Mock sharks fin soup at 有咸有甜

Stopped by randomly because I had a craving for MSG so mock sharks fin soup was the thing for me!!!!

The staff were rather rude and snappy.

Anyway, the soup was ok, full of MSG and I just liked the mix of sesame oil, red vinegar and white pepper mixed in the thick viscous soup which made it addictive.
However the soup went watery after a few stirs.

Price and quality does not match

At this branch quite a lot of things are automated which reduces work for the staff so they can put their efforts into bringing food to the customers and inputting the orders to the POS system.

When you arrive, you key in the number of people and wait for the loudspeaker to announce your table.

Ordering is simple, you just write your orders on the sheet and pass it to the waiters.

Although there is not much interaction with the waiters, they were impatient in dealing with customers basic requests.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
[b]Grilled prime grade beef shoulder soba:[/b]

There was plain soba or this one so I chose this because the beef looked good.
However the beef was dry and chewy and the soba was tasteless and soft.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
[b]stir fried beef twenty with grain kama mesh:[/b]

This dish wasn't spectacular either and you could only see about three different types of rice so I wonder why it is called twenty grain!!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
[b]Soup:[/b]

The soup was tasteless.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Other branches:

◎ⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓖⓘⓡⓛ◎
[b]The bill:[/b] $1xx
[b]Service:[/b] crap
[b]Yummy factor:[/b] Could be better
[b]Napkins provided:[/b] yes
[b]Toilets:[/b] no
[b]Portion sizes:[/b] reasonable
[b]Noise levels:[/b] Noisy
[b]Glass of water provided:[/b] yes
[b]English Menu:[/b] Yes
[b]Air Conditioning:[/b] Yes
◎ⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓖⓘⓡⓛ◎

Interesting Sake experience

I don't often eat Japanese food because the menu is mostly in Chinese and Japanese.

Here they have an English menu but the specials on the board are in Chinese.

Anyway, we started off with hot sake and it was the most unique sake experience I have ever tried because they put dried fish wings in it to bring out flavour.

Here was what we had and we ordered quite a lot from the daily specials.

Started off with jerky, there was stingray fish fin jerky, puffer fish jerky and fish jerky.

My favourite was the stingray fish jerky which was crisp and chewy.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Warship topped with urchin, salmon roe and fatty tuna. $60 per piece

A delicious combination of fatty tuna, salmon roe and urchin.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Prawn wrapped in chicken skin $88

The prawn was succulent and tasty enhanced by the crispy chicken skin.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Charcoal grilled white eel $70

The eel was crispy, delicate and boneless.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Grilled Wagyu beef $120

The beef was juicy and meaty.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bone marrow stuffed with Alaskan crab $160

The bone marrow and crabmeat were surprisingly good together because it added some sweetness to the taste.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Foie gras toast $98

The foie gras was rich and soft flavoured by the miso wheat grains on top.
Beneath it was a slice of tofu puff which acted like toast.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Charcoal grilled geoduck $90

The geoduck had a strong sweet garlic taste.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Grilled xo tongue $50

The ox tongue was springy and meaty.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Charcoal grilled Alaskan crab legs $380

The crab was delicate and sweet.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Rolled pork with perilla leaves $48

The pork rolls were surprisingly juicy paired with tasty prune sauce.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pork chops $160

The pork chop was soft and supple.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Wings stuffed with fish roe, grilled cheese $45

Mentaiko lovers will love this, the chicken wings were stuffed with so much mentaiko that it was bursting with sweetness.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Grilled scallop with cod roe $80

This was a huge juicy scallop on a piece of crisp seaweed.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Although we were full we finished with desserts
The taro mochi and yuzu sorbet were my favourite.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Izakaya 88

Shop G, G/F., Fat Cheong Building, 73 Electric Road Tin Hau.

Pirate ship in the high skies

Before I went there I was excited about the view because it is on the top floor of 239 Hennessey Road.

When I arrived I was greeted with some great views of Wan Chai and Causeway Bay which reminded me of Azure in Central.

The decor was rustic and grand.

On the top floor it is a classy bar where you can have drinks and some bites before going downstairs to the restaurant.

After drinking a glass of bubbly we went downstairs to have dinner.

Here was what we had:

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
[b]Vitello tonnato:[/b]

veal, tuna, capers, mayonnaise, sicilian caper berries

Started off with a well-known Italian cold dish of sliced veal covered with a creamy, mayonnaise-like sauce that has been flavored with tuna.

It was creamy and had a strong tuna taste with tender thin veal slices beneath it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[b]arancini bucket:[/b]

Arancini are fried rice balls stuffed with mozzarella and served with tomato sauce.

They are called Arancini because the orange appearance makes them look like small oranges hence arancini because oranges are called Arancia in Italian.

They were quite fun to eat with stringy cheese in the middle but I would have liked a stronger tasting cheese.

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
[b]cheese selection:[/b]

Gorgonzola, Parmesan, Fontina , Pecorino

This was a nice selection of cheese ranging from soft to hard.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
[b]tagliatelle with Sicilian red prawns and zucchini :[/b]

The pasta was classic, each strand was covered in delicious sauce with pieces of fresh prawns and chunks of juicy zucchini.
The pasta is freshly made using their pasta machine and the texture is soft but still al-dente.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[b]purple potato gnocchi :[/b]

The gnocchi was creative because they used purple potatoes to give it a blueish purple colouring.
They were fluffy with a nice chew to it flavoured by the strong cheese sauce.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
[b]the butchers cut :[/b]

flank steak tagliata, rocket, cherry tomatoes

Flawless sweet and juicy tender beef!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
After having a satisfying dinner, we started on dessert.
[b]Crushed chocolate and dry nuts semifreddo:[/b]

Semifreddo is a semi-frozen desserts that has an interesting frozen mousse texture.

It was loaded with nuts and crushed chocolate which tasted divine!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
[b]panna cotta:[/b]

homemade raspberry coulis with fresh raspberry

Lastly we finished off with Panna cotta which I found a bit too sweet and the panna cotta was a bit too firm for my liking.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Overall the food and environment was good so I plan to try lunches next.

Pirata:
30F Hennessey Road
Wan Chai