Little nugget's midterm exams are finally over this week. Needless to say, all of the people concerned can breathe a sigh of relief until the report card eventually comes out. But we are just going to enjoy the moment for now and a little indulgence certainly won't hurt.
Hidden in the basement of Kowloon Hotel shopping arcade, Nakame No Teppen (なかめのてっぺん中目黑) is a modern izakaya from Tokyo which has been on my radar screen for quite some time. In fact, when J.E.R.K. got together a few weeks ago, I recommended this place but only to have a better alternative came up at the end. So, this was an itch that I was happy to scratch.
I was hoping that we could sit at these Japanese tatami seats but without advanced booking, fat chance!
Oita shiitake mushroom (大分椎茸) – I've always enjoyed the produce from Fukuoka (eggplant in particular) so I was thrilled to start off the meal with some shiitake mushrooms from Oita.
I thought this was supposed to be chargrilled but there was no charred mark what so ever, only sweetness from the sweet soy.
Pollock roe in olive oil with French baguette (熱橄欖油明太子伴法包) – One of the many signature dishes here.
The pollock roes came on top of a pool of sizzling hot olive oil and what I thought were thin strips of arrowroot.
Following our server's instructions carefully, we started putting the spicy pollock roes and arrowroot on top of the baguette. Not bad.
Grilled crab miso in shell (蟹味噌甲羅燒) – Another popular item on the menu. This came with a bit of crab roes infused with miso and crab meat.
Sushi platter (壽司盛合) – Jelloman and little one were both happy to see this platter arrive. The scallops and toro in particular garnered some serious attention and we had to literally fight for half a piece of the sushi!
Australia wagyu yakisoba (澳洲和牛日式炒麵) – Growing up in Vancouver, we had a ton of Japanese restaurants (opened by Chinese people) and this yakisoba dish was one that I used to be very fond of as a kid. Hm.....I could still remember that flavor.
Grilled Japanese Junwakei chicken wing (純和雞手羽先) – Any good izakaya should have this on their menu. Perfectly crispy skin and the flesh was firm and flavorful. Very nice.
Slow-cooked beef short-rib with bone (燒慢煮牛肋肉) – We asked our server to make sure that the short-rib was a little more cooked than usual.
Despite looking a little dry, I thought the meaty short rib was reasonably tender and full of flavor. Not so much marbling though.
Homemade vanilla ice-cream sandwich (自家製雲呢拿雪糕三文治) – Only three desserts to choose from, their homemade vanilla ice-cream sandwich, matcha ice-cream and black sesame ice-cream. The vanilla ice-cream sandwich came highly recommended by our server cuz almost everything including the bread was made in-house.
This guy couldn't wait to get his hands on one of these ice-cream sandwich.
Arrrr......
I was told the bread was a little hard but the ice-cream wasn't bad.
Black sesame ice-cream (芝麻雪糕) – The black sesame ice-cream was a bit more grainy than some of the ones I had in the past. I could actually taste some of the black sesame seeds in the middle. Pretty interesting texture.
This is a pretty authentic izakaya experience. Too bad we didn't get to try all of the signature dishes out (i.e. grilled beef tongue, pollock roes etc.). Little nugget was already asking for a return trip but I told him let's wait a couple of months when they have some new items on the menu first.
Food Rating: 6/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop B3-01, B3/F, The Kowloon Hotel, 19-21 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2367-9368
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm, 5:30pm - 10:30pm daily
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