Kiyotaki Japanese Restaurant

It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve had a meal out; of course I’ve eaten out but several business trips and a somewhat difficult 2-week sugar detox have kept my focus from Hong Kong restaurants.

I won’t go into the sugar detox in detail here, except to say that a zero-sugar, low-carb regime is extremely difficult to follow.  Your body will have some very interesting reactions, and you may learn a lot; I did.  I’m glad I did it, and I’m thrilled it’s over.

So it was with fresh eyes and an open heart that I wandered around the neighborhood looking for a place to eat.  A friend had mentioned that Gough Street had several cool restaurants, so Pisco and K wandered down that way.

Gough Street, where have you been?!  What a beautiful stretch of restaurants, design shops, and more restaurants.  French, Japanese, Chinese, and other random western-style eateries abounded.  Al fresco tables under awnings.  Wine bars.  Add some well-styled patrons and it was a nice environment without being a scene.

We ducked into Kiyotaki Japanese Restaurant and sat down near the door.  The room is small, seating for 20 at tables and four more at the bar.  The bar was in fact full with four regulars, who were loudly toasting each other with sake and pouring glasses for the chef.  The room, being severely decorated, was extremely loud from the drunk bar patrons; this can be a nice atmosphere or just overwhelming, depending on your point of view.

The order:

• Sushi – B+, strongly above average.  The star was red snapper (I think), which we ate wrapped in the freshest of shiso leaves.  Astounding.
• Grilled chicken skewer with wasabi – very tasty, and the wasabi was very strong
• Grilled squid, rolled with a shiso leaf, and brushed with umezuki (sour plum).  This was the star dish of the night – solid texture from the squid, brightness from the shiso, and sour from the umezuki… it was an amazing combination, and it’s worth returning for just this one delight.
• Yaki onigiri – smaller than what I’m used to eating (at Maekawa), they were golf-ball sized and delicious.  Crunchy and almost charred on the outside, they have become a kind of comfort food for me.

Service was competent, quiet, and unfussy.

The plates are small, so go with a light appetite or heavy wallet.

A light meal for two ran around 440 HKD without drinks.

Kiyotaki Japanese Restaurant
13 Gough Street
Central, Hong Kong [map]
2877 1772

Honjin

Another day, another Japanese meal in Hong Kong.  This time, it’s dinner.

Pisco and K walk by Honjin in Sai Ying Pun… it’s raining, we’re starving, and even though the resto looks a little fancy for our taste that night, we drop inside.

I don’t remember much about the decor, save that it was (too) well lighted and filled with black lacquer tables and chairs.  They had a set menu for dinner so we both opted for it.  Here’s what we ate:

The first course was two slices of hamachi sashimi served on a shiso leaf.  The hamachi melted in your mouth, and the shiso leaf was the perfect accompaniment.  I’m not quite sure about the orange-colored sashimi on the right – it tasted a little like octopus, but had a much lighter texture.  This was a very auspicious start for the meal.

Second course: a decent frisée salad with shrimp.  The lemon dressing was slightly too acidic, but the shrimp were soft and delicious.

Third course: grilled foie gras, on grilled sausage.  This was a heavenly dish and the high point of the meal – the foie gras was rich beyond belief, smoky from the grill and ever so slightly charred.  The pork sausage was fatty and salty; I would not have picked this to go with the foie gras – it was altogether overkill, but the very tastiest kind.

The fourth course: grilled eel with ginger and eggs.  This was a standard-issue unagi fillet, served in a bowl over a couple eggs scrambled over sliced planks of ginger.  Pisco is again impressed – it is not obvious that these flavors would go together at all (and perhaps they don’t completely) but it’s interesting and it works.

The fifth and final course was a couple of packets of mochi ice cream.

Total for the meal was around 160 HKD per person. Service is not their strong suit, but the food is high quality.  The set menu is quite good value and I think we’ll be back soon for more of that foie gras.

Honjin
Shop 2-3, G/F
356 Queen’s Road West
Hong Kong
[map]