Dinner @ Sushi Saito (Hong Kong)

October 28, 2018 in Japanese by thywhaleliciousfay

My August 2018 trip to Hong Kong came about because of Sushi Saito. Yes, Sushi Saito! I read about chef-owner Takashi Saito of Sushi Saito opening an outlet in Hong Kong in March 2018. But imagine my surprise when my friend suddenly sent me a text in mid March saying “I am invited to HK Sushi Saito for priority reservation. Interested?” Of course! That goes without saying!!! And with that, my friend went ahead and made reservation for us.

For lunch, 14 nigiri sushi and soup were served for HKD1480. As for dinner, Sushi Saito served 6 kinds of appetisers and 10 nigiri sushi with soup at HKD3280. Our choice? My friend and I went with dinner. And between the 2 seatings (6pm and 8.30pm), we went with the first seating. But to secure our reservation, we had to make a deposit. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do it with credit card. But thankfully I had a friend working in Hong Kong who helped us with the bank transfer.


Needless to say, it was with much excitement that my friend and I arrived at the restaurant. With only 1 menu that was made known to us previously, we started our omakase dinner (HKD3280) with:-

1) Dish #1 (above) – Horsehair crab (kegani).

2) Dish #2 (above) – Abalone (awabi) and octopus (tako).


3) Dish #3 (above) – 3 types of sea urchin. Starting from the top and in clockwise direction was short spine (bafun) from Hokkaido, red (aka) from Kyushu and violet (murasaki) from Hokkaido. The red sea urchin was awesome. Our favourite of the 3. And I further read that the plate used was 九谷燒 made during the Meiji period. Wow.


  

4) Dish #4 (above) – Mackerel stick sushi (saba bozushi) with crispy seaweed (nori).

5) Dish #5 (above) – Monkfish liver (ankimo).


6) Dish #6 (above) – Grilled tuna’s back cheek (kama-toro) with grated radish, served alongside eggplant.

  
  
  
  
  
  

7) Dish #7 (above) – Nigiri sushi assortment of big-eye snapper (kinmedai), striped jack (shima-aji) with chopped spring onion, gizzard shad (kohada), baby white shrimp (shiro-ebi), 2 weeks aged tuna (akami), premium fatty tuna (otoro), squid (ika), horse mackerel (aji), short spine sea urchin (bafun uni), and clam (hamaguri).

8) Dish #8 (above) – Soup.


9) Dish #9 (above) – Thick sushi roll (futomaki) of kanpyō (pickled gourd), cucumber, sea urchin (uni), sea eel (anago), tiger prawn (kuruma-ebi) and egg omelette (tamago).

  

10) Dish #10 (above) – Egg omelette (tamago) which interestingly had 2 different textures.

11) Dish #11 (above) – Musk melon.

For someone like me who could only dream of eating at Sushi Saito Tokyo, dining at Sushi Saito Hong Kong was an equally beautiful dream come true. But of course my dining experience could not be compared to the authentic ‘Sushi Saito experience’ as we didn’t have chef Saito san himself since he had to be back at his flagship outlet. Instead, the Hong Kong outlet was led by chef Ikuya Kobayashi who came from the Tokyo team.

Nonetheless, I was thrilled to finally try Sushi Saito’s signature dishes which Koba san brought to the table as close as he possibly could to Tokyo’s. Was super stoked to taste the cooked octopus (dish #2) and egg omelette (dish #10). In addition to the food that excited us, my friend and I had a fun time interacting with smiley and friendly Koba san.

Would I recommend Sushi Saito Hong Kong? Honestly… It’s my most expensive meal to date. And if one wants to be really picky and compare the price between Sushi Saito Hong Kong and Sushi Saito Tokyo, one could easily say it’s a total rip off. But! I was happy to part with the money because I am a huge sushi-lover and this would be the closest I could ever get to try ‘anything Saito’ since one needs to be a regular or be accompanied by a regular to dine at Sushi Saito Tokyo.

That said, even if one wish to dine at Sushi Saito Hong Kong, I was told by my friend that reservation at Sushi Saito Hong Kong is very much exclusive too. But do refer to their website for updates on the reservation process.

SUSHI SAITO HONG KONG
8 Finance Street, Four Seasons Hong Kong, 45/F, Central, Hong Kong
Overall: 8
Opening hours:-
Food/Beverage: 8
Mon – Sun : 12:00 – 13:30 (Lunch)
Ambience: 8
Mon – Sun : 18:00 – 22:15 (Dinner)
Value: 7
Service: 8

UPDATE: Restaurant was awarded 2 Michelin stars by Michelin Guide Hong Kong 2019.