豚平燒可以一試!食物質素整體不錯．每款價錢約$40以下。服務有禮但仍有改善空間。Russo-Japanese Omelette is worth a try!Decent food quality. Reasonable price.Service requires improvements. >>>Another restaurant with my in-laws. This time we couldn't be bothered with finding anything special after a rather hot and sweaty trek in TST. Plus my father-in-law was dying for a beer (and a glass of sochu), my mother-in-law and my wife were dying for a seat and I was dying for a pint of cold refreshing pint of beer plus some peace a
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豚平燒可以一試! 食物質素整體不錯．每款價錢約$40以下。 服務有禮但仍有改善空間。 Russo-Japanese Omelette is worth a try! Decent food quality. Reasonable price. Service requires improvements. >>>
Another restaurant with my in-laws. This time we couldn't be bothered with finding anything special after a rather hot and sweaty trek in TST. Plus my father-in-law was dying for a beer (and a glass of sochu), my mother-in-law and my wife were dying for a seat and I was dying for a pint of cold refreshing pint of beer plus some peace and quiet. So everyone was dying for something.
We walked past "Watami" and we all instinctively walked towards it.
It just opened (at 6:00 p.m.) so we didn't need to queue.
It was very spacious. The tables were widely spaced apart and the ceiling was very high. Decent atmosphere. First things first, we all ordered a pint of draught Asahi and then had a look at the pretty comprehensive menu. We quickly ordered a few standard Izakaya stuff to go with our drinks.
The chicken soft bones arrived in no time, less than 10 minutes. About HK$35. The portion was decent and the quality was much better than many other Japanese restaurants or a similar type of Izakaya, namely: "Shirokiya" in Mong Kok. Flavourful but not too salty. The batter was crispy but not too oily and the chicken soft bones were quite tender. One of the better ones I've tried in Hong Kong! Recommended.
However, as I mentioned, the chicken soft bones arrived first - before the beer! The four glasses of draft beers arrived really late, despite being urged multiple times and in multiple languages, long after something from the kitchen was done.
By the way, this was what my father-in-law specifically told me to mention here - ドリンクがすごく遅いです！ (Very slow drinks!) For an Izakaya, this is something they must improve. This dragged down their points from us.
The quality of these were not bad. Not particularly meaty but those were cut in half rendering those very easy to eat. It's sprinkled with a bit of "Shichimi powder" and then fried. It's crispy and quite flavorful. It's then coated with some sauce which really reminded me of "Nagoya Chicken Wings".
Again, better than the restaurant "Toriba" at CWB. If you like Nagoya wings, I'll recommend "Jinya" at Mong Kok, "Nagoya" inside Mirama shopping mall is also good.
The potato cakes were mashed potato mixed with some flour and the fried. Those were quite sweet. The texture was a bit like a "mochi". It was fried with light batter. It's soft and chewy inside those potato cakes. My mother-in-law smeared the butter on the potato cakes which made it a lot more delicious. This is worth a try.
This looked good. I didn't try it because I don't eat beef. Everyone liked it a lot so perhaps worth a try. The beef looked tender and not overcooked. The asparagus seemed fresh.
This was also quite nice. It's minced fish meat mixed with a little bit of shredded ginger and a little bit of chives, spring onions....etc. It's quite sweet and tender. The outer layer Decent quality for an Izakaya but the size was quite small.
My father-in-law and I both ordered a glass of "Watami" Original Sochu. If I remember correctly, it was mugi (wheat sochu). It was aromatic and fairly easy to drink (as far as Sochu is concerned). Worth a try.
Again, it took the restaurant staff ages to bring us the sochu and ice, more than 8-10 minutes in an empty restaurant which only had 2-3 tables of customers to serve plus we've been urging them multiple times in multiple languages.
This is why I've been asked to stress this: ドリンクがすごく遅いです！ (The drinks were very slow!)
Halfway through the meal, we've all witnessed a rather shocking spectacle which you'll never see in any restaurants in any Modern Japanese City. I can also assure you it's the first time I've seen it in a Hong Kong Japanese-style restaurant at well:
They were fixing air-conditioner right next to customers!
However, what the problem was that it's a matter of public hygiene. They did not cover up the plates when they were fixing the air-con nor did they offer to switch us to a different table.
This was extremely shocking for the in-laws and my wife.
Strange enough, I wasn't shocked at all. I suppose when one is used to a place filled with garbage, streets filled with cockroaches, dripping air-conditioners and air-pollution, one wouldn't be too bothered about these things. But I was quite embarrassed.
In order to salvage the image of Hong Kong restaurants (& of Hong Kong), I said something like, "it should be an urgent operation", "it's better to do it relatively early, when there weren't too many customers, than when it's full...", "even if they didn't cover the plates, they should change the plates afterwards."
They simply couldn't believe their eyes.
Especially since the restaurant did NOT change the plates afterwards. (At least I didn't notice they change it. Good luck to those new customers....)
The fries were fried with nori, i.e. seaweed and very crispy. The salad/mayo that came with it was very good too.
You could choose between cold or hot endamame (beans). We usually prefer the cold ones.
Furthermore, according to my relatives, one way of consuming those beans is to squeeze the beans out from the bean pod instead of just putting the whole bean inside one's mouth initially. This is to avoid any possibility of accidentally consuming any bad bean.
The squid was grilled to the right timing. It's crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It is value for money (less than $40) which is a bit more reasonably priced than most Izakayas like "Shirokiya" or Japanese restaurants like "Ka Ma Do". This is recommended.
This is Japanese silk tofu fried in tempura-like batter and then served in bonoti stock with a bit of seaweed and shredded turnips. The quality of the tofu was not bad at all. Interestingly, because of the relatively thick tempura-like batter, it doesn't get soggy. The only complaint was that the size was small.
This is the most interesting item of the meal. In fact, my wife always orders this whenever we're at Watami (in other branches - I believe this was our first visit to this branch). It may look a little bit like an "Okonomiyaki" at first but in fact it had very little flour. It's more similar to an omlette. Basically it's filled with cheese, egg and sliced pork wrapped in egg. Some okonomiyaki "sauce" (it's just called sauce in Japanese), salad cream and chopped spring onions were placed on top.
Apparently, the inspiration of this dish was from a Japanese prisoner of war called "TonPei" san, who was captured by the Russians during the Russo-Japanese war* in the last century. He noticed that was a type of food consumed by the Russian soldiers (other than the sauce and salad cream perhaps). He took this idea and made it more "Japanese" in Osaka. The rest is history and Watami.
I initially thought the basis of TonPei san's idea was Bilini, Russian Pancakes. However, after doing some "research" (basically growing the web with "Russian" at the main keyword ), I figure what Mr. TonPei saw was not bilini but Russian omelette instead. Both are mainly egg based. Even the way it is folded, the cheese inside, and then the adding of sauce on top (parsley and sour cream in the Russian version vs. nori and salad cream in the Japanese version) were similar. So I'm pretty sure that's were the inspiration came from ~ Russian омлет.
The quality of this dish has been fairly consistent in the Watami branches we've been to (TST, Whampoa, even Taiwan). The one we had this time was similarly good. The egg was soft. Some egg sauce inside the omlette. The sliced pork might have been from Kagoshima. It's tender, flavourful and had "pork" taste. The cheese should be similar to cheddar and is not overwhelming. Do give it a try if you're in Watami.
Conclusion:
Environment: Very spacious with high ceiling.
Service: Generally polite but they don't really know the Japanese names for drinks and food. (e.g. sochu on rocks). The food came really fast but the drinks were really slow. Much room for improvement.
Food: The quality for the food is pretty good for Izakayas. Fairly consistent.
Not bad for snacks. The portions at "Wara Wara" or "Shirokiya" are generally bigger but the food quality is not as consistent as "Watami".
The "Chicken Soft Bones" is recommended.
The "Fish Cake (Satsumaage)" is also worth a try.
The "Wagyu Asparagus Roll" seemed not bad as everyone like it a lot.
The "Tonpeiyaki" is definitely worth a try if you go to any Watami in Hong Kong (or Taiwan).
Price: Although the price for most dishes were quite reasonable and generally under HK$40. The portions were actually quite small so I'll give 3 points for value instead of 4.
Although the slow drinks and air-con repair dragged down the points for this branch, "Watami" generally is still worth a try!
題外話/補充資料：
* According to what I've read from books like "Understanding Japanese History in 3 days" or "Understanding Japanese History in 1 hour"....etc, one of the reason for the rise of Ultra-Nationalism in Japan before WWII was that they won the Russo-Japanese war. This coupled with the bad economic & political situation over the world led to disaster to all.
* 根據一些日本歷史的簡單入門書(日英對照及中譯本的在CWB SOGO的書局及TST TOMATO Books有售)，極右民族主義在【日俄戰爭】日本戰勝西方強國之一的俄國後開始抬頭〔清末的中國好像沒有贏過任何西方國家...〕。加上經濟及世界當時的政治問題，最後釀成災難。現在仍有極小量的極右份子，他們都是沒有教育，沒有前途，對外來事物充滿恐懼又輕易，及樂意受政客煽動和擺布的人。這種人在世界各地都有。不足為奇。〔最可笑的連香港這個移民城市都有。)
我認識的日本人全都是純良有禮的。
個人心得: 港日一向很多交流。他們印像中的香港人轉數快，有魄力。大聲，好像有點"燥底"，樣貌嚴肅但其實很友善 :P。男仕相對體貼有風度。女仕漂亮有自信．亦認為我們有中國文化之餘，又吸收了西方文化。香港人其實挺受歡迎的!
海闊天空，對自己有自信一點吧! :D
[b]旅日[/b][b]重點是要[u]靜[/u]及整齊有首尾。不要影響人[/b](包括味道:如鐵打酒，白花油，煙味。) 消臭的用品是我太太必備的。 千萬不要嘈吵 (居酒屋另計:P)。
能說一點日文能更融洽 - 我曾在"熱海"一小型居酒屋唱了一首日文歌後與立即與全店人打成一片! (對我比太太還好!)
基本上能說英語便可。
這樣就能取得尊重!
:chopstick:
記得讀書年代和鄰坐同學感情要好天天的喜怒哀樂無所不談，哪時各同學對友情是看得很重可說是無價，長大後接觸現實社會，同事們之間為了自己工作拼博望得到上司器重希望從一些途徑達成目的，少不免會有你爭我搶、小圈子、打小報告、不公平對待等問題發生，最近在朋友中聽了一個更可惡的板本，她終於知道這位常被客投訴的員工為何能得公司推選得獎可到外地考察兼旅遊，原因(這位)下屬的丈夫是上司丈夫的上司！她公司的情況我無話可說，所以在工作中也難找到知心好友！本人算幸運能到一家沒有是非鬥争公司任職，也許這樣多年來累積不少要好朋友！大家現在雖然已各散東西但卻能保持聯絡見面＋分難得，因此現在清閒的我這段日子喜歡和老朋友會面吃飯聚一聚！這天到和民是認識多年朋友在附近工作就此會面較方便，她的一小時吃飯時間是有點趕，所以我早點到免她等！和民以前是有Tea set，今天看menu已經由LUNCH SET 取代，至於套餐選擇事實比之前多，朋友F點是焗海鮮飯可惜~售罄，改叫吉列豬扒定食~也售罄最後由豬扒煱定食補上！我點的是流心芝士漢堡定食，以往只有lunch set才有現在已將其菜式列入menu中！我們還加了一客特上壽司，最終遲遲
這天到和民是認識多年朋友在附近工作就此會面較方便，她的一小時吃飯時間是有點趕，所以我早點到免她等！和民以前是有Tea set，今天看menu已經由LUNCH SET 取代，至於套餐選擇事實比之前多，朋友F點是焗海鮮飯可惜~售罄，改叫吉列豬扒定食~也售罄最後由豬扒煱定食補上！我點的是流心芝士漢堡定食，以往只有lunch set才有現在已將其菜式列入menu中！我們還加了一客特上壽司，最終遲遲未到要取消！
影片
內子跟外母到 DFS 購物，我跟外父躲到這兒。點了兩份下午茶餐（牛肉火煱定食和迷你豚肉飯，跟一小客粟米沙拉和飲品），另加兩個小吃（薯仔年糕餅和陶板明太子芝士玉子燒），合共174。
