This Japanese yakiniku restaurant is in Central, on the 3/F of Man Yee Building. Part of the Global Link Group, the restaurant originates from Tokyo serving good quality wagyu beef, and they pride themselves of only serving chilled (never frozen) A5 Kuroge Wagyu here.
Seated at a long booth near the window looking out to Queen’s Road Central, the restaurant has put a divider to separate into two tables. As there was no customer on the other side so we did not feel crowded. The setting is contemporary, nothing fancy and is generally comfortable.
We ordered the omakase menu ($1,280 each) and was first served Pickles 3 Kinds. All of them were nice, with the appearance and taste like the Korean side dishes, but I found the cucumber and ‘kimchi’ less spicy, and an overall better appetizer compared with the traditional Korean ones.
Next it was the small plates, with Tofu Skin with Wagyu Yukke, Matsuba Crab Croquette and Eggplant in Dashi Sauce. The croquette got a creamy filling with plenty of crab meat, good in taste, but my favorite is the yukke, with the raw beef tartare beautifully marinated and mixing with the tofu skin, combining great texture and flavors. The eggplant is also good, cut into slices and rolled to give a nice presentation, with the dashi sauce fully absorbed into the eggplant to bring good umami notes.
The Jumbo Salad is decent, with fresh garden vegetables and some shredded mushroom and onion, sprinkled with sesame on top. A refreshing transition to clean the palate and get us ready for the wagyu feast coming up.
The Grilled Wagyu Nigiri is a sushi with wagyu. The staff came to cook the Zabuton (shoulder waist) for us, grilling it at just the right level to ensure the perfect balance of softness from the meat, with the fat melting to give increased intensity on the aromas and taste before wrapping on a piece of sushi rice. A really nice piece of beef and no wonder the restaurant mentioned it was the best cut of the day.
Next is my favorite in the evening, the Yakiniku Jumbo Original Noharayaki. It is a piece of A5 sirloin marinated in signature tare sauce, and then the manager came to grill the meat for us. It was then served together with beaten egg yolk and egg white foam. The sauce provides a perfect harmony and it is great in taste. The sauce was so good that I kept it for the other grills later. The restaurant thoughtfully provided a tomato, with a nice balance of sweet and sourness, to smooth and cleanse the palate afterwards.
Continuing with the grill, the 6 Kinds of Grilled Wagyu Rare Cut certainly would bring a smile for wagyu lovers. The cuts include Katashin Ro-su (upper part of shoulder), Maki-Kalbi (muscle surrounding rib-eye), Rump, Ichibo (lean muscles around buttocks), Shin-Shin (middle of inside back-leg) and Kata-Sankaku (outside of fore-leg). With different texture and amount of fat, it is a good mix and personally I prefer the leaner meat which I found had richer meat flavors.
Then came Misuji Consumme Nabe, a mini hotpot with a clear soup boiled for 12 hours according to the staff. Served in a super-hot clay pot, the staff put two pieces of misuji in, which are another piece of rare cuts that does not have much fat, with a crunchier texture. The consumme has wonderful intense flavors but delicate on palate. Together with the egg custard made with shrimp broth, as well as mushroom, it is another great dish.
Coming to the end, the Signature Cold Noodles has minced beef added to the noodle, with also a broth added with sea urchin, the sourness was appealing and helped to remove the fatty sensation, so even with the full stomach we ended up finishing everything.
The Dessert Platter comprises of a white coffee pudding and black sesame ice-cream, and the staff recommended us to sample the pudding and then poured it with the ice-cream to be eaten together. The pudding is in fact quite good though the ice-cream is more mediocre. But overall still a nice finale to the meal.
The service is good, with the staff attentive and eager to explain each dish and the recommended way to enjoy them. They also helped to grill the beef on the specialties. The major issue I got was the cleanliness of the toilet which was quite bad. Even though it is a public one shared with the shopping mall and the restaurant is not directly responsible for the cleaning, they should require the landlord to manage it properly. The bill was $2,891 which was reasonable with the amount of wagyu served, the quality and the special cut offered.
