Tamagoyaki is one of my favourite Japanese food. I have tried some Tamagoyaki in Japan and they all tasted pretty nice. I usually like them fluffy, smooth, eggy and mild to stronger sweetness. Many restaurants in Hong Kong fail to make tamago in distinguishable layers which leads to very solid and dense omelete texture.My friends said the Tamagoyaki in The Yuu is nice and brought me there today to give it a try. They ordered Tamagoyaki with cheese for me and left me with no choice. (I generally
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Tamagoyaki is one of my favourite Japanese food. I have tried some Tamagoyaki in Japan and they all tasted pretty nice. I usually like them fluffy, smooth, eggy and mild to stronger sweetness. Many restaurants in Hong Kong fail to make tamago in distinguishable layers which leads to very solid and dense omelete texture.
My friends said the Tamagoyaki in The Yuu is nice and brought me there today to give it a try. They ordered Tamagoyaki with cheese for me and left me with no choice. (I generally prefer traditional Tamagoyaki if possible.)
The Tamagoyaki was presented on a wooden board pre-cut in eight pieces for sharing. I found it really cute that the restaurant marked its name on one of the Tamagoyaki.
To be honest I don't find the tamogo's look appealing, it looked very watery and flat without liveliness on the wooden board. The cheese was all melted and incoporated well with the Tamago since both of them are in semi-liquid state. The cheese taste was not strong and hence did not overpower the Tamago taste.
I personally do not like The Yuu's Tamago, it was too watery, lacking the fluffyness and the desired tasted.
雜錦天婦羅比專門店做得更好硬身的冷蕎麥麵亦令人滿意有點嘈雜及服務有改善空間但抵食，好食，值得推介！Very good tempura. Better than specialists.Good soba.Great value.May get a bit noisy during lunchtime and services need improvement.However, great value, good quality - recommended!>>>>I walked past "the Yuu" many times after having ramen at " Hanchi ban", "Yukitei" or other restaurants at Qre plaza. I've tried the Yuu at Knutsford Terrace, TST, but wasn't too impressed with neither the price nor the portion, other than the "卵焼き" s
Very good tempura. Better than specialists. Good soba. Great value. May get a bit noisy during lunchtime and services need improvement. However, great value, good quality - recommended!
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I walked past "the Yuu" many times after having ramen at " Hanchi ban", "Yukitei" or other restaurants at Qre plaza. I've tried the Yuu at Knutsford Terrace, TST, but wasn't too impressed with neither the price nor the portion, other than the "卵焼き" soft egg rolls/omelet rolls with mirin, salt and various fillings like crab meat. It's extremely important to keep the middle part soft and gooey. The Yuu's was pretty good and had egg taste, similar to the very famous one at "the Mon". The yakitori was just average, however.
Because of my previous experiences with the Yuu at TST, I wasn't too interested in trying this out until I saw from other reviewers that they apparently specialized in tempura, my all time favorite type of Japanese food! ψ(｀∇´)ψ
It brings back childhood memories as it's probably the first Japanese cuisine I've ever tried as a kid. I suspect it's the same for most of us here? (OK, instant noodles and cup noodles don't count! )
They apparently bought a tempura "stove"(?) in order to increase the authenticity. I am not aware of any particular equipment necessary other than a frying pan with hot oil and a separate pot of batter to dip whatever you fancy in. My wife's grandmother and mother used to make it at home. I believe the stove might be an equipment similar to those used to fried chips (?), keeping the oil at a constant temperature and perhaps contains a timer ? (Like the chip fryer in McDonalds). Well, it's like Japanese fish & chips!
In addition to the tempura, I noticed from other reviewers that they also do hot and cold soba! This really put it on my "must try " list .
I finally got the chance to try it over a late lunch one day (at about 1:40 pm.) It was surprisingly packed!
Environment:
The restaurant was divided into different areas. Seats in front of the sushi bar, normal tables for four persons and some tatami areas near the window for about eight persons. The whole restaurant was decorated in a dark brown/black wooden panels.
I told the waiter at the door that I wanted a seat for 1. I was duly brought to a table with two lovely ladies, whom (^_−)−☆, unfortunately, I did not know.
Being a really shy General, I refused that allocation immediately as I find it very awkward both for them and for me, especially when the table was really quite small and when there were single counter seats available at the sushi bar.
Funny why it never occurred to him to ask where I wanted to sit. Another illustration of how you must take charge of your own life and not let others dictate how you live! Again, I digress.
I sat at the leftmost corner seat of the whole shop. There was a wall on my left and a partition behind me. I certainly had a lot of private space and which was quite comfortable.
Service:
On the other hand, the problem was exactly that - no one could see me - except the Sushi Chef!
I tried to flag down a waitress who told me to wait for a little while, which I quietly complied. I was handed the menu after a 2-3 minutes wait.
The menu was comprehensive, which included sashimi, sushi, yakitori and other grilled food, many different types of tempura sets, eel rice, hot soba (in soup) & cold soba, as well as their famous egg rolls (Tamagoyaki).
I knew what I wanted to order before I came so the decision was relatively easy, "Assorted Tempura Set" with Cold Soba. The set originally came with hot soba in soup, which I dislike, as it tends to affect the texture of the soba. Luckily, I was able to switch it to cold soba.
When i was ready to order, I flagged down a waitress, who told me to wait. I didn't mind waiting for a while as it seemed very busy outside. However, it eventually took 10 minutes before anyone came to take the order. And I might have to wait even longer if the kind sushi chef didn't help me drew their attention, thrice! This is frankly, quite unacceptable especially when some waiters had the time to pour tea and leisurely arrange dishes on others customers tables, which was not something that urgent.
Fortunately, I did not leave the restaurant. It took the waiters 10 minutes to place my order but only 10 minutes for my set to arrive!
The kitchen was, fortunately, very efficient. I was pretty sure that they made tempura fresh to order because I could smell the chef frying it from the open kitchen. The tempura came after a short wait, much to my surprise, even faster than the cold soba!
Tempura:
When it arrived, I figure it might be worth the wait after all. This was because of the green tea salt placed on the top left hand corner of the nice ceramic dish.
One way to eat tempura is not to dip it in sauce but in salt instead . This applies especially to seafood, i.e. the prawn and other fishes. It really brings out the fresh seafood taste. This is what I've learn from my father-in-law and I was hooked to this way of having tempura ever since.
So I was quite pleased when they gave me the tempura with green tea salt.
Shishamo: （The timing of this fish was very good. No part of the fish was overcooked - which is quite hard to do. Still fairly tender. The fish roes were very flavourful and the meat tender.
Shiso : Surprisingly fresh and not too oily. It had a slight tangy taste to it.
Crab Stick: Of course it's real crab meat. Very sweet and juicy. I really liked it. This could be very expensive in tempura shops in Japan or "specialists" tempura shops in Hong Kong ($60-$150 for one piece of crab stick). You really can't beat the price here.
Kuruma ebi : Surprisingly good! Decent texture had shrimp taste. The frankly speaking, quality was not wildly different from those provided at "Inagiku". Certainly, I suppose at Inagiku they use live shrimps whereas they might have used frozen shrimps here. Those at Inagiku might be a bit firmer with a bit more seafood taste but you'll need to pay at least triple the price of this meal just for the shrimp alone. In view of that, those at the Yuu did an excellent job. Better than the pretty good tempura I had at "Take no Sato" (at Hung Hom) "New Kotobuki" (Jordan), "Zen Tsuru" (Hung Hom) "Ihei" (TST) and "Ryo Tei" (Sheung Wan).
Fried Ebi head: No complaints. Just be careful when you eat it. It can be quite a pain in the mouth.
Pumpkin: Not too oily. Not overwhelmingly sweet. Just right.
Eggplant: Very fresh. Definitely one of the best I've tried in Hong Kong.
Japanese whiting: Very good. This was surprisingly warmer, crispier, tastier and fresher than Iwanami (岩浪) or Tenyoshi.
All in all, I was very happy with the tempura set.
I think most tempura so-called specialists shops are simply overpriced with average food quality. At HK$130 for such good quality tempura, I can recommend this restaurant to anyone.
The quality of the soba was very decent. The texture was quite hard. The soba should have a high soba ratio. I think it's a bit harder than the ones provided by "Ootoya". This type of hard soba is very good in hot soup. So I suspect the duck soup soba might be worth trying as well.
Condiments: The restaurant provided customers with real wasabi and decent spring onions. However, I believe the spring onions were local ones and not Japanese Banno Negi 万能ネギ. Banno Negi has a slightly sharper and spicier taste. The taste of the spring onions provided here were not that pronounced.
A quail egg was also provided. You could mix it into the soba sauce if you wish. Not everyone does that. In fact, I seldom see quail eggs provided in Japan.
The soba soy sauce was reasonably strong. No complaints. It's stronger then the sauce provided at "Kurotaki".
The key difference between Kurotaki and the YUU is that Kurotaki, being the soba soup specialist , provides you with soba soup. There is no soba soup available here.
Conclusion:
Service at the shop front was so so. Polite but very slow. Luckily, the staff in the kitchen was very fast.
Seats: For some reason, they do the cha chaan teng style of allocating seats - you'll be randomly allocated to a table with other customers whether you want to or not.
The place was quite spacious however. There are counter seats for one and tatami seats for larger groups. Not extremely quiet. Pretty nice decor.
Food: Not withstanding the really slow service at first, the tempura set was very good! Definitely equal to, if not better than, many tempura specialist shops. You can't beat the price.
The soba was also better than "Kurotaki". A bit hard than Ootoya. I think the soba at both Ootoya and the Yuu (Wan Chai) are good.
Price: HK$130 for such a decent set was worth the wait.
影片
日式陶瓷或漆器食具的圖案一向簡潔，不像中式的繁花似錦，可是這次用上的盛器的確讓人眼前一亮。雖然圖案同樣簡潔，但著色和構圖均清雅脫俗，跟顔色對比鮮明的魚生刺身和壽司組合成一幅幅有如山水畫的作品。能邊品嚐美食，邊欣賞這些食具，是一大樂事。
壽司定食同樣用上優雅的盛器襯托，份量雖不算多，每件大小均一，色澤鮮明，包括吞拿魚壽司、鱆紅魚壽司、三文魚壽司，以火輕炙過的鰹魚壽司、墨魚壽司和海老壽司，醋飯的味道很自然，沒有過份強烈的醋味，圓潤的壽司米跟新鮮軟滑的刺身在口腔中完整地結合，含畜地帶來清新軟綿的微甜效果。卷物同樣是即叫即做，不會卷得過實，口感也是半軟而有嚼勁的。這麼好質素的壽司，根本用不著沾上不合乎比例地多的醬油和山葵，只需一點兒就足夠提升味覺，以防蓋過魚生和飯的鮮甜美味。
至於套餐的前菜和蕎麥麵(或可選烏冬)，印象就沒有那麼深刻了，但作為伴菜是可以的，前菜豆角明顯經過一番醃制，但還是略嫌硬了點，而熱湯蕎麥麵向來不是我杯茶，還是喜歡清涼的冷蕎麥麵，始終浸在熱湯裏，幼身的蕎麥麵口感會變腍了；反而碗中的菠菜吸收了略甜的湯汁後，味道也不錯。
