Only for the environment and eating utensils @ 江川手打烏冬

I have bookmarked this place ages ago but never really made a real effort to visit this place, what’s even more surprisingly is that I always walk past it and never notice it, so it shows how it doesn’t stand out.

Today, it must have been late at night, and less people on the street, so somehow it stood out.

I bookmarked this place because of the semi transparent bowls and chopsticks they use, other than that I don’t really like to eat Udon, especially Udon in soup because it tends to be tasteless.

However I did hope for some miracle that it would taste nice like this shop in TST that is closed, the one with the shake shake black octopus udon.

Inside, the seating was quite nice, individual tables partitioned nicely, there were some nicer seats along the wall too with pretty colour changing optic lights.
Even on the bottom of the benches there was blue lighting, and the support to the table was clear acrylic pillars.

The skirting was pretty too, it was tiled with crystals and the mirror was very relaxing, patterned with bubbles.

Anyway back to the food, udon seems to be its main item on the menu.
Typically udon means its Japanese cuisine, however in this case, the outside of the shop doesn’t look very Japanese to me and its name makes it sounds like one of those China provinces.

Looking further at the menu, they do have some rather bizarre items for a Japanese restaurants.
I tend to find bizarre items in Mong Kok, most probably because the people there are more diverse and they expect all sorts of weird and wonderful combinations.

I was tempted in ordering mashed potatoes and escargot, and there were these rolls that were like Mexican tortilla rolls in Japanese style.
As for udon, there was at least ten different soup bases to choose from, the ones that stood out were: carrot, tom yum kung and bak kut teh. Considering they had tom yum kung, they should of had Laksa too!!!

good variety of soup bases

 

escargots!

 

Mexican looking rolls

 

I think carrot would have been nice, but I ordered bak kut teh instead.
I wish they had other noodles to choose from as well.
Apart from the noodles I also ordered stir fried clams korean style with asparagus.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bak Kut Teh Udon:
The soup smelt like bak kut teh, although there was a slight sour taste to it, as expected the udon was a bit tasteless.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Stir fried Clams:
The clams were quite big, however 90% of the were tightly shut, which was a nuisance opening them up.
The dish was a bit like one of those korean clay pots with sizzling ingredients, it had mushrooms in it as well.
The taste was a mix of yellow bean sauce and ketchup with a hint of chili and slightly smokey from the stir frying process.
The asparagus was buried right at the bottom of the dish, and only the stalks was served and no asparagus tips.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Overall the food is so-so, only the decor is nice.
The chopsticks were innovative, but unpractical, it was impossible eating the noodles as they kept slipping back in the bowl and splashing soup everywhere.

Really cool clear table leg

 

Cyber seating illumination

 

Relaxing bubble droplets on the mirror

 

Pretty dangling crystal droplets

 

Crystal studded skirting

 

colour changing crystals

Absolutely rubbish @ Urawa

Was given a flyer when I walked past, so studied the variety for the All u can eat lunch buffet. It costs $160 per person plus 10% service charge.

For that price, you can get reasonable all you can eat food at places such as Kaneda and this place in Central.
I chose this menu, because the menu was quite extensive, eg sea urchin handroll, goose liver on toast etc.

When I sat down, there were not many patrons there, the waitors laid our table with sauces and green tea.
I looked at the All u can eat menu, it was so flimsy, it was sheets of paper inserted into a plastic album, it had English, Japanese and Chinese, and it was hard to turn the pages as they kept sticking together.
The English-Chinese translations were a bit messed up, some meanings were different.

Anyway like any All you can eat places, I was expecting some pieces of paper for you to tick or write which dishes you want.

At least 4 items were not available, it should have been taken off the list or before we sat down we should have been told.

Unavailable items:
Spicy whelk meat
Pineapple and pumkin salad
Scallop cutlet
Goose liver on toast

When items were served, some items were served sparingly, only piece of surf clam with generous pieces of other sushi.
For the sea urchin handroll, only one was served per order.

If they had two prices for lunch and dinner, they should have separate menus instead of misleading people.

Ordering was difficult, I had to flick their flimsey booklet and order, usually the first round, you want to try everything, but the problem is their booklet pages are stuck together and it was a task trying to remember what to order.

The translations were messed up too, some of the chinese and english were different.

The menu was slightly misleading too, because some paid items were also on the all you can eat page, but you get charged for those items.

The fried items came first, some were overfried, especially the tofu, looking like a cochcroach. The banana tempura was worth trying.
The salmon sushi was not that good, because there was still silver membrane left on it.
The clams were totally tasteless, despite it was presented nicely with fake sharksfin.

The congee was ok.

Overall the environment was ok, the staff were ok, only the availablity and menu was misleading.
The price was too expensive considering the low range of choice.

The paper lantern was interesting, the paper slowly ripping off leaving the lightbulb.

tasteless

 

Overfried tofu

 

 

proves to be a shredded paper lantern

 

only one sea urchin roll

 

FIGHT!~Only one piece of surfclam in the middle!!

 

chicken abalone congee

 

banana tempura