Hatsu Japanese Restaurant: Maybe cooked food is better?

Shop Info:
Hatsu Japanese Restaurant
G/F, Bank of America Tower, 12 Harcourt Road, Central


1 August 2012, Lunch
$230 per head

UPDATE:  A later visit ordering cooked food gave a much better experience.


I was filled with joy when I learnt a month or so ago that a new Japanese restaurant will be launched near my workplace where the barren dining landscape limits lunch choices to Café de Coral, Maxim MX, McDonald’s and Hokkaido Dairy Farm Milk Restaurant.  So when I discovered that it has opened I waked in without a second thought, on its third day of operation.


THE ENVIRONMENT
With its plain wooden table, leather seats, plenty of sunlight and the rather industrial pebble stone pile wall, Hatsu brings an air of simple refreshing elegance to the rather dull ground floor of the BoA Tower.  On the other hand, similar to the Burger King which occupied the same space a few months ago, the main dining area is quite open, with one side facing the rather busy McDonald’s.  If privacy is a concern or if you feel uneasy dining where lots of people walk by every moment, booking a table with the specific request for a table at the inner side of the premise along the full-height windows facing Cotton Tree Drive would be a good idea.  Traffic outside will unlikely be a significant concern thanks to the dense vegetation of the planters outside.


Be warned, though, that air-conditioning at certain locations may be very strong, such as where I was seated near the entrance…

THE SERVICE
Service was pretty standard here.  The waitresses were courteous and respond promptly when you signal for their attention and the manager came concerned when he noticed that I left half my sashimi untouched – more about that later.


THE FOOD
Some say ordering sashimi / sushi at a “Japanese restaurant” is a dangerous act unless the establishment is traditional Japanese with a Japanese chef at the helm, where chances of survival would be better.  Even I myself have warned friends against doing such a rackless thing.  Yet, this is exactly what I’ve done today – ordering a sashimi & sushi set lunch, but oh my, even the mentality of venturing where no sane person would go, for the sake of truly gauging the merits of this new restaurant, was not enough to prepare me for the shock I received when I saw this:

Sushi & sashimi set ($230)

The prevalence of the colour orange was appalling.  Maybe they have to pay their rent and bills, maybe they think the Hong Kong people like salmon sashimi, but I almost felt cheated that I was given the cheapest cuts possible for a price of $230.  Come on…

Let’s start with the maki rolls and the sushi.  In the front there’s the salmon, Japanese amberjack, tuna, shrimp and octopus.  The salmon was rubbery, amberjack mediocre, tuna not fresh and lacks texture, shrimp was tasteless and octopus… well I don’t usually eat octopus so couldn’t really tell.  Hell, although this is completely not a fair comparison in any sense, look at Locust Tunghok’s recent review of Sushi Xuan.  Although that sushi set was 50% pricier, the difference of quality is the best example of heaven and hell.


The maki rolls...  Salmon and cucumber.  Seriously?  I’ve had cucumber maki rolls at decent sushi restaurant too, such as this one at Sushi Iwa in Tokyo.  That, was a cucumber maki roll, refreshing and sliced up for better crunchiness.  Another version I’ve had at a location I’ve since forgotten had it finely chopped for a completely different texture.  Not this one.  This was a chunck of cucumber wrapped in rice wrapped in nori.  The salmon maki roll… was just that.

The sushi was not appealing, but the sashimi was worse.  The Japanese amberjack was tasteless and rubbery but edible.  The salmon was half-half, as in half of each piece tasted OK whereas the other half had a strange mushy texture.  One can easily buy better salmon sashimi in, for example, CitySuper.  The maguro, or toro as the manager claimed (tuna, anyway), was the worst of the three.  The fishiness of the tuna was not as pungent as the foul prawn sashimi we were served at Kyoto Joe, but bad enough that its non-swallow-able and had to be spit out.  The fishiness almost develops in your mouth, getting more acute with every chew.

How about the salad?  Again freshness was a problem.  Look closely and you’d realize the leaves were withered.  There was also a strange bitterness to the dressing which I couldn’t identify nor like.  This could be a matter of preference though.

The chawanmushi was perhaps the only dish which I marginally liked.  The egg was smooth and cooked just right, although the flavor was weak and lacks the layers of flavor usually found in better versions.  Not surprising since the only ingredients in the chawanmushi was the mushroom as shown, a 1/4 piece of Japanese fishball and a tiny piece of chicken.


The miso soup… I was furious enough by then that I couldn’t recall how it tasted.

Coffee was decent, but the size of the cup and its contrast with the creamer was baffling… 


CONCLUSION
So, this can be taken as the prime example of what not to order at a “Japanese restaurant”.  Had the price been $85, the quality of the food provided would probably have been less infuriating, but I would nonetheless suggest all raw items to be avoided like a plague.  Cooked food?  Maybe on a day when I’m feeling adventurous enough, I’d give those a try.


Summary (rated 1-5):
FOOD:  (2/5)  Cheap ingredients that’s not fresh sold at premium price.
SERVICE:  (4/5)  Friendly staff and proactive manager.
ENVIRONMENT:  (3/5)  Casual dining environment, too open.
BIG LOCUST'S RECOMMENDATION:  (2/5)  Don’t bother.  At least don’t bother with its sushi / sashimi.