螢壽司 (已結業)

Item: 螢壽司
Rating: 4
Author: zia zia~~

Hotaru Sushi

210 食評

味道

環境

服務

衛生

抵食

1758

銅鑼灣

$201-400

日本菜壽司/刺身

187

zia zia~~

等級4

225

My grandma treated me to a Japanese dinner for my birthday, and she took us to the restaurant we have been going to for over 30 years, and I've been complaining to godbro XO and Mr H for the past couple weeks that the restaurant is no longer what it used to be. After all the whining, the boys got tired of me and told me that I needed to try new places, so Mr H recommended that godbro and I should try a new place in Kyoto Plaza on Lockhart Road. Kyoto Plaza houses a bunch of restaurants, and the turnover rate is pretty high, so Mr H is constantly on the lookout for new restaurants popping up.

Hotaru Sushi is on the 6th floor of Kyoto Plaza. Once you exit the elevator, you are greeted by the red lanterns, and there is a wall to the right full of wishing plaques. The restaurant itself is brightly-lit, the tables are not crammed, and they were playing nostalgic Japanese songs that were covered by Hong Kong singers in the 80s and 90s. Since it's a sushi restaurant, of course, there is also a sushi bar. The restaurant also offers two private rooms, one seats 6-8 people and the other seats 10-12 people.

Once godbro and I were seated, we ordered a couple drinks while we decided on what to eat. We both chose lactic acid sodas, I chose the kyoho grape flavor and godbro picked the peach one.

Kyoho Flavored Lactic Acid Soda

My lactic acid soda was fully-flavored, and it was not watered down like so many other places that serve this beverage.

Next, godbro and I followed the recommendation from the server and tried the mantis shrimp sushi. We also ordered a sanma to be eaten two ways, since sanma is XO's favorite, and it's a must have every Autumn.

Mantis shrimp sushi is new to me. I've always had "pee pee" shrimp cooked Cantonese style with the fried garlic, but never in sushi. At first bite, it wasn't what I expected because the chef left the roe in the shrimp, but that wasn't a bad thing. The shrimp belly was filled with roe, which made it very savory. Mantis shrimp sushi, I tried it, and I liked it!

Sanma Sashimi & Sushi

Godbro is a huge fan of sanma, and he has it as much as possible every Autumn, and he got me to love it a few years ago. The problem with sanma is that it has to be extremely fresh, or else it would taste fishy. That was not the case at Hotaru. The sanma was very fresh! In sashimi form, the flesh was tender and it had a bright fish oil flavor. In sushi form, the sushi rice neutralized the oiliness of the fish and amplified the actual sanma flavor.

Next, godbro and I decided to order the $698 dinner set for 2, and we also ordered an udon to share.

For the appetizer, there was a lobster salad, a mentaiko salad, and pickled salmon lips. The lobster salad and mentaiko salad had the same dressing, but the textures were different. The lobster was tender and the mentaiko was crunchy. I thought the mentaiko would be really salty, but it wasn't. The pickled salmon lips had a chewy crunchy texture, and it had a good balance between sweet and sour in the pickling liquid. There was also pickled cucumbers on the bottom, which was very refreshing.

The fish soup was milky white in color. It had a strong fish flavor but wasn't fishy at all.

Fried Chicken Roll and Skewers

37 瀏覽

0 讚好

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The fried item that day was a fried chicken roll with sakura shrimps. It was served with a vinegar sauce which balanced out any greasiness. The chicken was not tough, and the sakura shrimp gave it a savory flavor.

When the skewers were served, we were quite overwhelmed with the amount they gave us. There were 5 skewers in a dinner set for 2! There were 2 skewers of shrimp, 1 ox tongue, 1 pork neck, and 1 chicken wings. The shrimp was cooked just right, so the meat was not mushy. The ox tongue was the highlight of the skewers. It was crunchy and was seasoned just right. The chicken wing had a strong chicken flavor, so I think they used fresh chicken rather than frozen ones. I'm not a fan of pork in general, so the pork neck was just ok.

Tempura and Foie Gras Toast

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The size of the tempura was, once again, overwhelming to us. It was a full serving of tempura with 2 shrimps and assorted vegetables. I had the shrimp, eggplant, and pumpkin. They didn't skim on the shrimp size, and I didn't get a chunk of batter when I bit into it! The shrimp was nice and crunchy, and the eggplant and pumpkin were also good.

Godbro and I love foie gras, so we were delighted that the dinner set included foie gras toast. The foie gras had a nice crunchy crust, and it was pink and tender on the inside. The only criticisim we had was the strawberry yogurt sauce. It was a weird match for seared foie gras; a simple strawberry sauce would have been better!

Next came the sushi platter, godbro was super nice and let me pick out what I wanted! I know I'm the spoilt little sister! I had the botan ebi, uni, anago, scallop, hamachi, and maguro. The botan ebi was fresh and creamy on the outside and crunchy on the inside. The uni had a good pungent flavor. The anago was tender and seasoned well. Overall, all the sushi were fresh and tasty.

Stewed Pork & Pork and Ginger Stone Pot Rice

32 瀏覽

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The stewed pork seemed like a fusion dish. The flavor was similar to DongPo Pork, but I would have preferred the pork to be a bit more tender.

As I said, pork is usually not my cup of tea, so the pork and ginger rice was ok. It had a good ginger fragrance though.

Fish Maw Chicken Soup Udon

The udon was another fusion dish. The soup base was a fish maw chicken soup, which was like a Chinese double-boiled soup. Since we were overwhelmed by the amount of food from the dinner set, it took us a little bit to get to the udon. When we finally got around to having the udon, the soup had thickened a little from the collagen, so it was a little sticky, but it didn't bother me. Surprisingly though, the udon didn't get soggy from sitting around, and it had a a nice chew to it. The highlight was the soft boiled egg. The texture was perfect, and it had a pleasant sake aroma!

Our dinner set comes with ice cream for dessert. The available flavors were chocolate, green tea, and sesame, and I picked sesame. This was the only disappointment of the whole meal. The ice cream was rock solid! When I finally got a spoonful of it, it was so cold, it hurt my teeth!

Fortunately, there's a lucky draw going on for the grand opening of the restaurant, and I got a free dessert! So, without hesitant, I got the creme brulee! The creme brulee lacked a good sugar crust on top, but the custard made up for it with its smoothness and excellent flavor. Also, the fruits on the side were not just there for decorative purposes; they were actually fresh and sweet.

While we were finishing up our meal, the chef came out to greet us. (Possibly because godbro and I were taking notes throughout the night.) The chef was very sincere, and he listened attentively to our suggestions. The chef also recommended that we should come for lunch next time since they also offered lunch sets!

When we got the check, it came to about $650 for each of us with a 10% discount (Mr H lent us his VIP card!) $650 might sound like a lot, but godbro and I were filled to the brim from the dinner set and the sushi and sashimi were of very high quality, so the price is definitely a good deal for the amount and quality of food we got! I think I might have even found an alternative to the Japanese restaurant I've been going to for the past 30+years!

(以上食評乃用戶個人意見 , 並不代表OpenRice之觀點。)

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用餐日期

2015-09-07

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$650 (晚餐)

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