Cafeteria at Narita Airport

Whenever we transit in Tokyo, we love to go to the cafeteria to get the pork cutlet curry rice because the food served in the Tokyo airport is of pretty high quality. This time is no exception.

We placed an order of tempura soba noodles and an order of pork cutlet curry rice. The tempura soba is served hot with two pieces of shrimp tempura. The shrimp tempura is a little bit small, and the bottom of the shrimp is soft because it is put on top of the soup. The pork cutlet curry rice is served with a piece of fried pork which has been cut into five strips. You cannot go wrong with pork cutlet curry rice. The pork cutlet is deep fried and so it is crispy on the outside while the meat is juicy on the inside. It matches with the strong taste of curry extremely well. It is one of the home-style comfort food that is consistently good.



HOKAT Rating:
83/100

美心大酒樓 at Hong Kong Airport

It is a tradition for us to eat dim sum with my mom at 美心大酒樓 inside the Hong Kong airport right before we fly back to the United States. It was pretty early in the morning and we were not very hungry, so we only ordered a few dishes. We ordered the shrimp dumpling (蝦餃), 燒賣 (siu mai), and 蝦腸 (rice noodle wrap with shrimp). The shrimp dumping is of very high quality. The shrimps are bouncy and the wrapping is thin. The siu mai has some kind of crab roe sauce on top. The minced pork and shrimp is mixed well in this dish. However, the crab roe sauce tasted a little strange because it is moist and salty. The rice noodle wrap is very long, with a whole shrimp in each section. The shrimp is bouncy and the rice noodle is very smooth. This restaurant is definitely a nice place to eat brunch before a long flight back to the United States.



HOKAT Rating:
86/100

和幸日本燒肉料理 (Hong Kong)

Towards the end of our 2009 Asia trip, we visited a Japanese BBQ restaurant that we found out about on the internet. This restaurant is known for their A4 to A5 class of Japanese Wagyu beef. We ordered the following dishes:



1) 特價宮崎縣綾牛 A4 (Special Miyazaki beef which is A4 class): This is the special promotion of the night. It is a big platter of beef from the Miyazaki region. The beef is sliced thinly and served with scallions. The waiter recommended us to put the beef on the grill for only one to two minutes. I like the barbequed taste of beef, but I think the texture can be improved if they serve thicker slices of beef.



2) 秘製燒汁黑毛和牛肋骨肉 (Special Kalbi beef): This beef is again served with scallions. The slice of the beef is thicker, but it is not fatty enough.

3) 米沢和牛香蒜五花肉 (Yonezawa beef): This is the best dish of the night, so we placed an additional order of it. The cut of the beef is from the belly region. There is a nice spread of fat within the beef.

Lastly, the restaurant was doing a promotion in which they ask patrons to kiss for at least 20 seconds and let them take a picture. When this is done, they would give out a free order of 愛情豚 (Love Pork). My husband and I did this and scored the free food.

Overall, this is a nice restaurant with decent food and nice ambience. However, the beef served in Hong Kong simply cannot be compared with those served in Japan. The ones served in Japan are so tender and smooth that it is far superior.

HOKAT Rating:
86/100

Address:
銅鑼灣謝斐道496號金利文廣場3樓
2117-4268

鴻星海鮮酒家 (Hong Kong)

Since my husband loves shark fin soup, we visited 鴻星海鮮酒家 for dinner. We ordered a family set dinner, which offers the following dishes:

1) 蟹粉小籠包 (crab roe soup dumplings): The soup dumpling is pretty juicy, and there is a nice aroma from the crab roe. However, the wrapper is a bit too thick. In my opinion, 翡翠 serves the best soup dumplings in Hong Kong.



2) 燒帶子: This is a big piece of scallop that is grilled on a beautiful shell. The scallop is pretty big and thick. However, it is little bit overcooked which made it slightly too chewy.



3) 雞燉翅: This is made from clear chicken soup, with a few clusters of shark fin in it. It is funny that my sister and brother-in-law complained that their serving do not contain much shark fin at all, while I got a bunch of them in my serving. However, since I was still recovering from a cold, I did not want to consume too much chicken soup.



4) 炸子雞 (Fried Chicken): The chicken meat is tender while the skin is slightly crispy. This is a unique variant of the fried chicken because it does not taste like it was fried at all. I guess it was only fried for a very short amount of time, and so it tastes more like 白切雞.



5) 炒飯 (Fried Rice): This is a promotional offer from using a HSBC credit card. We were so full from the other dishes that we did not eat much of it at all.



6) 清蒸石班 (Steamed grouper fish): This dish is made from fresh grouper. In most restaurants in Hong Kong, they serve fresh fish and not frozen fish because Chinese people believe that the most important criteria to tasty food is the freshness. The texture of grouper fish is very firm and chewy. I think the best cooking method is to steam the fish because this preserves all the original flavor of the fish.



7) 雷沙湯丸 (Glutinous Rice Balls with black sesame seed inside and rolled in peanut powder): This is one of my favorite Chinese desserts. The black sesame paste is melted inside of a sweet and gooey rice ball.



HOKAT Rating:
85/100

Address:
中環蘭桂坊雲咸街19-27號威信大廈地庫
2628-0826

Doraya (Hong Kong)

Craving for more Japanese food, we stopped by Doraya in Causeway Bay. We heard about them from a Hong Kong Cable TV show called “Find eats throughout the heavens and the earth”. The host, Michelle Lo, has tried their Toro Don and recommends it.

This restaurant is very small with about eight tables served by two waitresses. We ordered a Toro Don which is the expensive item in the menu, costing about $35 USD. We also ordered a Uni Don. Toro and Uni are two of our favorites.

The Toro Don is served with a generous portion of 9 thick pieces of toro which is pink in color. After the first bite, however, we were quite disappointed. The toro is served too cold. It almost felt like the fish has not had enough time to be defrosted yet. This greatly affected both the taste and the texture of the fish. In contrast, any raw fish that you get in Japan is served in room temperature.



The Uni Don is served with a portion that is equal to what you can get from five pieces of uni sushi. The uni is quite fresh but there is a bit of a saltwater taste. I prefer uni that is sweet in flavor.




After finishing the meal, we felt quite disappointed. Maybe our expectation was set too high after watching the interview in the TV show.

HOKAT Rating:
78/100

Address:
銅鑼灣駱克道451地下
2834-8851