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2020-06-01
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Kintaro Lab ... even the name sounded mysterious. But it's one the most popular places to eat right now. Located in Tak Kok Tsui, it's a nondescript black restaurant with no windows. We arrived 15 minutes before it opened and there was already a small line.Once entering, it was a narrow restaurant with a bar table. Everyone was provided with an envelope to place your masks and antiseptic towels.Menu is in Chinese only. There doesn't appear to be any English. There is no 10% service charge. What
Once entering, it was a narrow restaurant with a bar table. Everyone was provided with an envelope to place your masks and antiseptic towels.
Menu is in Chinese only. There doesn't appear to be any English. There is no 10% service charge. What they offer is a flat based udon sheet. Also called Himokawa udon that is popular in Kiryu area of the Gunma prefecture in Japan. Kintaro Lab specializes in this type of udon and at the present moment, the only place in Hong Kong that serves this. Thus, you can have it as tsukemen style with various types of soup bases in.
I had the ones with the duck soup base ($86). The noodles were beautiful. Smooth and slippery. There was also a lot of sheets so it is quite filling. The duck was good. A nice smokey flavor to it and the meat was firm. But what I didn't like? The soup. It just tasted like sugar. There was no depth to it. It was just a sugar based broth. Normally, I would want to finish the soup. Here, I couldn't wait to get rid of it.
Boyfriend had the soup base with pork ($86). The pork chunks were soft and easily fell apart. But again the soup was similar to mine. Nothing but sugar based broth. It was far too sweet. Possibly worse than mine.
We shared a plate of assorted tempura because the waitress informed us it was only $40. When we got the bill it was $59. When mentioned it was their word against ours and this was not recitified. I was a bit peeved about that misinformation. The tempura was also terrible. Super oily and not crisp. You get a shrimp, shitake mushroom, slice of pumpkin and eggplant. But yes, it was dripping in oil. Definitely not worth ordering.
The udon was pretty good but the soup? A disaster. And to me that is disappointing and won't be back. Definitely not worth lining up for.
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