Yardbird (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

It's safe to say that Matt Abergel, the owner-chef of Yardbird, knows something about Japanese cooking. After all, here's a guy who has worked at the 3-star Michelin Japanese restaurant Masa in New York for an extensive period of time and was later the head chef of Zuma Hong Kong.

But Chef Abergel's latest project, Yardbird, was a little different this time. Instead of sushi and oden, this place primarily serves Japanese style skewers covering every part of a chicken from neck and liver to knee and tail.

Yardbird was launched back in 2011 and was an instant hit becoming the hardest table to get in Soho. Not only has it created a buzz in the culinary scene of Hong Kong, it has also garnered serious attention from around the world. That was reflected in the inaugural edition of the Asia's 50 Most Restaurants in 2013 in which they beat out some stiff competitions in becoming 46th best in Asia.

There is a no reservation policy at Yardbird so a long lineup was expected on any given night. But much to our pleasant surprise, we were seated only 5 minutes after passing through that door.

Yardbird Caesar, 5/10
The proper way to order for a party of two, according to our server, was to first grab one starter to share, then about four to five skewers per person and finally finish with one main course and then one rice.

And so we followed his instructions carefully by starting with the Yardbird Caesar salad. Shredded lettuce and cucumber topped with seaweed, crispy anchovy and miso sauce. Not your typical Caesar salad but it was nevertheless very refreshing and enjoyable to our taste buds.



Breast, wasabi, soy sauce, 3.5/10
Skewers were next. We were told by the restaurant manager that the chicken "oyster" is the best part of the chicken but what a shame they were all sold out by 8pm already.

Instead, we settled for their chicken breast that was served with wasabi and soy sauce. Disappointingly, the chicken breast was more on the hard side and the seasoning was a little flat even with the addition of wasabi and soy sauce.



Fillet, yuzu, miso, 4/10
Honestly we couldn't tell a chicken fillet from a chicken breast. The only differentiation was the sauce itself. This one was a lot more flavorful with yuzu and miso but still the culprit was the "roughness" of the fillet.



Wings, sea salt, shichimi, 6.5/10
We were just glad to have seen the last of chicken breast / fillet. Chicken wings were next and this was very good. Each of the wings was roasted with sea salt and shichimi. That was a yakitori classic! 

Rib, tare, sansho, 5.5/10
The chicken ribs marinated with their special homemade tare, soft, tender and flavorful.



Meatball, tare, egg yolk, 8/10
The "meatballs" were rumoured to be a must-try here and they were absolutely superb. Minced chicken meat was mixed with a little bit of soft bones and then roasted to perfection. A special homemade sauce (tare) and egg yolk combined to provide the perfect finishing touch.



Razor clam, shichimi, 8/10
We tried two non-chicken dishes here and the razor clam was easily the better one out of the two. First and foremost, the portion was quite generous and what a surprise to have razor clams baked with shichimi.

Absolutely delightful!



Pork Belly, Ponzu, 7/10
Pork belly was our other non-chicken dish. The texture was a little chewy but I liked the finishing with spring onion and a thin Ponzu sauce.



By the time we finished our skewers, we were already too full to take on another main course and rice. So a small sake before settling the bill.








Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: 33 Bridges Street, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Central / Hong Kong Station
Website: www.yardbirdrestaurant.com
S. Pellegrino Asia's 50 Best Restaurants: 46th (2013)

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