HAKU curated by Hideaki Matsuo (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

It's been almost a year since HAKU opened its door at Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui and I was still trying to get around their children's policy (12 years or older only) without success. Thankfully, I was finally able to break the ice with the help of my blogger friend, Tony this week. Thank you, Tony! I owe you a BIG one here.



I have been following chef Agustin Balbi's career closely since his time at The Ocean. After his departure from Le Comptoir Group, I was pretty curious of what the talented chef had in store and as it turned out, he was getting ready for a new adventure at HAKU, a contemporary Japanese fine-dining restaurant with a European twist.



HAKU offers 2 multi-course lunch set comfortably priced at $380 and $450 respectively and there's also a tasting menu printed on the back of the menu (with no price printed) which we later found that come with a $850 price tag. The tasting menu was the one we decided to pick at the very end.



First up for us were a parade of small nibbles to get our palates ready. Those included a beetroot cone with salmon roes, dashi cream and shiso, and a skewer of Japanese flying squid.



They were accompanied by a cup of black tea consommé with katsuoboshi and chanterelles. A mini okonomiyaki was also in play, although I failed to recall the ingredients involved thanks a brief interruption by my little nugget.




I thought the beetroot cone was the clear winner here with all the different textures coming together nicely (though the beetroot flavor was a bit overshadowed by the rest of the ingredients) while the black tea consommé came in a close second with its clean and earthy flavors. Perfect palate cleanser and a very nice way to get things started.




Now that they've got my taste buds waken up, we were all set for the first course of the meal which happened to be one of HAKU's signature dish. On top of the crispy brioche toast, they have a layer of Hokkaido sea urchin (Grade A) and butternut squash purée, beautifully garnished with purple shiso flower.



This was a very nice dish to kick off the tasting menu. They made some recent adjustment to the toasted brioche to give it more crunch (heard some complaints about it being too soft before) and more importantly, they replaced the aubergine with butternut squash to give the Hokkaido uni a little bit of sweetness to work with. All these minor tweaks seemed to pay immediate dividends. Very creamy and tasty all around.



The second dish of the menu was Spanish octopus, which was nicely paired with sweet peas, mushroom and a pretty subtle brown butter sauce. A little less wow factor comparing to the previous uni dish but nevertheless a very solid offering.



Next up was Koshihikari rice, served with chunks of Alaskan king crab (鱈場蟹) legs...



The rice was cooked with togarashi peppers as well as hint of curry to give it that extra kick.



Before we moved onto our main course, I ordered something from the a la carte menu - a certain signature dish from the chef's deep repertoire. Meet our chu-toro which has been aged a bit for some nice acidity.



I have been waiting for this dish for the longest time. Chutoro and Polmard beef topped with kristal caviar and gold leaf which is as impressive as it gets on paper.



We were supposed to spoon a little bit of everything onto the paper-thin potato wafers.



With all the premium ingredients, this had to be perfect, right? Well, it's definitely not bad. The fatty tuna and Polmard beef tartare were really nice but I thought the caviar added an abundance of salt to the mix and along with the yuzu soy made the flavors a bit too overwhelming.



Our main course was Kagoshima A4 wagyu, another premium ingredient that we were quite happy to spot on the menu. They were cooked on a hibachis (火鉢), a traditional Japanese "cooking stove" with charcoal.



As soon as it's ready, the wagyu was placed onto a plate next to a white asparagus while our server spooned the sauce made with oxtail over the top. There were a couple of in-season items here, first a morel mushroom sitting on the top of the wagyu and then we had the white asparagus covered with dashi cream and anchovy.



I thought the wagyu was really delicious. The marbling was perfect with the usual melt-in-your-mouth texture, yet the proportion of fat was right on the money so I didn't feel like I was chewing on a piece of marshmallow.



Dessert was tomato from Fukuoka Prefecture. Inside the hollowed tomato were small tomato cubes, strawberries (also from Fukuoka) and yogurt foam all topped with a layer of granita made with strawberry and tomato water. The flavors were very clean and refreshing, which was a nice wrap following the parade of dishes with heavy flavors.



Finally, some matcha bon bon for everyone.



I was a little surprised to find HAKU's contemporary cuisine slightly less innovative than I originally expected but there was no surprise about all the premium ingredients. They were every bit as good as advertised. On top of their top-notch ingredients, I thought the execution on all the dishes was near perfect. Now I just need a way to get around the kid's policy again for my next visit.

Food Rating: 7/10
Price: $$$$
Address: Shop OTG04, G/F Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, 3-27 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2115-9965
Website: www.haku.com.hk