Restaurant review: Sushi Dokoro Ikkei’s husband and wife team serve excellent seafood

Sushi Dokoro Ikkei  belongs right at home in Mody House,  the building in Tsim Sha Tsui that has a high concentration of high-quality and interesting Japanese food and beverage establishments, including Butler  bar and Bar Buonasera.  It’s a small restaurant, with only six seats at the sushi bar and two tables for four.

The staff are  a husband-and-wife team: he’s the chef, and Aki is a gracious, friendly hostess. The restaurant does only omakase (HK$1,222), with the evening’s dishes depending on the ingredients they get from Japan, although they will ask about your food preferences, and will try to accommodate special requests if given notice. Aki explained the hot course is sometimes beef or pork, but on the night we went, the entire meal was seafood.

We thoroughly enjoyed the meal. The sashimi course consisted of slices of hirame (olive flounder), shimaji (striped jack), kinmedai (splendid alfonsino) and tai (sea bream), with the skin of the last two being lightly seared to give them a gentle smokiness. The fish was served with fresh wasabi and a slice of tangy sudachi (sour citrus fruit).

Sliced kanpachi (amberjack) came next, served in a sesame sauce that was so delicious, my guest wanted to lift the bowl to drink it.

The hot course consisted of grilled sawara (Spanish mackerel) that was slightly overcooked, so the flesh was dry. We cleared our palates with delicious Japanese vegetables – very crunchy cucumbers and sweet tomatoes, served with house-made miso.

The procession of sushi started with hirame, with slightly too much wasabi. We asked that the chef tone down the wasabi, and he did, so the remaining sushi courses were more enjoyable. The highlights were the ika (squid), beautifully scored then seared so parts of the flesh curled up; the tiny shrimp known as shiro ebi, which were wonderfully sweet; and maguro (tuna) that the chef had marinated in soy sauce for about 20 minutes.

A clear, soothing clam soup with sudachi brought an end to the savoury portion of the meal.

For dessert we had a slice of juicy melon with grapes so sweet, they were like candy.

Sushi Dokoro Ikkei, 8/F Mody House, 30 Mody Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, tel: 2312 2863. HK$1,222 without drinks or the service charge 

Editor's note: the story was updated on April 19, 2018 to reflect a change in pricing of the restaurant's omakase.