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2013-08-01
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As a sort of unofficial celebratory dinner, Mr. C and I made an impromptu decision to dinner at the IFC branch of Inagiku~ Having enjoyed our previous experience at the TST location inside The Royal Garden hotel I was looking forward to see how the Hong Kong side Inagiku would compare.Up on the fourth level of the Four Seasons hotel, the Inagiku commands a huge space. Cool and chic, there was no evident vibe of prententiousness despite it being a fine dining establishment. Aside from private roo
Up on the fourth level of the Four Seasons hotel, the Inagiku commands a huge space. Cool and chic, there was no evident vibe of prententiousness despite it being a fine dining establishment. Aside from private rooms, diners can opt to sit at one of the teppanyaki tables for some live cooking action or for a more relaxed arrangement the general dining area is just as pleasant for soaking up the peaceful harbour views.
Wanting somewhere a little more quiet, we chose to sit in the general dining room. Looking through the menu, they do both a la carte as well as set options featuring teppanyaki which considerably were decently priced in a restaurant like this, but since none of the sets really piqued our interest we ordered a la carte.
A chilled Japanese tomato started off the evening for us. There is just something so special about Japanese tomatoes, ever so sweet and juicy with that beautiful deep cherry red colour. Paired with the sesame dressing it was most refreshing as an appetiser, albeit a bit small in size.
Sashimi-wise we ordered our usual selection of scallops and salmon. Plump, velvety chunks of scallop paired with luscious slices of fatty salmon. Simple, but good.
Mr. C knows I have a soft spot for Japanese tamago, hence he picked this for me A roll of omelette cut into four generous pieces. When I bit into it, I was expecting sweetness and a hint of mirin to wash over me since Japanese tamago is usually prepared this way, but surprisingly it was salty. The egg was fluffy and moist, but I would have preferred it more had it been sweet.
A selection of tempura vegetables: pumpkin, gingko nuts, baby green pepper and baby corn. Inagiku is renowned for their tempura and it was easy to see why that is. The coating was subtly crunchy and for something fried it was deceivingly light with no heavy, greasy aftertaste. I really liked the pumpkin, soft, melting textures, but the sweet corn slice was my favourite~ each sunny yellow kernel popped with juicy sweetness.
Chawanmushi with sea urchin. Always a delicate dish, a bowl of steaming egg custard in all its wobbly glory crowned with a touch of sea urchin. Hidden inside the smooth custard were an assortment of mushrooms, prawns, gingko nuts and to my delight sticky balls of mochi~
For mains, we had teppanyakied lamb cutlets. They were a touch overdone resulting in a slightly chewy mouthful, but still acceptable.
We ended our meal with wagyu beef fried rice and assorted vegetables. The rice was cooked just right, nicely dry where each grain of rice clumped easily together to be picked up by chopsticks and although the diced pieces of wagyu beef scattered throughout was lean, its fragrant flavour was still detectable with each mouthful.
To me, assorted vegetables served from a teppanyaki grill generally consists of a jumble of bean sprouts, mushrooms, cabbage and carrots, but not the version here... The 'assorted' vegetables was just a big plate of cabbage with a few julienned carrots and greens thrown in for colour. Nothing can really go wrong here as it was mainly a matter of using fresh produce, but the name was unfortunately misleading...
There were both hits and misses to the evening, but overall the quality of food was still considered to be above average. Despite this branch of Inagiku being situated in a more spacious environment with spectacular views, I think I still prefer the one in TST...
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