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2009-06-21
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Just got back to San Francisco. Great visiting HK. Always nice to see the family!Every time I visit HK, eating Japanese food is the NUMBER ONE priority for me. Why? Because Japanese food in San Francisco is plain weak! Unfortunately, I could only hit one Japanese restaurant during this stay in HK. But hey... It was very good.Dinning out means calling the usual suspects from my HK clicks-Zero, Alyssa, and Enya. So when Zero suggested we should try this place at T.S.T., I said "What? A La
Every time I visit HK, eating Japanese food is the NUMBER ONE priority for me. Why? Because Japanese food in San Francisco is plain weak!
Unfortunately, I could only hit one Japanese restaurant during this stay in HK. But hey... It was very good.
Dinning out means calling the usual suspects from my HK clicks-Zero, Alyssa, and Enya. So when Zero suggested we should try this place at T.S.T., I said "What? A La Carte style, HELL NO!!!" I always hated little dishes of food. But Zero was persistent so I went along.... I told Zero if the place sucks, he is buying my dinner.
Got to the Hachiouji around 7 pm. Minor wait and was seated under 10 mins. Nice deco inside/outside. Old school style Japanese restaurant. Someone actually thought about the looks/details of this place. Nice effort.
Ok, bring on the foods. I am hungry.
We ordered the following dishes... Fried Rice with Eel ($68), Fried Udon with Urchin Sauce ($78), Grilled Hokke Fish ($75), Grilled Ox Tongue Skew ($22), Lychee Pork Roll Skew ($18), and Salmon+Yellow Tail+Sea Urchin Sushi ($28/$38/$62). We ordered some house specialty drinks but I freakin forgot their names!
Both skewers items were very good. The ox tongue was tender and juice. Same for the pork roll. Skewered food can be tough if left on the grill too long. Nice timing from the kitchen. Sushi were excellent. The fishes and sea urchin tasted fresh. The Sea Urchin had that perfect raw "organic salty" taste. It really hits the spot! The grilled Hokke fish was a surprise. I thought that it would be the weakest dish on the order. I was wrong. It turned out too be tasty and flavourful. Not overcook or undercook. The Eel fired rice and Urchin udon round out the dinner. Both dishes are nicely prep. The girls thought the Sea Urchin udon was a tad salty. But I found the taste just about right.
Service at Hochiouji was proper. The servers were friendly and efficient. No "black faces." What about the restroom? I didn't use the ladies room but the men room was clean. The location was a bit strange. You have to walk up a staircase and out to an open area. But it was clean.
During dinner, the restaurant owner (with a really bad hair style ) came by and asked us how everything was. Nice guy. Seemed to care a lot about his place. Feedbacks were given to him and told him the best of luck.
Well, I am impress with this place. I was in such a good mood after eating I pick up the tab on the dinner. I even gave Zero his kudos for picking this place. He just laugh and said, "Pity the fool who doesn't want to try something different."
He is right.
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