Dinner @ Inagiku IFC

As a sort of unofficial celebratory dinner, Mr. C and I made an impromptu decision to dinner at the IFC branch of Inagiku~ Having enjoyed our previous experience at the TST location inside The Royal Garden hotel I was looking forward to see how the Hong Kong side Inagiku would compare.

Up on the fourth level of the Four Seasons hotel, the Inagiku commands a huge space. Cool and chic, there was no evident vibe of prententiousness despite it being a fine dining establishment. Aside from private rooms, diners can opt to sit at one of the teppanyaki tables for some live cooking action or for a more relaxed arrangement the general dining area is just as pleasant for soaking up the peaceful harbour views.

Wanting somewhere a little more quiet, we chose to sit in the general dining room. Looking through the menu, they do both a la carte as well as set options featuring teppanyaki which considerably were decently priced in a restaurant like this, but since none of the sets really piqued our interest we ordered a la carte.

A chilled Japanese tomato started off the evening for us. There is just something so special about Japanese tomatoes, ever so sweet and juicy with that beautiful deep cherry red colour. Paired with the sesame dressing it was most refreshing as an appetiser, albeit a bit small in size.

Sashimi-wise we ordered our usual selection of scallops and salmon. Plump, velvety chunks of scallop paired with luscious slices of fatty salmon. Simple, but good.

Mr. C knows I have a soft spot for Japanese tamago, hence he picked this for me 🙂 A roll of omelette cut into four generous pieces. When I bit into it, I was expecting sweetness and a hint of mirin to wash over me since Japanese tamago is usually prepared this way, but surprisingly it was salty. The egg was fluffy and moist, but I would have preferred it more had it been sweet.

A selection of tempura vegetables: pumpkin, gingko nuts, baby green pepper and baby corn. Inagiku is renowned for their tempura and it was easy to see why that is. The coating was subtly crunchy and for something fried it was deceivingly light with no heavy, greasy aftertaste. I really liked the pumpkin, soft, melting textures, but the sweet corn slice was my favourite~ each sunny yellow kernel popped with juicy sweetness.

Chawanmushi with sea urchin. Always a delicate dish, a bowl of steaming egg custard in all its wobbly glory crowned with a touch of sea urchin. Hidden inside the smooth custard were an assortment of mushrooms, prawns, gingko nuts and to my delight sticky balls of mochi~

For mains, we had teppanyakied lamb cutlets. They were a touch overdone resulting in a slightly chewy mouthful, but still acceptable.

We ended our meal with wagyu beef fried rice and assorted vegetables. The rice was cooked just right, nicely dry where each grain of rice clumped easily together to be picked up by chopsticks and although the diced pieces of wagyu beef scattered throughout was lean, its fragrant flavour was still detectable with each mouthful.

To me, assorted vegetables served from a teppanyaki grill generally consists of a jumble of bean sprouts, mushrooms, cabbage and carrots, but not the version here… The ‘assorted’ vegetables was just a big plate of cabbage with a few julienned carrots and greens thrown in for colour. Nothing can really go wrong here as it was mainly a matter of using fresh produce, but the name was unfortunately misleading…

There were both hits and misses to the evening, but overall the quality of food was still considered to be above average. Despite this branch of Inagiku being situated in a more spacious environment with spectacular views, I think I still prefer the one in TST…

Belated Birthday Dinner @ Inagiku TST~

I must admit I feel a little guilty as I have more than indulged myself in fine dining as an excuse to prolong the celebration of my birthday. This dinner at Inagiku was actually organized by Mr. C quite in advance as a belated celebration for my birthday (thank you~, and also thank you for celebrating on the actual day too :p) and as an additional surprise, he managed to book the special Teppanyaki chef Inoue Masami who combines both Japanese and French touches in her cooking technique and her demand is culminated even further as she only serves a limited number of tables per night.

We were served a Japanese version of amuse bouche from L-R sea cockle, grilled fish and marinated jelly fish. I quite enjoyed the jellyfish as it was marinated in a zesty citrus dressing which helped whet the appetite.

Our sashimi platter came next and although it was more simply presented than other platters I have seen, the glistening luster from the generous cuts of sashimi was just as alluring. From L – R we had the Botan shrimp, scallops, toro, salmon belly and yellow tail. This was absolutely amazing. The botan shrimp were so sweet and had a pleasant bite to the texture, the scallops were meaty and very tender, the toro and salmon belly were to-die-for, so perfectly marbled that it just melted in the mouth and the sweetness from the yellow tail lingered in the mouth even long after the last bite had been swallowed. Loved it~

In addition to our sashimi, another raw delicacy we had was the glow-in-the-dark squid. Yes it looked quite unappetising so I was a little reluctant to try, but Mr. C said it tasted better than it looked so I thought might as well. There was no doubting that the squid was very fresh, but you could really only taste the strong flavour of the marinade which was heavy on the soy sauce and citrus. I found the texture to be too chewy for my liking though.

Inagiku aside from being renowed for their teppanyaki are also famed for their tempura. However, since I am not a huge fan of fried food, we only ordered a small serving of tempura and were served a small assortment of deep fried sweet potato, shrimp, fish and corn. Mr. C seemed to enjoy it, and under his urging I did end up sampling a morsel of the corn. The corn itself was sweet and juicy, it actually sprayed juice when I bit into it, but what was surprising was the batter.The batter was fried to a good texture with a slight crunch showing that it was not overcooked and it tasted pleasantly light and not overly greasy. Even though I am still not partial to fried things, I can appreciate why this is considered one of their specialities.

After all our entrees, I was already starting to feel full, but our meal had barely even started. It was now Chef Inoue’s time to shine.

Our first teppan dish was a Japanese oyster with red bean and oyster sauce. This was quite normal, the marinade was quite strongly flavoured and salty, but I liked it, It actually reminded me of the Chinese black bean sauce.

Next we had two types of fish. First was one of my favourites- cod fish. The meat was perfectly cooked where it was firm, but still flaked off easily with the prod of chopsticks and the natural fattiness of the fish gave it a beautiful buttery texture. The skin was seared to a nice crisp and I found myself enjoying that the most.

The other type we had was sole fish. This was also quite good, where the meat was more soft and tender. Chef Inoue concentrated on making the edges of the fish (the fins) extra crispy so it added a contrasting crunchy texture.

Our last seafood dish was abalone with green peppers and ginger sauce. The abalone was very fresh by the pleasant chewy bounce on the teeth and the peppers were surprisingly not spicy, but rather provided a hint of flavour that complemented the ginger sauce.

The meat selection for that night was a portion of beautifully marbled A4 Saga beef. When asked by Chef Inoue how we would like it cooked, we requested for her to decide, and she seared it to a perfect blushing medium rare. The exterior of the meat was seared to a slight crisp, sealing in all the goodness of the melted fats which resulted in a gorgeously juicy mouthful of good quality beef. I really enjoyed this, but would have loved it more if I was not so full =.=

During the cooking of the steak, Chef Inoue sliced off the trim of fat from the saga beef and cooked it separately till most of the fat had liquified, leaving behind the solid bits fried to a crispy golden brown. The oil was used in cooking our fried rice and the fat leavings were scattered on top of our vegetables. The fried rice was cooked quite well, where the moisture had evaporated enough so that each grain of rice was cooked to a pleasant chewiness and there was a slight sourness to the rice from the addition of ume (sour plum). It could have done with a bit more soy sauce though as it was a little bland. The vegetables was the standard addition to any teppanyaki dinner, very fresh and cooked just right, but like the fried rice it was lacking a little in the sodium department.

We were also served a bowl of hot miso soup which was very comforting on the stomach after such a heavy meal.

For dessert, I was quite happy to be served a couple of slices of fruit and a scoop of sesame ice-cream. Mr. C had the yuzu sorbet, but I did not try it.

And so I thought it was the end to quite an incredible meal, until the waiter brought out a beautiful pink rose cake. I was so stunned! The rose cake is actually the signature cake made by The Royal Garden Hotel (yes you may be thinking it looks the same as the one from Tony Wong, but that is because Tony Wong used to work at The Royal Garden Hotel prior to opening his shop hence maybe the similarity). Layers of thin pink tinted white chocolate molded and teased into the petals of a gorgeously blushing rose in its full bloomed state. Hiding inside, was a layered sponge cake with fresh cream and strawberries sandwiched inside. When I cut into the cake, the alluring fragrance of strawberries permeated the air, making me eager to taste it. I must admit I am not normally a fan of sponge cake and cream, but this was quite good, the sponge was firmer than what I expected, giving it more substance and the classic combination of strawberries and cream did not fail to please.

Thank you to Mr. C for going to all the trouble of preparing the cake. Really really appreciated~!

I loved the sashimi immensely and the teppanyaki part of the dinner was good too, but it did become a little monotonous after a while. Despite this, I was still glad to have had a chance to try Chef Inoue’s cooking skills.