Matsubishi- Great Teppanyaki restarat in HK

We came all the way to Mitsubishi for its teppanyaki set, where you can enjoy the sizzling sound of food and visual entertainment of how experienced chef play around with your dish!

To kick start our birthday dinner, we simply can't stop ourselves from slurping this fresh urchin up ($280)! Terrific freshness; briny and sweet option as starter which is followed by another sashimi set-


If you love the flavour of ocean, dried pufferfish will be another triumph. Don't be scared of its infamous spikes and poisonous skin; we wont have that in our stomach. The drying process has added extra depth of flavour ( and more long lasting than sashimi) to our taste bud.

Prime sirloin steak set
The whole set costs $480, including starter, snacks, a seafood option out of the prawns, scallop and eel; fried rice/noodles , soup and dessert. Chef skilfully rolled the beef with spring union and freshly stir fried garlic and I was in a pure beefy heaven, with a beautiful delicate melty quality.


A4 wagyu beef should not be missed too. The evenly distributed fat has dispersed at every inch of beef, giving us a buttery texture which was well executed at teppanyaki.

Wonderful aroma hat stems from beef fat has drifted through our long table, thanks to the fried rice performance ( with a mix of spring union and fried garlic) right in front of us in a quick yet neat way! Yum!

Rice is piping hot, with a great texture that gives a chewy exterior but tender bite. It is to die for! As we have ordered 2 sets, we opted for noodles for the remaining set. Flavourful, and means a lot to birthday boy (Birthday boy and girl should should eat noodles for long life)

Beef was not the only option you would immerse yourself in teppanyaki, but also seafood, which was a perfect cooking method to show case the freshness of the ocean! We opted for scallop which took less than a minute from sizzling on the hot metal grill till it landed on our plate.

Eel nearly trippled the cooking time but it's all worth it when crispy skin were tossed with teppanyaki sauce and merged together with the silky and buttery meat.

A scoop of sea salt ice-cream or a dish of fresh fruits would be a great round up of our dinner. 

Verdict
A great Japanese teppanyaki restaurants with live cooking performance right in front of you. With fresh ingredients executed by experienced chef, food quality is superb, so as its sashimi set. Staff is friendly and attentive; helping us to take on the apron and serve the dish to the table at perfect timing.  If you want to get a better seat ( right in the center of the hot metal grill), book beforehand! Or you can book a private room with a minimal charge of $3,000.


Address of Matsubishi: 3/F, Shopping arcade, Convention Plaza , 1 Harbour Road, Wan Chai

Berliner : great restaurant for big group

To celebrate with a big group of people,( around 6-8), I would recommend Berliner at WanChai branch. We all came with an intent to eat more german sausages and drink more beer as we’ve heard they were all good at Berliner, offering a huge selection of these traditional German food.

To kick start our dinner, we have sampled different beer at Berliner, Dunkles Weissbier ( Malty and sweet flavour) ($65) and Unser Aventinus which is round and full body, with notes of banana and mild flavour.

 

If you are not a big fan of beer, Happy Schnappy is a refreshing option- with Apple Schnaps, Raspberry Puree, apple juice, lime, mint leaves and Bacardi Rum.

Sizzling pan of hot food has prompted us to gauge ourselves into the big feast. Sausage Platter ($228) with three types of sausages, complemented with classic braised cabbage and chips were all great triumph. Berliner Sausage ($159) wowed us with its high selection of items and its portion.



If you feel a bit guilty for your stomach, I would recommend the *Berliner Warm Appetizer platter* ($208) which offers more than just sausages; something less oily options. It includes Ham sausage, Pork Knuckle Turnover with onion chutney, baked artichokes with ham and cheese, smoked Salmon pumpernickel and prawn fritters.

Many might have opted for the deep fried Pork Knuckle for the excitement of crispy skin; yet we wanna try something that you can smothered with collagen; the boiled one ($195) that got a really nice texture, giving us a beautiful balance of chewy and soft in a bite. ( it also comes with smoked ham sauages, potato dumping and Sayerkraut.

WE finished our feast with a Dessert Combo ($198)- with three layers of multi sensory expereince- 1. black forest cheesecake, 2.vanilla pancakes, 3.apple strudel with ice-cream. 

Strudel was excellent, with flaky puff on top and those mashed and crunchy goodness inside with a touch of cinnamon. The other surprising winner was the Chef’s black forest ($68), with the intriguing jelly and silky smooth chocolate, accompanied with sponge cake drizzled with dark cherries sauce.
Vanilla ice-cream was cluke warm andfluffy; comforting yet not impressive looking.

Verdict: It's a great german restaurant serving a huge variety of beer and classic food ( and more sausages please!) ; a great fit for large group.

Address of Berliner: 4/F, W Square, 314-324 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai

Sodam Chicken- Korean fried chicken :)

Ready to savor some worthy Korean deep fried in the heart of this city? 
We have picked 3 chicken options at this new comer and ranked acording to our liking!

Second runner up: Seoul baked chicken ($158)
If you are not the type of foodie who loves deep fried battered chicken,  this would be a considerate option you can pick at Sodom chicken. Tender meat with a thin chicken skin  (without much skin after the baking process); well it sounds healthy huh? What wows us is the garlic salad dressing that gives a flavour

1st runner up
To get a stronger flavour, and more overwhelming crispy battered skin, Honey Garlic Fried Chicken ($188) can certainly solve this first world problem. The sauce with a smack of garlic and an unexpected hint of moreish sweetness that raise our appetite.It would be a big plus if the flavour can be more explosive-sweeter and sourer so that the our "we-want-more" desire is able to last til the last piece of chicken. 

Winner
Our palate simply get wowed from the 1st to last bite of this chicken mountain with diff cuts (蜜糖芥末香葱炸雞-$188). Amazingly juicy & tender; marinated a bit, with crispy skin on the outside. Its house made secret sauce is the soul of the dish, with a hint of choking mustard that goes along so well with honey. Spring union also add some chocking yet refreshing heat to the dish.

Sodam Chicken also serves Korean snacks and hotpot, and various special drinks along side the basics. We opted for the Kimchi Toppoki, priced at $148 which is perfect for two, with generous serving of fish cakes, rice cakes and instant noodles. Flavorful, a perfect carb dish after devouring the whole chicken dish; familiar flavor as what you can get at every Korean store in Hong Kong though.

If you got a friend who can't stand spicy food, here is another option for him/her: Fish Cake soup ($160) with clean veggies broth. We all first worried if the broth would lack of flavor according it its color but it has proved we were ALL wrong. Sweetness of cabbage was amazing; and you can even drink it after such a heavy meal. Unexpectedly we find it interesting!

For drinks, we picked Passionate Love and Kiss me honey special drinks ($58)which the portion is as big as our face! Beer is no longer the only option at deep fried chicken restaurants. These special frizzy drinks visually attracted us with the ice lolly and floral decorations and at the same time quench our thirst.

Make sure you’ve made a reservation before you get there!

Japanese meet western cuisine newly housed around Sheung Wan: Fingerpint

Freshly housed around the corner of Sheung Wan, right behind the busy Queen’s Road Central, Finger Print dishes up Japanese-meets-western cuisine in a stylish, cosy squeeze.  Entrance is not as expensive as I thought (quite reasonable), priced at $180-240 for a 5 course menu ( appetizer, salad, main, rice & noodles, and Dessert) and all of its well thought out and presented dishes are well done.

I love the ambience quite a lot. A whole set of mirror along the wall simply gives us an easy yet luxurious sense of space. The only two seats near French window is amazing, allowing gentle sunlight passing through while watching the life out on the road. And for smokers, you are able to enjoy a luxurious cover outside the restaurant even it’s raining ( thanks to that well thought outdoor shelter and few ashtrays on the tiny bar table.

Salad
To start with, we had its signature Fingerprint Salad at $110 with a mix of lettuce, tomato, a mouthful of crab meat and unexpected oriental veggies in sesame name, followed by a  trio of appetizers, decently presented, including prawn cocktail , slices of sashimi and Burdock Stick tempura, which is like the root of veggies, with look and taste healthy. 

Soup

It’ then followed by an amazing seafood-based steamed soup served individually in a “teapot”. Clear broth that exudes a very mild and delicate essence of the ocean. Serve yourself with the amount that you prefer, and don't forget those scallops, prawns and fish inside! A perfect way to get our palate ready for the upcoming dishes!

Rice
Who doesn't want some sashimi and rice at a Japanese fusion restaurant? This assorted sashimi rice (with salmon, roe, tuna) has appeared to cater to these more delicate tastes! It’s 188 at dinner set or a la carte at $100)

Mains

I opted for pan fried New Zealand Lamb Rack ($240) which is medium with a perfect pink. My partner picked something more adventurous, based on the name of the dish on the menu-buttered pork with whisky sauce. Marinated in an oriental way, pork exuded a mild sweetness from Whisky that amazingly enhanced the meat flavour without overpowering it. However I like the main course with a piece of meat and few garnish is far less - maybe we expected something that wow us as its appetizer did.

Next came to our table was a pot of chicken rice shared by two of us. All the broth essence has been soaked into the rice, that gave a very delicate flavor to the rice, sprinked with a pint of fresh spring union with a hint of freshness.

Dessert

Our meal was completed with a satisfying Red bean soup rice cake ($40), and today’s ice-cream ($50). Rice cake was slightly burnt outside that add complexity to this tiny plain dough smothered in a sea of red bean paste (texture’s a bit heavier than soup).

Verdict: a great new dine out spot with friends; worth a try for this innovative Japanese western fusion cuisine. The ever changing menu for every night is quite surprising, made good use of seasonal ingredients which without doubt, speaks for themselves. No 10% Service Charge (relax, their service is superb!)

Lily & Bloom- creative fusion elements built on classic dishes

It’s all about the right ambiance when it comes to having an intimate conversation. Sipping on refreshing special drinks seems an ideal start of our evening, along side moreish bites. Before moving forward to our mains, we opted for Three grapes and A Cup ($140) with grapes, white wine, Hennessy vsop, elderflower and infer, celery bitters.

We warmed up our palate with Char Broiled Miso Parmesan Oysters ($388). French oyster are so fresh that it shouts loudly itself. The East meet west feast started with the Pan Seared Foie Gras ($188) served with traditional Chinese dried tangerine peel that has lifted the freshness of the whole dish.

Next came the pea shoots & Onsen Egg ($108) with black garlic, soy and brown butter.  Slurped up the egg and the veggies that reminds me of home makes me feel soothing.

For mains, we had Five Spice Baby Back Ribs, with sweet soy ginger glaze,and pickled ginger slaw ($288). It's full of tropical flavour. Rubs are tend to be lean, full of flavours and tropical marinates. 

The up coming dish "Grilled Natural Ribeye Lettuce Wrap ($383) has brought us to a tropical country. Scallion and ginger sauce was a highlight of the dish, bringing us amble flavour from the Orient. Pick a piece of lettuce and wrap the beef in perfect pink with some pickled carrots which we couldn't stop salivating over ; simple yet scrumptious.

 It’s good to see Lily & Bloom fusion steak with Vietnamese style wrap; but it was not a great thing we were hoping for, when we saw the overly finely cut lettuce in rectangle shape mainly for solely visual enjoyment; the remainings were all gone. Other than that, everything is fine.

We were all surprised by the Local Seafood Carbonara- with fresh uni, lightly grilled abalone and Chinese smoked oyster ($388).That sounds odd in the combination of ingredients, yet each hand made papadelle pasta was perfectly plumped by the seafood broth, embellished with Chinese dried seafood and the fresh urchin. We were impressed!

Our meal concluded with Iberico Pork Wonton in olden Broth ($168) that combined Classic chinese wonton soup with spanish delights. Chicken broth was cooked with Spanish Iberico ham, that exudes a stronger aroma and flavour thanks to the bigger portion of fat while the thin dumpling skin encased juicy pork filling that was a beautiful balance of soft and savoury in every bite. 

Our meal concluded with Cream Brulee ($83) topped with mango, pomelo and mandarin orange ($83). Creamy and hot; contrasting with the crispy top and the refreshing fruits on top.

Verdict:
With all these restaurants popping up built on traditional and classic food, it’s refreshing to see one that master fine dining skills yet focuses on creative oriental fusion that you seldom see in Hong Kong. A restaurant that is full of surprise. Worth encore!

*Set menu available at $688 per person (10% service charge applies)