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2018-02-12
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宇治園 (English name: Uji-En) is a shop from Osaka that sells not only tea but wonderful matcha based sweets like candies and oh yes .. ice cream. Established in Yamashiro, Kyoto in 1873, like many tea houses, it started as a place that roasted and sold tea leaves since the area of Uji is famous for producing one of the finest green tea leaves in Japan. But during the 1940s, they decide to expand their business to become more like a factory. During this era of modernization, they moved the whole b
Recently, they have opened their second overseas branch in Hong Kong. The first branch being in Shanghai. But Hong Kong already has two reknown Japanese tea houses. One is the most famous of all from Uji, Nakamura Tokichi of which I'm a big fan of and Kyo Hayashiya (which I loved more in Japan than here in Hong Kong). So, how does this one fare? I wanted to find out.
Located in Tsim Sha Tsui's Harbor City, it's has three sections to their restaurant.
On the left is where you can purchase their candies and tea leaves along with other tea related items.
The middle is where you can just have take away ice cream and drinks.
And on the right is their tea room where you can sit down and have a cup of tea and desserts. Boyfriend and I decided to come here.
As this is a sit down area, they will charge 10% service charge. There is also a $10 tea charge per person. There is also a minimum one order per person and you only have a 90 minute dining time. The menu is in English, Japanese and Chinese with photos of pretty much all they serve. They have everything from parfaits to cakes, shaved ice and puddings. They also have matcha soba as well. You can also order a pot of tea if you want to choose to try their other leaves.
Of course, as they already charge you $10 per person for tea, they will already give you a pot of genmaicha. It came served in a beautiful iron tea pot. The genmaicha that they provide for you was subtle with not a strong taste. But it was palatable.
Kitsune Namacha Men ($78). As it was our first time here, we decided to share a soba. Normally, I would choose a cold soba to truly taste the flavor of the noodles, but as it was a bit cool outside, it was time for something hot. So, in keeping with tradition, we chose the one with the seasoned fried tofu puff. Instead of one big piece like how I'm more used to in Japan, there are two medium size pieces. The tofu was lovely but a bit more sweet than most places. It was simply seasoned with slices of leek. The soup was a hoijicha bonito soup which I really liked. It was clear and semi sweet. Smooth and delicate. It complimented the noodles well. The soba was made with matcha and there wasn't much matcha taste. This was expected and I always suspect it's more of a coloring ingredient than for actual taste. But the noodles were really good. Smooth and chewy. I slurped happily away.
Hoijicha Anmitsu ($78). Originally I wanted the matcha pudding but they had sold out so this was my back up dessert. This was a hoijicha soft serve with a sprinkle of hoijicha powder on top
It came with various fruits such as orange slices, kiwi and blueberries along with dango and jelly. There was a tiny pitcher of brown sugar syrup. The winner is by far the hoijicha soft serve. The taste of the tea was strong and fragrant. The only let down was the soft serve was a bit icy. The fruit was fresh and the dango was soft and chewy.
Matcha Kakigori ($78). Boyfriend looked at me and said "is it too cold dfor kakigori?" No! It's never too cold for kakigori! So, we ordered the matcha version. The size was not as big as the ones we've had before. But it still made my eyes glow. It mountain of soft shaved ice was topped with matcha powder.
Inside was a layer of sweet azuki beans.
The kakigori came with azuki beans and two dango that was served on the side unlike other places where they add it right on the side of the dessert. We had no idea it didn't come with chestnut as we thought that was standard otherwise we would have added on as an extra topping. Instead we added matcha soft serve ice cream for $25. This was covered with matcha powder. The taste of the matcha wasn't very strong at all. But at least it was a lot more smooth than the hoijicha version. Out of the two ice creams, I felt the hoijicha came out a lot better.
It came with a pitcher of matcha condensed milk. This was really yummy. It was sweet but you can still taste the matcha here. Oddly, the taste of matcha was a lot stronger than the soft serve. They also give you a lot of this so you can really drizzle it all over your ice.
The nice competitor to the Japanese tea houses in Hong Kong. The soba was by far my favorite. The hoijicha was wonderful and fragrant though the matcha flavor wasn't as strong as the competitors. But then this place is also a lot cheaper in price. I would most likely be back and have noodles. Maybe try their other desserts. or even just have take away soft serve while I shop.
张贴
