Inakaya: Sky Dining In Hong Kong

Beautiful things, most of the time, show up unexpectedly!

Despite a busy schedule, I visited the two fine restaurants: Robuchon au Dome and then Amber during my trip to Hong Kong. When it was time to return, “Inakaya” embraced us with its delicious Japanese dishes. I couldn’t resist the magic of two words: “Japanese cuisine”, and I headed towards the lift to push the button for the 101st floor.

With a view looking over Hong Kong skyline with the dazzling lights of Victoria Harbor, International Commerce Center (ICC) is the highest building in Hong Kong and the fourth highest one in the world. It is literally a gourmet skyscraper housing high-class restaurants such as two-star-awarded Japanese restaurant, “Ryu Ghin” which serves “Omakase”, meaning that that there is not a menu and you leave the choice to the chef; “Dragon Seal” which offers and promotes the Cantonese cuisine; “Inakaya” which offers robatayaki and teppenyaki dishes, and Sky Dining 101 and its stars that shines over Kowloon.

Inakaya welcomes its diners through a passageway where an array of sake barrels are lined on both sides. The tables are categorized separately for different menus. Aside from the main courses area for Teppenyaki and sushi bar, the Robatayaki area is the most famous room in the restaurant even though it does not have a view of the harbor.

In Robatayaki area, the ingredients which are sourced on a daily basis and A5 wagyu steaks are cooked and grilled by the talented chefs like Motohiro Muraoka and Fujio Nakao. Once the meat is done with the help of the giant grill, the chefs serve the dishes with the help of a peel-like tool. Since it would take at least 3 hours to dine in that colorful room; we went for the more-classical tastes and grabbed a table in the main area to start our sky dining experience with a great view of the city stretching towards the horizon.

We chose dishes like sushi and sashimi since they would take shorter amount of time compared to the others. The night started with almost a masterpiece: sashimi. I couldn’t touch it for a while not to spoil the artistic presentation. As it included botan ebi shrimp, the belly of the fatty tuna toro, sea-urchin, scallop and the Japanese yellowtail fish hamachi, the taste was so palatable that it just enchanted me! Even when it came to horo, it was just a dance of tastes. Furthermore, although the other diners at the table did not prefer to do so, I went by the Spanish and the other Mediterranean traditions, and I ate the heads of the botan ebis since they were very fresh.

The second dish was a familiar taste, spicy tuna roll. It put a smile on everyone’s face with the first bite. So we can say it was loved by the jury.

The following dish, again, looked and tasted amazing: crab roll. The edible soft-shelled crabs were garnished with the flying fish caviar. They were properly deep-fried so that the crispy crabs did not lose anything from their taste or soaked in lots of oil.

One of the classical dishes that I can’t say no to, unagi was another taste that deserves an applause.

While we were munching on the unagi, the heavenly smell that came from the kitchen allured us into immediately ordering wagyu grilled on teppanyaki. Its taste just redefined the word “alluring”.

The first wagyu dish was wagyu beef tenderloin which was accompanied by small garlic chips. Their taste made me feel like I was in Japan. The tenderloin was followed by a marvelous cubed ribeye.

When I saw the Japanese dish udon on the menu, I immediately ordered one. It is a kind of pasta made with basic ingredients such as wheat flour, salt and water. Although it looks a bit simple, it takes 7 years of training for the chefs to spread its dough. Following, the Japanese mushroom, carrot, tofu and greenery in a hot pot crowned the dining experience.

Finally, we had misu soup but I thought it was not duly prepared and recommended the chef to add heads of botan ebi to enrich it. When they added some, we ended our night with that dish instead of a dessert.

If you are a fan of Japanese cuisine like me, I recommend you to go to Kowloon right across the harbor to watch the city from the highest point of view if you happen to be in Hong Kong. Because, not only your body but also your soul will climb to the heavens at Kowloon.

Bon appètit and enjoy the taste of life…

Inakaya

www.jcgroup.hk/restaurants/inakaya

+852 2851 7930 / 2972 2666

Inakaya. Shop A, 101/F, International Commerce Centre,

1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui,

Hong Kong.