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2012-06-16
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明益食家。有質素，好抵食的串燒店。推介!Casual Yakitori & HK BBQ shop. Very reasonable price & quality. Super discount on Sundays. Open till late. Highly recommended!_______My wife and I were in the mood to discover new Japanese restaurants again. I was slightly suspicious about the shop at first but we eventually decided to check it out because of it's convenient location. A menu in Japanese, Chinese and English with some photographs was placed outside. After having a quick look, it seemed pretty comprehensive and
Casual Yakitori & HK BBQ shop. Very reasonable price & quality.
Super discount on Sundays. Open till late. Highly recommended!
_______
My wife and I were in the mood to discover new Japanese restaurants again. I was slightly suspicious about the shop at first but we eventually decided to check it out because of it's convenient location. A menu in Japanese, Chinese and English with some photographs was placed outside. After having a quick look, it seemed pretty comprehensive and the price was reasonable. So we took the plunge >
~ Environment ~
We arrived at about 6:30 p.m. and there were plenty of seats available. It didn't look big from the outside but actually there were plenty of tables and counter seats, at least 50 tables seats and 15 counter seats surrounding the open kitchen/grill. The tables for two were small though and some tables, not all, were positioned pretty close apart (a bit like in "Sakaegawa" but still generally more spacious than there). Excellent ventilation - absolutely no smell whatsoever! Probably due to the high ceiling and the strong air-conditioning (warning: it's really quite strong - like many old school Chinese restaurants)!
~ Selections ~
Akira basically do Japanese yakitori with grilled shellfish as well as some Hong Kong style BBQ items. The price was between HK$10-$15 per skewer for most items - other than seafood, goose liver and other fancier items which could cost up to about $50-70.
First a beer. A big bottle of Asahi cost HK$30 :
You might know this already but some Asahi, and or many other famous brands, are actually brewed in Mainland China. I don't think they are required to tell you the origin of the beer. Anyway, I believe the Asahi here is the Chinese version (just check the bottle and you'll see it doesn't say it's made in Japan). So the taste was more similar to a Tsing Tao beer than Asahi (those brewed in Tsing Tao as opposed to other breweries) I actually prefer this as it's less dry and easier to drink. Furthermore, sochu by the glass, sake and red wine are also available at reasonable price.
These were complimentary:
These carrots, cucumbers and lettuce were provided at the very beginning together with a dipping sauce for the yakitori. Both the sauce and the veggies were somewhat similar to those you get at "Nantei". The sauce was some type of diluted miso with some sweet sauce. Quite interesting. The veggies were all very crisp and fresh. That's a nice authentic start. The cool chief in a beanie cap fired away efficiently. Our orders came pretty quickly, in less than 10 minutes. The first batch was already quite good:
The asparagus pork roll was quite good. The pork was reasonably thick and the asparagus was very fresh and sweet. Less than HK$15. Good value! Much better than those at "Mutekiya". Similar to those provided at Nan Tei (The TST branch is much better - the one at Happy Valley really pissed me off and I'm never returning there.) The scallops were grilled with a bit of black pepper but not with salt (at least not really detectable). The scallops were fresh but I'd prefer a bit more salt. But less salt means it's the fresh sweetness shines through. All in all, quite good too!
The sweet potatoes, at the top left corner of the photograph, were grilled just right. Nice and sweet. Delicious!
The shishito, i.e. green pepper, was also good. Nice, big and quite juicy. Easily overcooked but wasn't here. A nice licorice taste as a palate cleanser and also to cool the internal heat (together with the beer). Again, not more than HK$10.
We saw a shell fish promotion at the "Chef's recommendation" menu:
These were sea whelk grilled in some type of sweet soy sauce and with, I believe, sake and mirin.I'm not a big fan of shell fish but I thought it was not bad. The texture was a bit softer than the spicy sea whelk pot you get at some Si Chuan eateries. My wife liked it. Actually, the quality was not bad at all and perhaps close to the grilled seafood specialize "Hamayaki Taisho" at Tai Hang. But when it comes to grilled shellfish, Hamayaki Taisho is still the best.
At about HK$48 for four, no complaints!
The duck breasts were excellent! Perfect timing. Very aromatic. Taste slightly smoked with a hint of salt. Very meaty yet juicy and tender. The slightly strong taste matched very well with the fresh leek, which also absorbed a bit of the smoked and grilled duck. Much better than many smoked duck breasts provided by hotels. You might have to pay HK$50 or more in a hotel for this quality with a bit of green. But that's exactly what made it even more amazing and urged me to write this review before Sunday - it was only about HK$15 per skewer!
Highly Recommended!
The tsukune was also very good. Not as good as the homemade ones at Nishiki (TST) or Mutekiya (those at Ishiyama should also be homemade but in ball shape - which is seldom good). However, you'd be surprised at how varied the quality of pre-made tukune are. Some taste incredibly dry and had no cartilage inside. The chef's skill is certainly a key factor as well. Anyway, those provided here had chicken cartilage and the timing was good so that the tsukune was a bit crispy on the outside but also tender and juicy at the inside. Again, it should be around HK$10-$15 per skewer. Highly Recommended.
This was the grilled eel I ordered.
I had a taste of it and unfortunately that was that soil taste which I really dislike. I confirmed that the eel was from Mainland China with the friendly staff, which almost invariably had the soil taste. The soil taste was a lot milder than those I had at "Hachirin" but I still didn't like it that much. Having said that, I could finish the whole skewer. But still: Not recommended. Prawn wrapped in chicken skin and siso leave:
This was chicken skin, siso leaf prawn roll. Unfortunately, I felt that the siso leaf's tanginess overwhelming the other tastes, in particular the taste of the prawn. Contrast this to the "siso maki" at Nishiki, where a piece of siso leave was wrapped around minced mirin marinated chicken. In the siso maki, the tanginess of the siso will not overwhelm the grilled and marinated chicken. I don't think the siso matched well with the prawn. Just OK.(In this regard, it's worth noting that the chicken skin prawn roll at Mutekiya was very well done.)
I ordered a glass of sochu (excellent: many restaurants don't do it by the glass in order to force you to purchase a whole bottle). They had a Mugi (wheat) sochu and one Imo (potato) sochu. I ordered "Iichigo" with ice. I also ordered a few more skewers to go with the sochu as I was quite enjoying the food and the whole place. Luckily, we were able to ask the waiters to turn down the air-con a bit.
If I remembered correctly, the chicken wings were also less than HK$15. Again, these were very well done. Meaty, slightly crispy, very juicy and tender. Safe bet. Recommended.
Then I ordered yet another -
These were grilled tako (octopus), It was very fresh and crisp. Again, definitely worth HK$10
Yet another few extra orders plus two glasses of red wine (house red from chili, quite good).This time my wife ordered Yaki Onigiri with Tarako, grilled rice balls with fish roe (well, as I'm typing this, my wife insisted that this is "Tarako" and not "Meitaiko". Tarako is a non-spicy version. I never realized that the meitaiko was supposed to be spicy anyway.)
Decent size and properly grilled. Crispy on the outside but still sufficiently moist to taste the rice with the fish roe. The piece of seaweed was also nice. Probably slightly grilled and quite aromatic. Nice and filling!
My Kawa (chicken skin) was very good too! I don't like the really dried up version lie some restaurants do. Those provided here were mostly crispy but still a bit of fat left. Recommended!
And another Tsukune - very good!
The bill came down to just about HK$220 for all the above. Excellent value!
______
In conclusion:
Service: They don't talk much but were polite and friendly. Very efficient.
Environment: Generally spacious. Tables a bit small but acceptable. Cold air-con. Very good ventilation.
Drinks: Decent selection of proper sochu, sake and red wine. Asahi is good value.
Food: Duck breast, most yakitori were excellent. Seafood were also not bad (other than the eel).
HK BBQ: There is also a super discounted menu (again, after 10:00) serving Hong Konger's BBQ favorites, e.g. chicken sausages, squid balls, marinated pork chops, honey glazed chicken wings and a few more. Price ranged between HK$6 to 10!
Open till late: Open till 2:00 a.m.! Wonderful. Excellent for a quick snack after drinks and karaoke!
Price: Very reasonable even without any promotion. Selected items at further reduced prices after 10:00 p.m. during weekdays and Saturdays. Discounted price whole day on Sundays!
Remember Akira on Sundays!
Highly recommended!
P.S: "Akira" is a famous ground-breaking science fiction manga.
This review is written on a Saturday. I want to get this published A.S.A.P because - Sunday is Akira Day!
總評：
服務：眼明手快 - 態度良好、大廚及侍應門全部超級爽手。
環境：燈火通明 - 樓底高，多數位寬敞(但有D位好似"榮川"那麼窄及細)。冷氣好勁。全無油煙味。
酒水：明月入懷- 夠全面。啤酒抵飲($30大枝)。有杯裝燒酒叫。亦有紅酒及清酒。
燒物：柳暗花明又一村
-鴨胸、厚肉、有肉汁、夠入味! 推介。
-雞肉軟骨串及雞翼都燒得剛好，有鮮味，有肉汁。推介。
-露筍豬肉卷:露筍鮮甜，豬肉唔錯。
-燒海螺OK。抵食。但大坑的"浜焼大將"好像好一點。
-其他(除了鰻魚有點泥味外)都相當唔錯。
價錢: 明碼實價
一般都是HK$10-$15一串。十點後部份串燒更有特價(HK$6 一串)及提供港式BBQ燒物(如墨魚丸，蟹粉包心丸，雞肉腸，蜜汁雞翼等。約$6 串!）
星期日更全日都有特價!
夜明:棄暗投明 - 營業至凌辰兩點! 宵夜一流!
有質素，認真抵食!
誠意推介!
Other Info. :
快馬加鞭，務求趕及在明日前， 即星期日之前，登出此食評。如有錯漏，希望各位深明大義，不作計較! :D
[i]明日復明日，明日何其多。
我生待明日， 萬事成蹉跎。
世人苦被明日累， 春去秋來老將至。
朝看水東流， 暮看日西墜。
百年明日能幾何？ 請君聽我《明日歌》。[/i]
(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
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