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Item: Poach
Rating: 4
Author: eatwai

Poach

1002 Reviews

Taste

Decor

Service

Hygiene

Value

53088

Mong Kok

$101-200

Japanese Western Coffee Shop

753

127

eatwai

Level4

188

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I wanted to eat some Japanese sets today. I know Poach is famous on Openrice and their food looked very Japanese and aesthetic so I decided to come here for an early dinner at 5.

The environment is very boho style. The outdoor seating area is decorated very well and the weather was beautiful to enjoy outside, overlooking the busy streets of Mong Kok. The inside is very very cold because they have an open kitchen and I guess the air conditioning helps make it less pungent 😐. The restaurant was not crowded but still had a few seats occupied.

The service was definitely the factor that dragged my experience here through the mud. The staff are always chatting among themselves or on their phone. Although it is not a big deal but should be mentioned.

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I ordered their signature Poach Bento $150 and chose the Miso Mackerel (西京箱漬燒鯖魚) as Main Dish. I also really like the little note they give you when the bento comes, explaining how to eat the set to maximize taste and experience. Although it is very non environmentally friendly as each set gets a card.

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Miso Mackerel (西京箱漬燒鯖魚)🐟

The mackerel is absolutely delicious. When it was placed in front of me, all I could smell was the fish oil diffusing everywhere 😆. It was so appealing and appetizing.

The miso flavor is prominent near the skin and for the first few bites, but then it subtly disappears.

The flesh is oily, incredibly soft and smooth. It flaked easily when I pulled it part with my chopsticks, absolutely amazing with the crunchy lotus root too due to the texture contrast. The fish is perfectly cooked, not even a second too long which was absolutely amazing and magical.

The loin of the mackerel has the plumpest, thickest meat with the least amount of oil, this section is the most likely place you’ll find a dry piece of fish (although unlikely). This is where you’ll find some bones but most are big enough that you’ll see if you pull the flesh apart. This section was perfect just eating alone or with the egg as sauce.

The belly of the mackerel was very fatty and oily, with a thin piece of flesh, it teared off perfectly from the loin when pulled and the fish oil made it perfect with the rice as a vessel, add in a small piece of lotus root and its just a mind blowing combination.

The tail of the mackerel is definitely one of the favorites as there is no bones at all and a very generous ratio of fat to flesh. I ate the tail first with a bite of rice and the oil coated the seasoned rice perfectly.

They also give you a piece of lemon on the fish which you can add after you’ve tried it’s original taste to cut some of the oil. Adding the acid also helps balance out the overall taste and mouthfeel.

The skin is lightly charred and crisped, creating this smokey fish oil taste that’s amazing with the rice. Although there is a good amount of bones in the fish, most of them are big and easy to spot but there were 2-4 small bones as well so be careful with each bite. The bones mostly appear in the front and less on the tail so feel free to eat a big bite if the tail as it is the section of the fish with most oil.

The portion is also very big, which is expected of the price but still made me happy as I ate every bite of rice with some fish and also tried the fish alone.

This fish was absolutely tender and just amazing. The miso taste is not very strong throughout the fish but I didn’t really care for that as the natural fish oil was delicious enough. But if you are expecting miso flavor than you would be disappointed.

Multigrain Rice Bowl (日本榖米御飯) 🍚

The multigrain rice is topped with Japanese rice seasonings that gave it an umami flavor and added saltiness to the fish and rice when eaten together. The rice was well fluffy and not too soggy or hard. You are supposed to add the soup into the rice first but I found that most of the soup went to the bottom and made the rice there very soggy and mushy. I recommend trying a bite of every combination first then slowly pouring the soup into the rice and mixing everything together.

Bonito Soup (鰹魚昆布高湯) 🍶

The soup was served in a Sake Jar which was adorable and made the experience much more Japanese. The soup is hot when served (as expected). I poured half into the rice first, as the note said and tried it. The soup and rice together did not really taste of anything except rice and the bonito soup was not that pronounced. However, I drank a bit at the end as I had extra and it was extremely salty. So I was puzzled for a while 😅. Maybe you need to add more soup into rice first.

Do note that the soup made the rice at the bottom of the bowl soggy and hard to eat with chopsticks.

Sous-Vide Japanese Egg (Creamy Yolk) (日本極上太白63度慢煮蛋) 🥚

Woah. This egg blew my mind. Now, you should know that at 63°c, the egg yolk would be cooked enough to have a shape but still runny, and the egg white is rather raw. The egg was served with a bit of soy sauce (much like an onsen egg, but the yolk is firmer).

The yolk held its shape but was still creamy and slightly runny. I tried a bit alone and it was extremely creamy with an intense flavor of egg yolk. I then coated my pickles with it and the sour/salty/sweet characteristic of each pickle gave me a brand new experience each time.

Now I know the note says to add the egg into the rice when your half way there, but I didn’t want to enrich all my rice without trying more combinations. So I took a big chunk of rice and added it into my egg bowl instead. This meant I had super creamy egg yolks between bites of the rice and it was magnificent. I could also freely refill the rice into my egg bowl whilst still getting to have plain rice and fish.

Eating the egg and fish together was average, the taste was nothing significant as either the creamy egg yolk or fatty fish loose their flavors and texture because they are both very delicate. But eating the rice and egg, with either a bean or pickled cucumber was wonderful. 💛

Pickles (漬物三吃) 🥒

Now I will talk about the 3 side dishes individually as they all had their own characteristic and their own role and contrast with the rice and fish.

Cooked and Sweetened Black Beans (甘煮黑花雲豆)

Smooth, sweet and satisfying.

There is 3 huge beans and I made 3 smaller bites from each so I could try out different flavor and texture combinations when paired with other foods. The bean itself is very sweet but not too sweet and saccharine. The bean is not mushy but still firm and creamy. The creaminess and sweetness made it a perfect partner with anything salty. I tried it with the egg first as that’s what the note said and coating the bean with the egg yolk is truly an eye opening.

Some combinations to try with bean:
- Bean + Egg (creamy + creamy)
- Bean + Egg + Rice (creamy with firm bites from rice)
- Bean + Fish + Rice (creamy with fatty and salty fish)

Kyurizuke (pickled Japanese cucumber) 🥒

This is given rather stingy as there is only 3 pieces and all are very small. (Perhaps to keep the ‘3’ trend 😂). The cucumbers are definitely the saltiest component on the tray, making it taste great with the creamy egg yolk and mild rice. The texture is crunchy and crisp. This pickled dish is normally eaten plain with ochazuke (rice in tea) as the funky flavor and texture is perfect with the monotonous, pliable rice.

I ate this first with the egg yolk as well and it is definitely recommended. I then ate it with the rice and soup which is good but the soup was also pretty salty so it was a bit too much. I don’t recommend eating with the fish as it overpowers the fish oil taste and all you taste is the Kyurizuke.

Lotus Root with Yuzu (柚子蓮藕片)

This is by far my favorite side dish 🤩. The crunchy, crispy texture was just flawless with everything. The fish, the egg, the rice. I highly recommend eating it with the fish and rice (with a bit of soup) and even some egg. This bite would follow you for a long time 😌. (I know the menu says “lotus root with yuzu” but there was no yuzu flavor 🤨 , not that it mattered)

茶🍵

For the tea, I ordered their Poach Green Earl Grey (伯爵綠茶) for half the price of original instead of Hojicha tea. The tea was very strong. Although being faint in color, the taste was extremely rich and borderline bitter. I refilled with hot water twice and it was still very intense, reason could be because the tea pot is very small and they used a big tea bag. So definitely worth and good quality as they used real tea leaves.

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Quick description of the Grilled Cheese Burger Steak (烤芝士漢堡扒伴海苔肉鬆) 🍔my mother ordered as her main. We asked and the burger is made from a combination of chicken, beef and pork. The texture is very juicy and flavorful but the seaweed with pork floss was completely unnecessary. They also give 2 patties which is more than enough as the patties themselves are thick. The cheese on top was a nice additional creaminess but you could tell it is those processed American cheese, which degrades the fish a bit.

Overall, this restaurant is very expensive as the total was around $400 for 2 Poach Bentos and 2 additional $28 for drink, plus they collect 10% service charge. But it is definitely worth coming here once as the food was delicious and is a very pleasing place to take photos.

‼️However, they do only accept cash which is very bothersome as all their items are on the expensive side and each guest is required to order at least one thing 😐. ‼️