Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Statement

This Japanese restaurant is located in Tai Kwun, the old Police Headquarters in Hollywood Road. Originally offering British cuisines, recently they had been converted to provide Japanese food, partnering with Aqua Kyoto in London, as a pop-up.

The décor is hip, leveraging the colonial design of the building and adding contemporary, dark and chic designs. To enhance the ambience, there are some Japanese paper umbrella hanging on the roof with also portrait paintings of Japanese beauties on one end of the restaurant.

After getting a Ginza Sprint ($98) to start, the restaurant provided us a large bowl of Edamame as snacks for free. These have been spiced with some Shichimi to give extra flavours and is nice to enjoy with your drinks waiting for the food to arrive.

The first dish was Wild Seaweed Salad with Black Sesame Dressing ($78). The wild seaweed is those we often got as part of the condiment with rice, and the black sesame dressing was decent in taste, but overall, it did not provide any excitement on the palate. 

Then we had Spicy Minced Fatty Tuna Maki ($128 for 4 pieces). The maki roll wrapped with avocado and cucumber, with a piece of tuna on top, and paired with a bit of tobiko paste. While the taste is not bad, I thought cheated as the tuna was certainly not fatty tuna, but the lean akami. Best to change the name if the restaurant wants to avoid potential dispute with customers. 

Next was Tiger Prawn Tempura ($158). This one unfortunately was a disappointment, with the prawns having no taste at all, clearly being frozen prawn. Together with a piece of oba leaf tempura, dipping with the green tea salt I tried to get some seasoning but still did not help much. The tempura was also a bit oily on the taste. Better to skip this. 

For the main course we had Grilled Salmon & Hokkaido Scallop with Caramelized Onion Puree ($228). The two salmon fillet has been coated with bread crumbs and pan-fried, while retaining a pinkish and moist inside. The scallops had pollock roe paste on top, further with a few salmon roes to add complexity in appearance and taste. The sweet onion puree added complementary flavours to the fish and this dish was fairly good.

Coming to dessert, we ordered Tokyo Banana ($78), a sort of sponge cake with banana fillings, with the outside caramelized. Paired with two sorbets, one from Shiso Lime and the other Coconut, and added with Umeshu Foam, the sorbet had good acidity to balance with the sweet banana roll and this one was a fairly good dessert. 

Last was Taiyaki Waffles ($88), of 3 different Flavours including Chocolate, Matcha and Vanilla Custard and served with Miso Ice-cream. The cute waffles reminded me of the time when I visited Japan and tried these, however honestly this one was quite lacklustre comparatively. It was a bit too dry for me and the custard fillings were also mediocre in taste. 

The service is fairly good, and the bill on the night was $1,016 which was fair considering the location and the ambience, though on the food quality it was a bit of a let-down. If this is a true reflection of how Aqua Kyoto fare, I would have a big question mark how come this restaurant was popular in London…