Seafood Udon

grilled beef tongue

Restaurant Review!

Koheitsu l Causeway Bay l Hong Kong

I got the warnings about Japanese food in Hong Kong. It’s supposed to be relatively expensive and just not particularly good unless you are willing to pay hefty prices. On top of that, like many things Japanese, it’s popular as all hell here. Whenever I try to explain the quality of Japanese food back in Vancouver, I get infuriating looks of disbelief. Listen, do you see Japanese people in Hong Kong, because I don’t see many. More importantly, do you see Japanese people actually preparing the food? That’s a definite no.

I decided to give Koheitsu a try based on a strong recommendation from Dolars and the did menu looked promising. It had a decent selection and it got be really excited as I hadn’t had Japanese food in months. I drew a chorus of protests from Dolars and Caroline who were appalled with the amount of food I was ordering.

Koheitsu is a private kitchen opened and run by an ex-Hong Kong TV celebrity who spent some time in Japan and wanted to bring some of it back to Hong Kong. The room was intimate and the staff was especially helpful. When the food arrived, it all looked pretty good.

First up, a pumpkin salad that was sort of like a cold mash potato salad. It lacked the mayonaised / thousand island creaminess that you might expect and instantly made me miss of Guu’s pumpkin korokke. The grilled beef tongue with a side of Japanese mustard was very well done. It had that nice bounce and bite that you expect when it’s perfectly grilled. The sashimi was surprisingly good although once again, I am not a fan of the shrimp sashimi but there was a nice selection. The grilled steak looked excellent and it was perfectly grilled but it had a miso teriyaki sauce that just couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. The soy sauce flavor was just too strong and it ended up tasting more Chinese then Japanese. Close but not quite there. The grilled eggplant was bland and lacked the sweet notes that you get with a nice grilling. The shrimp tempura roll had rice that was over vinegered so that it was more suited for battera than sushi and the avocado wasn’t ripe. Miso grilled black cod was over grilled so you came away with a rough flakiness instead of the buttery smoothness that you should get from black cod. An udon with wondrous seafood soup base was excellent though very Cantonese tasting though the toasted salmon rice cakes with daikon pickles was a good way to end the meal.

I think that the thought process and ideas are all there but the execution is just a little off. The flavors just aren’t Japanese but I have to give them credit for what they are trying to do. They are trying to be authentic. I think that they have an honest desire here, they just might need to go back to Japan for a bit for a refresher.