4/F Soho Square
21 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central
Tel: 2164 8008
Open: 6pm-1am
Cuisine: Japanese, specialising in robatayaki
Price: HK$250, not including drinks or the service charge.
Ambience: the outdoor terrace has a romantic vibe, with votive candles twinkling on bar-high tables. Inside, there is an open kitchen, partially screened with glass, around which is a counter that seats 10. Dark-mirrored panels and contemporary furniture give it an urban-chic appearance.
Pros: service with a smile made up for small bloopers. We appreciated our waiter's description of portion sizes, which stopped us from over-ordering. Dessert - a small scoop of mochi ice cream with fruit cut into floral shapes - was complimentary.
Cons: service was a tad slow, despite there being only two other tables occupied on the weeknight we were there. A waiter forgot to deliver the simplest dish - chilled tofu (HK$40), imported from Japan. The mixed tempura (HK$100) was neither light nor crispy: it was oily, probably because the batter wasn't ice cold when the morsels were fried. Wonderful typos in the menu abound, including lamb crop and cheery tomato.
Recommended: we picked clean the horse mackerel (HK$110), one of the half-dozen specials. The fish, simply grilled and seasoned with salt, was served whole, with a wedge of lemon. A thick chunk of black cod (saikyo yaki, HK$80) provided an interesting contrast in taste and texture: sweet, with a hint of charcoal-charred bitterness. Both dishes came with cucumber flavoured with a sublime topping of minced chicken mixed with peanut and sesame sauce. The grilled squid, another popular robatayaki dish, was a generous portion served with a dollop of mayonnaise. A surprise was the softness of the meat.