Harakan-S: Read the menu first. Always.

Shop info:

Harakan-S Japanese Dining Room

Shop 311, 3/F, Lee Gardens Two, 28 Yun Ping Rd, Causeway Bay

www.harakan-s.com

5 August 2012, Lunch

$290 per head

Some say it is most important to at least read the menu before entering a restaurant – so you’d at least know what they serve and form an idea of the budget for the meal – and often Locust Tunghok and I would turn away from a restaurant if we don’t like what we see, or we simply think the food might not warrant the price.  This Sunday, however, we made this amateurish mistake of taking the risk to enter a restaurant via its backdoor, without even seeing the menu, and sitting down only to find that the menu isn’t as attractive as we thought.  It was lucky that we survived with just a minor hit to the bank, although that was a rather optimistic view of the events…

THE ENVIRONMENT

Located on 3/F of Lee Gardens 2, Harakan-S is the renovated and rejuvenated version of the previous Harakan.  We entered through the back door, through Habitu Ristorante and the Garden.  The furniture chosen creates a casual dining environment although I kept hitting my head on that interesting pink-sea-urchin-like chandelier.  The Japanese paper door styled partitions echoes the cuisine this restaurant serves and the green wall makes the dining room a relaxed place to be.

THE SERVICE

Nothing much could be said about the service.  The staff was sufficiently attentive, but given the format of the lunch there really isn’t much service required…

THE FOOD

So why not much service is required?  Because it’s a semi-buffet lunch.  Had we known that it is a semi-buffet we wouldn’t have entered at all.  Worse still, the choices at the semi-buffet were very limited, with only a handful of choices for appetizer and one (ONE!!!) choice of green tea cheese cake for dessert.  To add to the insult, I found on its website, when researching for this post, that normal lunch with appetizer trio (salad, chawanmushi and “daily special”) is priced much lower than our semi-buffet lunch.  How convenient – oh it’s Sunday, let’s turn it into an appetizer buffet so we can charge more and use less service!  Genius! 

As one would reasonably expect, since these appetizers have been sitting on the table for quite a while they weren’t in their prime condition at all… even the sauce has shown signs of drying…

Grilled Cod Marinated in Saikyo Miso (Semi-buffet:  $298.  Normal:  $258)

This Saikyo grilled cod was quite forgettable – normal flavour and slightly on the dry side, with skins that are quite burnt with a pretty strong charcoal taste.  Portions were rather generous but that hardly compensates for the burnt skin and the inflated price.  The equivalent of 3,000 yen for a mediocre Cod Saikyo Yaki?  Come on…

Classic Grilled Eel over Rice (Semi-buffet:  $228.  Normal:  $188)

I have only had a bite of the grilled eel and from that can only say it was a disappointment.  The texture of the eel was rather mushy and the flavour quite weak – a long way away from the ones we’ve tried in Izuei Honten in Tokyo or the one with egg cover at かねよ at Kyoto!  Again, a 20% premium for coming on a Sunday, for less service, is outrageous.  On their normal menu at least there is a chawanmushi…

CONCLUSION:

We should have read Timeout HK’s 3/5 review and avoided this place, or read the menu at the main entrance before coming in.  Personally I feel that given the quality the normal lunch set prices are already on the high side, but with this Sunday premium the overpricing is outrageous.  Perhaps they make better dinners, and perhaps the a-la-carte menu is superior, but we definitely would not risk our hard-earned dough again just 0to try those.  Not coming back.

Summary (rated 1-5):
FOOD:  (3/5)  Mediocre at best, very expensive for the quality.
SERVICE:  (3/5)  Not much service to speak of especially given it’s semi-buffet.
ENVIRONMENT:  (4/5)  Very comfortable.
BIG LOCUST'S RECOMMENDATION:  (3/5)  Maybe, if you’re willing to risk a not-small amount of money on a meal that will probably be less than satisfactory!

Further reading:  原了，就是完！@ Harakan-S Japanese Dining Room