupting the client's conversation or banging the dishes at our hands. Furthermore, they were only able to place the alcohol to the person nearest to them instead of the person who ordered it. One of the waiters said "Jap" (日本仔） this and that. This shows a disrespect to what he was doing and could be offensive to some customers.

$375 per head is too expensive for this.

Overall good experience. Their udon was a good texture and had good miso. Chicken wings was distinctive. Tapanyaki normal. Great service though, and good environment. Not cheap but good value for service and quality.

The izakaya along lockhart road that I wanted to go to was closed on Sunday, so my friend and I wandered further down the road and passed by a couple of buildings all with stacks of restaurants in them, and this was the only building where we didn't have to wait for a lift. The restaurant is located on 2 storeys which is a feature in this newish place, which gives it a cozy and intimate atmosphere without being claustrophobic. No bookings, walked in and we had our choice of seats from the counter top.

We weren't starving so only ordered a few skewer items: the mixed platter of chicken yakitori in 6 flavours were nicely presented and interesting looking, with crunchy cartilaginous bits mixed in with the minced meat which lent it some texture, though at $180 it was a little on the pricey side. The other skewers were adequately done: the swordfish was firm but not tough and dry, and the pork belly had just the right amount of fat to give it the taste. The grilled eggplant with miso seemed like a popular dish as a few other diners had also ordered it, and steam was still coming out of the flesh when you cut it in, though the miso sauce was a tad on the salty side. The mixed salad was a good sized portion, and the ginger salad dressing very refreshing and light, but not worth taking a picture of. The sake my friend ordered was very smooth and they had a good selection too. But it wasn't the cheapest of all places and there are others with better value.

Ate lunch with my wife and 2 daughters. Restaurant was empty. We wondered how this place stays in business.

Ordered chicken wing appetizer. Very crispy and tasty. Bento box was very good, with excellent teriyaki beef slices and excellent sashimi. Clams in broth were very good. Daughters ordered udon noodles and eel rice box, both which were very good. Teka maki roll was excellent.

Overall, prices were above average but the food quality was very high and the dishes we ordered were very good, if not excellent. Service was very attentive.

I would recommend this restaurant for Japanese food if your budget is not an issue.

炸腐皮溫泉蛋
- 炸腐皮 too salty. Egg is ok

招牌雞翼
- dry + burnt chicken wings, the so called spciy wing only = loads of pepper. Chicken wings are tiny

鰻魚飯
- ok.

關東煮
- vege not been stew for long enough, the sauce is not absorbed by any of the vege like potato and carrot

not as good as comments. only soso.

So I saw an ad here about this place soon after I returned from my trip to Nagoya - I thought I had to try it out.

the wings in Nagoya style were actually really good, they were not as spicy as the ones I had in Nagoya but pretty close to what I had there.

I really like the dressing on the salmon sashimi salad.

The deep fried pork on the stick with miso sauce was awesome.

Our server recommended us to try the onsen tamago (poached eggs in bean curd skin) was different than the other onsen tamago I had but it was also very good.

We had a few other things too, which weren't bad. The server also treated us with green tea ice cream with Japanese candies on the house, which was very kind of her.

Between the two of us, we had two alcoholic drinks each, and the check only rounded up about $540, so it wasn't so bad, with the among of food we had. (We had a few other things too... )

Reservation would be a good idea. We got there at around 19:30 with no reservation on a Friday night but it was all full and we had to wait until 21:30 for a table.

The only down side was that they don't really have much acoustic tiles. When we were there, there was a large party of over 10 people, and since the place was so small, the sound was trapped and was multiplying itself. But the staff was really good and apologetic about it - they are otherwise attentive too...

We went to the restaurant for my husband's birthday! The food was quite nice - highly recommend the 炸腐皮溫泉蛋! However the 招牌雞翼 is only so so.....

What I really want to say is, I left my Iphone in the restaurant after the dinner and I was very lucky that they picked up the phone for me and kept it for me. Nowadays, it is so rare to find honest and nice people around, especially in restaurants and bars. So I must really thank them for their honesty and service!

So I am leaving for Japan for a 2 week holiday in a few days and decided to have a dinner with a few friends before I left. Overall reviews here on Openrice looked promising and I was quite intrigued by their 'wall of cups' (you'll see later).

Environment - Although Toba Nagoya has 2 floors (both 20th and 21st) the place is actually not very big. I would say on average each floor can sit about 20-30 people max. The tables themselves were relatively comfortable and I thought the decor looked pretty nice for an izakaya.

Service - So here's where I have major problems. I made a reservation at 8PM a week beforehand but my group actually wasn't seated until 8:35-8:40PM. The main reason is because their last 'shift' was started late and therefore we were delayed. There was only 1 chair by the elevator and the area was pretty cramped so it was uncomfortable to stand there for an extended period. My friend (who got there at 7:50PM) said at least 1 walk-in was seated immediately but somehow we were seated later. I don't understand this policy. A 30-40 minute wait for me pretty much dampens my mood for the dinner.

Since they made us wait so long they supposedly gave us a few free beers for our inconvenience. To be honest they made a strong effort to keep us happy throughout the night outside of 1-2 times they took a little long with our orders.

Food: The 4 of us pretty much went to town with the food. Before all the food came the waitress suggested a few sakes we might enjoy and brought about 5-6 different sake 'jars' for us to choose from. Kind of a cool sight since I've never seen sake in jars before. Anyway, onto the food:

Sea Urchin Temaki (海膽手巻)- Decent. Uni (sea urchin) tasted clean but I'm not sure I would say it was very high quality. The temaki probably could have been wrapped a little better since it felt like the nori sheet was coming apart a little.

Hot Spring Egg In Tofu Skin (腐皮溫泉蛋) - Taste wise I thought this was decent. I did quite like the texture though. The tofu skin was light and crispy while the egg provided a nice creamy contrast. Personally I can't tell any difference between a hot spring egg versus a regular egg.

Special Chicken Wings (招牌雞翼) - I think visually...this dish can be presented better. The chicken didn't look too meaty and a little on the dry side (mainly because it was a dry rub). We ordered the medium spicy ones (there is mild and very spicy as well). Overall I didn't really find it spicy per say but very peppery. The rub itself goes decently well with beer but I found the dish to be somewhat average. A little sad since it is consider their special (招牌) dish.

chopstick: Mackeral in Miso (味噌關東煮) - I read quite a lot of positive reviews of this so I was looking forward to this. The miso itself I think was quite flavorful but the fish was overcooked and a bit on the dry side.

Chicken Neck Skewer (雞頸串燒) - I was pretty excited about this since I hardly ever eat chicken neck but the texture was exactly the same to a regular chicken skewer. Tasted ok. Not bad.

Chicken Skin Skewer (雞皮串燒) - Not bad. Very crispy but to be honest there wasn't much skin to eat.

Pork Neck Skewer (豬頸串燒) - Pretty tasty. I liked the fact that it was a little more on the fatty side. Normally yakitori place uses a yaki-glaze but it looks like Nagoya-style likes to use a dry rub (with pepper/salt/sesame).

Beef Tongue Skewer (牛舌串燒) - Tongue was cooked about right. Tasted good. The rub was the same as the pork neck skewer.

Fried Spring Fish Skewer (多春魚串燒) - I quite liked this. Fish had a nice smokey taste and was quite flavorful. My friends didn't eat the head and tail but I ate the whole fish...haha.

We finished our meal with some green tea & sesame ice cream. Overall I thought the meal was 'decent' (regardless of the wait) but with the 30-40 minute wait...the place was a bit of a disappointment. Although not a Nagoya-style izakaya I think the quality of food at Irori (also an izakaya in Causeway Bay) is higher for essentially the same price point.

Normally at openrice, I would just surf around and wouldn’t write any comment on restaurant, but this restaurant has totally melted my heart.

It was Thursday night and we were looking for some cozy restaurant. Since we both are Japanese food lover, my friend has recommended me to this new居酒屋 in Causeway Bay so we decided to give it a try. It was a week night so it wasn't packed with people and we decided to sit by the bar counter like we normally do. Service was very response and sincere by providing us green tea, menu and an article about this restaurant before we sat down(I guess it’s good for our newbie to this restaurant with all the photos and descriptions) . So we’ve ordered胡麻豆腐、味噌關東煮、池魚薄切、羊串燒、 雞軟骨串燒、名古屋手羽先唐揚 (highly recommended by the waiter). Food came very quickly and immediately filled up our table(thought out of sequence and we didn't know which to start).. Normally, we would consider sashimi a head above the rest but this time, the hot food have totally taken all the credit. If a good glass red wine equals to full body flavored and tempting scent, then 胡麻豆腐 equals to it very well. Then it’s the名古屋手羽先唐揚, very very crispy and juicy, but mind you that they are quite spicy! The池魚薄切、羊串燒、雞軟骨串燒 were great as well but you can’t expect too much as they are pretty standard Japanese food and they were dimmed. Last but not least, it’s the味噌關東煮. WOW!! I wish I have a bowl of rice / bread that I can finish the miso sauce left in the bowl.. it was very tasty, unique.. and everything….

Best of all, it’s not pricy at all despite the number of food that we ordered… we have actually ordered a vegetarian關東煮 (second round) plus 3 Japanese cocktails. I would definitely go there again and consider this as one of my “ usual dinning list”

Oh yes.. about the interior decoration, I guess I was too overwhelmed by the food that I’ve neglected the decoration totally… haha… But one thing about the toilet….there’s this electrical concealed door and you have to press certain buttons in order to enjoy the ‘trip’.