12/07/2019
御の味 Kappou UO n
灣仔軒尼詩道256號The Hennessy 3樓
3/F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/quiet-place-for-japanese-dinner-e3473688
Quiet place for Japanese dinner
2019-07-12 29 瀏覽
I contemplated a few times whether to visit this restaurant or not as they specialize in Omakases but after reading Silverthoughts review I got another perspective and it is definitely more like kaiseki which I am more comfortable with.
For me, I prefer tasty food that is served in a creative way or using Modern techniques which are memorable or visually exciting.
According to the photos, there is less sushi and sashimi which I am good with because if I wanted sushi/sashimi I might as well go and have it at a Japanese restaurant and choose what I want.
To summarize, expect the unexpected or think of it as deconstructed Japanese food with their omakase interpretation.
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Started with Sakura Tea which doesn't have much flavour at the beginning but strangely gets stronger at the end of the night in terms of colour and flavour.
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The first dish was lemon smoked egg.
There was a cloud of smoke when the lid was taken off.
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The egg was glistening and there was a piece of duck breast as well.
It was a good start because I like lemon even I couldn't quite taste the lemon, however I could taste smokiness and a slight bitterness in the egg.
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Next was the seafood tartare.
It looked like a dessert at first because the avocado cream looked like thick cream and there was a slight hint of wasabi in the taste.
Beneath it was assorted sashimi, there was salmon, prawns and then right in the middle there was CAKE which I think I heard him say EGG, but anyway it was CAKE.
Overall, I liked the sashimi but the cake was a bit strange for me especially with raw stuff.
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The Tempura fared better because it was fancier in a positive way and not a weird way.
There was plain, truffle, rice crispy coated and salted egg yolk.
My favourite was the salted egg yolk which was wrapped in delicate beancurd sheet and not dipped in batter so you taste more of the salted egg yolk.
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This had to be one of the most memorable soups I have had.
It was served in a coffee siphon where the soup is drawn into the upper chamber when it is hot and infuses with the bonito flakes.
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The soup was poured into a bowl with Wagyu beef, yuzu pepper paste and garland chrysanthemum.
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The yuzu pepper paste and garland chrysanthemum definitely made it moreish but I didn't think they were needed as it over powered the bonito flakes even though I could smell it in the soup.
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The grilled chicken wrapped in rice paper reminded me of fish and chips newspaper wrap!
The top side was pretty burnt so you can't really see the Japanese print which is clearer on the other side.
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Overall, quite nice but it was slightly bitter.
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Before the sushi course started the yuzu sorbet was given as a cleanser for the palate.
The first sushi started with minced prawn in pink soy wrapper which is pretty and acts as an edible wrap as it doesn't have much flavour so it lets you appreciate the minced prawn and truffle paste.
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The second piece was salmon wrapped with lettuce which I liked because of the sesame salad dressing.
The taste was comforting as it can be related to Japanese appetizers / salads where they use this dressing.
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The third sushi was totally different from the rest as it was served on a plate.
It was foie gras on top of a cracker made of Japanese rice.
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Last but not least, this was my favourite!
It was a ball of glutinous rice wrapped in a leaf paired with crab paste miso.
I was so glad I got this and not eel because eel has so many bones.
The crab paste miso was very strong so I didn't put much of it on the rice ball but the rice ball was to my liking because it was starchy, sticky and soft with egg yolk paste.
Perhaps, I liked it the most because I love carbs.
The final sushi roll was topped with minced salmon and spring onions.
There was quite a fair bit of spring onions which made it spicy and there were crispy broken pieces of fried pancake roll wrap which added to the crunch.
Overall, quite creative to use crispy bits but the chef is also taking a risk in the sense that if the frying oil isn't fresh, then those crispy bits will ruin the roll.
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The last act was dessert which was toast with sugar paired with Kyoto fizz.
Another carbs delight for me but it could have been fancier.
The fizzy drink was good as some Kyoto flavours can be quite artificial and this one wasn't.
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Overall, UO n is a nice quiet place for dinner for the time being and you get a good one to one with the chef if you order the Japanese set dinner.
