I have no idea how my wife managed to find this rather unknown restaurant. Anyway, she recommended this to me so I decided to try it out together with three colleagues (four guinea pigs in total).
The restaurant was pretty empty at the time, perhaps since it's relatively new and did not promote themselves much or at all.
To my utter dismay, none of my colleagues were able to drink alcohol at the time.
It was a pity because they had a pretty good selection of sochu and sake.
Since I was the host of this dinner, I was trying frantically to identify what type of Japanese restaurant this was and to try and ascertain what type of signature dishes they have.
The menu was pretty comprehensive and included Sashimi, Sushi, Tempura, Yakitori, Soba, Ramen, Grilled Fish, various appetizers and cooked dishes. The chef's recommendation also featured different types of Japanese cuisines. The only indication I saw was a sashimi bar placed in the middle of the shop.
The fishes placed inside the sashimi bar looked pretty fresh so I figure the sashimi should be good.
On the other hand, I couldn't stop ordering
tsukune, i.e. grilled minced chicken with soft bone, whenever I see it on the menu, so we did. We ordered a "
Cheese Shyudo" (Korean style spicy fish innards, aka "Chanjya", on a bed of cheese, probably mozzarella) to go with my Sapporo draught beer, the only beer on the table.
To my surprise, the tsukune was very good!
It's juicy, tasted like chicken and with soft & chewy soft bones. This is one of the few places on Hong Kong side that could do a nice tsukune, most of those shops are on Kowloon-side.
The Cheese Shyudo, literally, Cheesy alcohol bandit
, was good. Standard style and a rather generous portion.
Then came the
green pepper tempura with salmon roe and the
big sashimi set (Sashimi Mo-Ri-Awase):
The green pepper tempura was pretty good. It's the first time I've ever seen this dish before. It's one of the chef's recommendation. The tempura batter was light and crisp. The strong salmon roe taste combined very well with the liquorish taste of the green pepper.
The sashimi set was pretty good. The sea urchin was fresh, although not the bafun uni (horse droppings uni), it tasted pretty good and should suit most lovers of sea urchins.
The white bodies fish, possibly hamachi, tasted good, as well as the prawns. A half-grilled sashimi tasted pretty interesting. It had a lot of fish oil so grilling it a bit was a good idea.
The medium toro, not "big toro", was good too.
Everyone seemed happy with the sashimi set.
Then came the
grilled unagi (eel):
It's glazed with honey and tasted pretty nice. It's pretty decent considering that there aren't many shops that specialized in eel in Hong Kong.
The Beef Tongue was a hit with everyone. We ordered another portion.
Somewhat to my surprise was that they also have one or two dishes from Okinawa,
Goya Champuru in particular (Bitter Melon stir fried with egg and pork). I wasn't expecting much but decided to give it a go since I was curious:
As expected, this was just so-so. I think a slightly extreme example would be this: you wouldn't order Chinese food inside a French restaurant. That's the idea. It's not as good as other Okinawa restaurants (such as "Raku En" in the same building) because it's a bit more soggy and the bitter melon seemed a bit more bitter than normal, which wasn't supposed to happen if they were authentic and fresh. So I can't recommend ti.
The grilled eggplant was pretty nice though - normal stuff but good:
We also ordered grilled salmon head. This was not as good as Tsenri no Tsuke (nearby, but super expensive) and a bit dry - not recommended:
We were all pretty full by this time ( but still had room for another portion of OX Tongue!)
I ordered a "Natto" to go with my other beer and then ended a pretty nice evening.
The bill came down to HK$2,200 in total (with just 2-3 pints of beer). I'd say it's a bit pricy.
The service seemed a bit rough - i.e. the staff were efficient but did not smile or small talk. The only person at the shopfront who seemed to be most enthusiastic was the boss. She was very attentive. The rest were slightly awkward and green. They required a bit more training.
All in all, since the food, though slightly priced on the high side, were generally of good quality. Perhaps worth a try!
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