Sushi Shota
8/F Kyoto Plaza,
491-499 Lockhart Road, Causeway Bay
1 May 2011, Lunch
$165 per head
(Photo courtesy 蝗蟲同學 @ locusttunghok.blogspot.com)
It was a hot Sunday when we visited Sushi Shota for lunch -- so hot that the only possible lunch that we could think of was sushi. The shop was almost empty, with only a few tables occupied when we arrived, and at 12:40 that could only spell trouble. Nonetheless, we decided to give it a try.
I've been keen to watch the chefs work lately, especially at sushi joints, so when the waitress (probably aware that Hong Kong customers tend to prefer tables instead of the "bar table", or am I mistaken?) shown us to one of the empty tables I asked for seats at the "bar table" so we can have a view of the chefs' work. That, eventually, turned out to be revealing.
Choice of lunch, for us, was limited. It was either the 8 sushi + small rolls pick-your-own set ($150) or the 16 sushi recommended set ($forgotten). Seeing that salmon is listed as one of the pieces of the 16 sushi set it was a easy decision for us. Interestingly, perhaps business has been tough, certain items has been crossed out on the pick-your-own sheet, as shown below. We didn't bother to check what those items actually were, but as these forms goes the item above maguro is usually... chu toro. That's somewhat disappointing.
Further signs of trouble appeared when we ordered. I took quite a while to decide on the pieces I wanted but before I handed the form to the waitress, they have served the Japanese style steam egg (茶碗蒸し). Now being born and bred in Hong Kong, I surely appreciate efficiency. However at restaurants, especially at supposedly traditional Japanese sushi restaurants, I price freshness of food more than the speed it is served. I immediately wondered -- how long has this steamed egg been sitting in the steamer, waiting to be served? Way before lunch service, perhaps? This surely shows in the quality of the steamed egg (which, as shown below, was served in a... "container" which I personally thinks resemble that for creme brulee than Japanese steamed egg. But that's my opinion). Whist the flavour was there, the texture of the egg shows that it has been overcooked. The egg was nowhere near smooth. I have no trouble with preparing food beforehand, since it is necessary for the kitchen to properly function. But how difficult is it to push off the steaming until it has actually been ordered? So us, as customers, can be served freshly steamed 茶碗蒸し?
Further signs of trouble came when the chefs started to make our sushi. The Japanese chef (who I suppose is the head chef?) called out the items to be prepared and his team started work on it. Then the Japanese chef immediately started work on the... Gunkanmaki (軍艦)... Now I don't really have any trouble on the order they make my sushi, but since they took so long to make the nigiri and the hosomaki the nori was soggy by the time it was served.
The quality of the sushi in general was not bad (nowhere near good either!). The fish were fresh-ish except for the plastic-like, fishy 小肌. The rice for all the sushi were too big for my liking (look at the photo above -- the shrimp looks pathetic sitting on such a huge amount of rice) and the salmon roe sushi was so watery that in addition to soaking the rice, the "juice" overflowed on to the plate and soaked the rice of the eel sushi to the right.
The hosomaki wasn't much better either. We asked for negitoro maki and it was sloppily made. As can be seen from the photo above the ends of the small roll looked pathetic. The chopped spring onion was not mixed with the chopped toro (both were prepared early on and was sitting in containers in the desktop fridge) but was sprinkled on to the chopped toro before rolling (the chef was making that right in front of us). The result? Not only did the chopped spring onion not complemetn the negitoro, it was heavily to one side of the hosomaki, giving a strange experience -- one munch it's no spring onion and much again you'll get a mouthful. Weird. I certainly would expect better from a team headed by a Japanese chef! These chefs probably have the skills to make sushi properly, they just couldn't be bothered to do so.
This lack of passion, standard and professionalism was obvious in other areas as well. The bowl of salmon roe in the desktop fridge in front of us was about 30% full when we got there. Its contents were used a bit to make the two salmon roe gunkan for us. It wasn't used again during our lunch but before we left, we saw that the bowl has been refilled! Now if they refill the bowl every time instead of using it up, cleaning the container and replacing with a new stock, how fresh are their salmon roe going to be?
To further show such lack of standard, half way through our lunch the Japanese chef called the manager (?) over and talked to him in Japanese. The manager went out for a while then came back with... guess what... a packaged green tea pound cake. To my horror the Japanese chef then picked a knife and opened the packaging right in front of us -- then cut the cake into pieces and into a plastic box, perhaps to be served later. I do understand that at certain restaurants it is probably not feasible nor financially worthwhile to make their own dessert, but at least I would expect the chefs NOT to announce so blatantly their lack of standards in front of his customers!
The worst thing for our lunch was actually not the quality of the food, nor was it the service of the front-of-house team. The worst bit was the attitude of the chefs. Sitting at the "bar table" and watching them work, they gave me the impression they were not serious about what they're doing and didn't really give a damn: the Japanese head chef was joking to the other two chefs when making our sushi and I saw one of the chefs playing with his iPhone. That's definitely not something I would expect a professional chef to do when preparing food, even behind closed kitchen doors, not to say right in front of the customers!
Our dessert -- two scoops of ice-cream (I finished both since my locust friend wasn't feeling well), which were huge. That, however, could not make up for the disappointment we've had. The following photo summarizes our comments pretty well:
Summary (Rated 1-5)
Food: (2) I'd penalize the restaurant for the lack of professionalism.
Service: (3.5) not bad. Not particularly rude nor inviting. Quite typical of such restaurants.
Environment: (3.5) typical setting of these restaurants
Big Locust's Recommendation: (2) poor impression due to the attitude of the chefs and mediocre food.
Food: (2) I'd penalize the restaurant for the lack of professionalism.
Service: (3.5) not bad. Not particularly rude nor inviting. Quite typical of such restaurants.
Environment: (3.5) typical setting of these restaurants
Big Locust's Recommendation: (2) poor impression due to the attitude of the chefs and mediocre food.
