18 Shelley Street, SoHo
Tel: 2525 1660
Open: noon-2am
Cuisine: modern Japanese
Price: about HK$350 without drinks and service charge.
Ambience: it's a great, double-height space with a bar with high stools that gives drinkers a view of the pedestrian and Mid-Levels escalator traffic. At the back of the restaurant is the large robata (grill), where chefs make dishes that are the focus of the menu. We could have sat at the counter seating around the robata, but chose a nearby booth that gave us a good view of the action.
Pros: there's a list of creative sake cocktails, although we weren't in the mood to drink.
Cons: some of the dishes had menu descriptions that made them sound more exciting than they tasted. The delicate taste and texture of lemon sole was lost when the fish was battered and deep-fried for a slightly oily tempura of spiced whole sole with smoked garlic mayonnaise (HK$165). Salt and pepper pork belly with sansho salt (HK$55) uses one of our favourite cuts of meat, but it was underseasoned, without any of the tongue-tingling effect of the listed sansho (which is related to the Sichuan peppercorn). The blackened Japanese tomato with light sweet sake sauce (HK$70) lacked the sweetness normally associated with the fruit; instead, it was rather acidic and watery. Our food was served too quickly and we had to ask the waiting staff twice to slow things down so we could enjoy the hot food while it was still at least warm.
Recommended dishes: lobster dumplings (HK$85) were packed with a sweet, juicy filling of spiny lobster and sweet shrimp with accents of the distinctively flavoured shiso leaf. Grilled Hokkaido scallops with wasabi, apple and sweet soy sauce were reasonably priced at HK$80 for two. This was modern Japanese cooking at its best - it didn't stray so far from its origins so it wasn't recognisably Japanese, and the different flavours showcased the sweetness of the scallop. Baby back ribs (HK$110) were meaty and tender, and the sweet, sticky Korean spice glaze gave a slight chilli kick at the back of the throat. Dessert of sake-compressed nashi (pear) with white peach sake sorbet, matcha tea crumble and puffed rice (HK$70) was light and refreshing, with all the disparate elements combining to create a delicious dessert.