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Susan Jung

Level Four, Four Seasons Hotel, 8 Finance Street, Central

Tel: 2805 0600

Open: 11.30am-2.30pm, 6pm-10.30pm

Cuisine: Japanese.

Ambience:  You walk along a corridor, then turn  a corner and get a wonderful view of the  harbour through the  windows of the main dining room. The restaurant, which has large, dramatic pieces of art, can be  noisy when full.  You can sit at tables or at the sushi and tempura counters and watch the chefs.

Price: About HK$750 without drinks and before 10 per cent service charge. Kaiseki set meals can cost up to HK$2,000.

Pros: The food - most of which we enjoyed - came at a leisurely pace and in a logical order, although we hadn't ordered it that way.

Cons: The uni (sea urchin) on the sashimi platter wasn't as sweet and rich as some we've tasted, and parts of it were bitter. Although the servers were  helpful, some were unable to answer our questions about the food.

Recommended dishes: The deluxe sashimi platter (HK$750, below) had good variety and was more substantial than it seemed at first glance. Apart from the uni, we enjoyed most of the selection, which included toro - beautiful with its strata of white fat and pale pink meat - crunchy pieces of geoduck, whole (innards and all) baby squid and slices of yellowtail and red snapper. The wasabi was grated fresh from the root - not the reconstituted powder or commercial paste, both of which overwhelm the subtleties of fresh fish.  The steamed egg custard (HK$70) in small bowls was the best  we've tasted - so tender that it quivered on our spoons, with a beautiful fragrance and delicate savoury flavour. We couldn't skip the restaurant's speciality of tempura and chose the assorted selection (HK$280, left). It was a generous serving of two prawns (with their heads, fried to a delicate crunch),  fish and vegetables such as baby corn and bitter melon. Our  waitress advised us to use the dipping sauce for the seafood and the sea salt and green tea salt for the vegetables. We ended the meal with Inaniwa udon (HK$90), served hot in a clear, deeply flavoured broth, and unusual white soba (HK$90). We ordered the soba - a speciality of Nagoya - served cold, and the toothsome noodles came with a dipping sauce to which we added fresh wasabi, negi (Japanese spring onions) and grated daikon.

What else? This Inagiku is one of two Hong Kong branches of the high-end Japanese restaurant chain. The branch in the Royal Garden Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui (tel: 2733 2933) is quieter, darker and more intimate. There's a separate menu of seasonal tempura dishes such as perilla  (HK$15), hornwort  (HK$20) and lobster, abalone and  live Japanese prawns (market price). The sake selection is extensive.



Inagiku