Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Sushi Sase 鮨佐瀬

This sushi restaurant is located on G/F Baskerville House at Ice House Street in Central. Named after the head chef Sase Satoshi, who came from Hokkaido, the restaurant had a preference in selecting ingredients coming from his homeland.

The décor was nice, with the familiar hinoki sushi table, bright lighting yet giving a comfortable and relaxing ambience. Served by Chef Kong, I ordered the Aoi Chef Omakase Menu ($1750), and starting with a half-bottle of Kubota Manjyu Junmai Daiginjyo ($450).

The sashimi was decent, with some seasonal ingredients, but overall it was not impressive. The crab was strangely quite bland in taste, not as sweet as I would expect. The Chutoro was also having tendon making it chewy. 

The best probably was Katsuo, and a lot of credit had to go to the special dipping sauce. The other one I liked was Shirako, with the chef first blanched and then torching it slightly, with condiment paste together it was good in taste.

The teapot broth was perhaps the highlight as it was steaming hot in temperature, with the umami flavours intense yet having a delicate palate. Adding a bit of lime juice freshened the soup with the acidity and fragrance. 

Coming to the sushi part, I ordered another half-bottle of Ichigo Ichie Junmai Daiginjyo ($450) to accompany. While everything was decent and not bad, again there was nothing particularly noteworthy as well. Perhaps the one I liked most was Kinki, with nice fish oil revitalized by lightly torching. 

Wrapping up the sushi was Tamago, which was unfortunately very dry and not flavourful. Feeling still having room, I ordered extra three pieces, with Suri Clam ($80), Yellow Jack ($70) and Iwashi ($50). To my surprise, all three pieces were torched. I honestly think that was over-done.  

Service was decent, with the staff coming to pour sake for me, and calling my name in serving. While the chef was not particularly talkative, he showed courtesy and put effort to introduce the ingredients. The bill was $3,135 and even though not on the high-side, overall the meal did not leave a strong reason for customers to return.