Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Inaniwa Yosuke 稲庭養助

This Japanese eatery originated from Akita, and has more than 150 years of history, famous for its udon. Now having 16 outlets in Japan, and another 7 outside the country, we visited this evening the shop in TST Prince Tower, the newer of the two outlets in HK, with the other one in Hung Hom.

As the restaurant is located high in the commercial building, there is a great view if you happen to sit at the window side. Unfortunately we were seated in the middle, and the setting is decent, reminding us of many local ones we visited in our travel in Japan, with a open kitchen behind the 'sushi bar'.

We ordered a few small dishes to start. First is the Pumpkin Salad ($78), as recommended by the staff. The salad tastes good, with the sweetness of the pumpkin mixing well with the mayonnaise, with the shredded onion, lettuce and cucumber giving a nice bite. There are flakes of almond and raisin on top too. No wonder this is a popular dish many customers order.

The next is the Egg Roll with Mentaiko ($88). Freshly prepared, the egg roll was still steaming when being served, and we could see the mentaiko in the middle of the roll. The egg roll is decent, without the sweetness one often found in such egg roll, but to me there was a lack of the flavors of the egg. The mentaiko is rather mediocre and also not exhibiting any noteworthy flavors. A little bit disappointing.

We also had the Spicy Sausages ($110), which were shipped direct from Japan, a seasonal specialty on the menu. Quite nice on the taste with a spicy note not overpowering, with a crunchy skin on the bite, but frankly I also did not associate anything unique too which may justify the price the restaurant is charging. I would suggest the restaurant (and the staff) really explained that to allow customers a better appreciation to avoid maybe an unfair criticism. Then we had a Skewer of Chicken Kidney ($68), which are beautifully seasoned, and a great complement to beer.

Instead of having udon, we decided to try out its Chicken Hotpot ($480). Served with the stove, the hotpot has pieces of chicken served in two ways, one the simple raw chicken with plenty of black pepper on top to season and aim to highlight its original taste, the other being deep-fried for a while giving a golden brown skin. Apart from the chicken, there are lots of cabbage and mushroom added as well. The chicken is really tender, and while it might be too hot having hotpot in the current weather, the overall flavors are good indeed.

For dessert we had the Ice-cream directly imported from Japan, with me going for the Sea Salt version while my wife had the Rice flavor ($55 each). I tasted both and the sea salt version is more interesting and flavorful for me. A bit too sweet for me for overall not bad.

The table is rather small for putting all the food and feel a bit clumsy when the food are served together, and you might want to order things one at a time if possible. Service is decent without any red flag though equally not impressive. The bill on the night was $1027, quite expensive if my opinion, and maybe I should simply try the udon next time instead.