This recently opened Japanese restaurant is located at Great Eagle Centre in Wanchai, offering customers a range of sushi, teppanyaki, and kaiseki cuisine. We come here on a Tuesday evening, with the shoji designs at the door and exterior walls, as well as the art on display, getting me to wonder whether this is another of those restaurants prioritizing environment over food. With some trepidation, we go up the few steps, open the door, and enter into the reception area.
Here the staff welcomes us warmly and after checking our reservation, shows us through a side door into a room with a L-shaped hinoki sushi counter. The room is not very big and provides a cozy and intimate dining experience, with a familiar light wooden tone often adopted in sushi restaurants. There are two menus, and we have chosen Chef Premium Omakase ($1,588) which has more courses. We are served by Chef Kit on the day.
To pair with the food, I have ordered a bottle of Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute Yamahai Aiyama 農口尚彦研究所 山廃 愛山 無濾過生原酒 ($1,280). This sake from Ishikawa 石川県 has nice fruity notes, rich and also exhibiting nice acidity, making it vibrant and fresh, and suitable to pair with most of the food in the menu. I also applaud this restaurant for its reasonable markup so customers will feel more comfortable enjoying better quality sakes.
The menu starts with some appetizers. In the cup is Mozuku 水雲 with a nice texture and good acidity from the vinegar marinade, highly appetizing. On the spoon the Goma-Dofu ごま豆腐 has rich sesame flavours, with the salmon roes adding a bit of savoury taste. The Satsuma-Imo さつま芋 is very sweet and soft, while the Shirako 白子 has creamy texture, seasoned with a bit of momiji oroshi and shredded shiso leaf. A nice assortment of small bites with good flavours.
Following the appetizers are the sashimi. Chef Kit first takes out the Tai 鯛 which has been wrapped and marinated inside Sakura leaf, then rolling the thinly sliced seabream, one with menegi 芽葱, the other with Bafun-Uni 馬糞雲丹. The seabream is tender and with a delicate taste, with the flavours enhanced by the two additional ingredients in the roll. The other sashimi is Akagai 赤貝, with the ark shell very sweet and bouncy in texture.
The next course features Chu-Toro 中とろ, with the chef cutting a slice of the medium fatty tuna and then season with a bit of sea salt and wasabi, plus a shiso leaf, before wrapped inside a nori sheet. The tuna has rich flavours, with the fish oil seeping out on bite but not excessive. The shiso leaf helps to reduce the overall fattiness as well.
Then comes Tako 章魚, with the chef cutting sections of the tentacles of the octopus, which has been slow-cooked, resulting in great tenderness and easy to chew. The octopus has also been fully infused with the sauce. Good in taste. While the chef has provided a bit of yuzu sansho as condiment, I do not think it is necessary as the spiciness will over-dominate the whole dish.
The fourth serving is Sawara 鰆. The chef first torches the skin to vitalize the fish oil and also give a bit of smoky flavours to the taste, with some deep-fried garlic, scallion, and myoga 茗荷 to season. The stronger taste condiments might be a bit more tailored towards the local palate, but it is not excessive. Delicious.
The fifth course is the seasonal Sanma 秋刀, with the chef assembling the fillet into a flower shape, then adding shiso flowers, ginger, and scallion to complement. One of my favourite fish, the rich taste of the Pacific saury is memorable, and there are also a generous portion allowing me to enjoy to the full extent. This makes my day.
The hot dish of the day is Grilled Unagi 鰻. Served steaming hot straight from the kitchen, the eel has a crispy skin, with the meat thick but did not dry out. Brushed with a unagi sauce which enhances the umami flavours, it is quite nice. And to offset the heavy body and stronger tastes, the chef has put a pickled myoga on the side to cleanse the palate.
Coming to the part on sushi, there are 6 pieces overall, with the first being Shima-Aji 縞鯵. After kneading a sushi with the striped jack mackerel, the chef puts some finely chopped shallot marinated in yuzu vinegar on top to season. The more delicate taste is stimulated by the citrusy and acidity of the vinegar to wake up the palate again.
The second piece of sushi is Buri 鰤, with the chef adding a bit of 三星漬 as condiment to the matured Japanese yellowtail. The fish is getting fatty so there is a good richness, and the slight spiciness of the pickles, plus the umami, offers robust and all-rounded flavours in this sushi.
The third one is the prized Kuromutsu 黒鯥. The bluefish is a deep-water fish with good fattiness and rich flavours. The chef has torched the surface to vitalize the fish oil to enhance the fragrance further, and then add some grated karasumi 唐墨 on top, providing umami and a bit of saltiness as seasoning. Very good.
The fourth piece is Botan-Ebi 牡丹蝦. After cleaning up the spot prawn the chef has prepared a paste from the prawn head to put that back on the sushi as condiment, combining the sweetness and softness of the prawn meat with the umami and intense flavours of the prawn tomalley.
The fifth piece is O-Toro 大とろ, where the fatty tuna is tender and soft on the bite, having a good richness of fish oil. The chef shared that they do not put the tuna under a prolonged ageing process, and at most will only age for 3-4 days, to enrich the flavours but not to take the risk and also compromise the appearance.
Next comes a sushi roll, with the chef scooping up a generous amount of Bafun-Uni 馬糞雲丹 and together with some shari, wrapped inside a nori sheet, presenting like an ice-cream cone. The sea urchin is sweet and without any weird taste, and while some people might not want the seaweed to mask the flavours, I have no issue at all.
Before going to teppanyaki, I ask the chef for an additional Iwashi 鰯 sushi. Very rich in taste, the sardines take a lot of effort to remove the bones and might not be able to fetch a high price, so it is becoming less and less popular for restaurants to offer nowadays. This one certainly makes me satisfied and fulfilled.
The Teppanyaki is Wagyu Beef from Miyazaki, nicely grilled with a caramelized surface while pinkish on the inside, tender and juicy. The beef is paired with a bit of rock salt along with some deep-fried garlic pieces on the side as condiment. We like this one as the beef is not too fatty, yet flavourful.
The Tamagoyaki 玉子焼 is a fluffy egg omelette, made from mixing eggs with shrimp and other seafood. Not too sweet and quite nice.
Instead of the usual miso soup, we are offered the soup in teapot. The clear dashi broth has an elegant fragrance, double-boiled together with maitake mushroom and some seafood. By adding a few drops of lime juice, the flavours are enhanced even further.
Finally for dessert, it features the seasonal Japanese fruit of melon and persimmon. The melon is sweet and juicy, while the persimmon offers a nice crunchy bite.
The overall experience is very casual and enjoyable, with the chef and staff interacting with us throughout the meal, and the food quality is also quite good. The bill on the night is a very reasonable $4,233 after a 15% discount as member of Brilliant by Langham. A nice place to enjoy Japanese cuisine, and next time will try out its teppanyaki.
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