Shabu Shabu Le-Ta-Su New Town Plaza 一人一鍋 沙田新城市廣場 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Literally meaning 'lettuce' in Japanese, Le-Ta-Su is one of Japan's hottest solo shabu shabu restaurants with multiple locations across Japan. We had the pleasure of visiting their branch in Shibuya last Christmas with a couple of friends and left really impressed. Now that they have finally opened their first outpost in Hong Kong, we decided to venture over to Shatin for a highly anticipated hotpot dinner tonight.

This branch of Le-Ta-Su is located in New Town Plaza and not surprisingly during its first month of operation, the place was already buzzing at 5pm. Yes 5pm!

Diners can choose from a variety of delicious options including a choice between five gourmet soup bases with the cheapest solo set starting at $68 only. This, however, looks like a different format from what they are offering in Japan. In Tokyo, they are only offering all-you-can-eat sets that starts around 3,000yen!

I got myself a basic set with add-on beef and seafood. 

For my soup base, I opted for a simple kombu dashi. 

While my broth was heating up, I started getting my sauce ready. Just Japanese sesame sauce and sweet soy for me, not chili for tonight.

Each of the eleven sets comes with this vegetable bowl with Japanese imported lettuce, pumpkin, mushroom, carrot and more.

But I was more focused on my fatty beef fillet 😋😋.

Some add-on options including prawns, scallops and minced shrimp mousse.

I thought the dashi worked well with the meat, seafood and vegetables.

After the meal: the happiest guy on earth right now. He got his financial backing for his candy.



This was a decent solo shabu shabu experience but having had a sneak peek into Le-Ta-Su's offerings in Japan, we couldn't resist drawing comparisons between the two. And Le-Ta-Su easily wins with its all-you-can-eat option (Around HK$150 only!) and 30 different soup bases. It wasn't even close.

Food Rating: 5.2/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 105, 1/F, New Town Plaza Phase I, 18-19 Sha Tin Centre Street, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Shatin

Tel: +852 2676-3688

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 10:30pm daily

Fine Foods (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

A week since we came back from our trip and we are still singing the post-trip blues (at least I am). It bothered me to a point that I almost forgot about Jelloman's birthday this weekend! Fortunately, I woke up just in the nick of time for damage control and rang Fine Foods up for a birthday cake.

They didn't have a lot in stock for walk-in customers and I thought the Watermelon, Strawberry and Rose Cake (西瓜士多啤梨玫瑰蛋糕) stood out as the perfect choice for summer.

Although it didn't receive as high a score as the one from Lifetastic, it has got all the flavors and textures right.

Apart from the watermelon, strawberry, and rose flavors, I thought I also tasted a subtle almond fragrance in the cake. Not bad.

Food Rating: 6.7/10

Price: $$$$

Address: Lobby Level, The Royal Garden, 69 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui East, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: East Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 2733-2045

Website: theroyalgardenhotel.com.hk/index.asp

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 8:00pm daily

Nan Tei Yakitori The Pinnacle 南亭 凱譽 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

It has been a week since we returned from our trip, yet many of us are still struggling with sleeping issues due to jet lag (including yours truly). Not surprisingly, I nearly forgot about Jelloman's birthday this weekend!

Nantei Yakitori (南亭) was a place Jelloman and I visited on a number of occasions during our dating days. In fact, I recalled we met there at their Soho branch on our second or third day so needless to say, it brought back a ton of memories. This branch at The Pinnacle (凱譽) Tsim Sha Tsui has been around for more than a few years now but it was not until tonight, on this special occasion, that we felt motivated to finally give it a try.

They had two types of condiments ready for us, including the sea salt which would be a nice fit for most of their skewers.

Grilled bean curd (燒豆腐) ($33) – We got the ball rolling with a couple of these grilled tofu which was crispy on the outside and soft (piping hot too) on the inside. Solid start!

Hot soba (蕎麥麵) ($89) – Little nugget got himself ready with a bowl of soba. This came with mushrooms and seaweed.

Asparagus wrapped with pork (蘆筍豬肉卷) ($42) – Very nicely done.

Cuttlefish sausage (墨魚香腸) ($34) – We don't see this very often at the other Japanese yakitori shops. This wasn't bad. Couldn't tell what the white stuff in the middle was. Water chestnut? Fat?

Chicken wing (手羽先) ($46) – Any good yakitori shops should have a killer chicken wing skewer and they have one right here which was seriously good. Addictive too.

Nantei Original grilled beef tongue (南亭元祖燒牛舌心) ($59) – Perfect texture here and the thick-cut portion offered a delightful mouthfeel.

Homemade Nankotsu tsukune (月見免治軟骨雞肉棒) ($58) – Perhaps the only blemish tonight. I was expecting this to be really meaty and full of flavors (and textures) but it wasn't. The finger-shaped Japanese meatball was missing some nice smoky flavors, although the sweet soy (with egg yolk) came to the rescue.

Pork sausage on chicken bone (雞骨豬肉腸) ($26) – One skewer we could do without was the pork sausage.

Japanese Scallop (日本帶子) ($76) / Japanese oyster (日本蠔) ($62) – Somehow both of these were not perfectly charred. When I saw this oyster skewer, I was immediately thinking about the impressed oyster skewer from Nishiki Yakitori (錦), although I recently heard that it was permanently closed now.

Okra (秋葵) ($26) – Always enjoy the textures of these grilled okra. 

It's always nice to walk down the memory lane once in a while. This culinary experience not only satisfied our cravings for Japanese skewer but also transported me back to a time when I first returned to Hong Kong for work as a naive and inexperienced young man. It was more than just a birthday celebration for my better half.

Food Rating: 6.6/10

Price: $$$$

Address: Shop 9, G/F, The Pinnacle, 8 Minden Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 2736-2500

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm (Mon - Sat), 5:00pm - 12:00am (Mon - Sat), 5:30pm - 12:00am (Sun)