Meat-lovers feast… that’s probably the best way to describe our dinner at 298 Nikuya Room. The barbecue restaurant had been recommended to us, and we tried it on our weekly date night. It is a mix of Japanese and Korean cooking, that’s why you will find kimchi next to wagyu meats on the menu.
We booked two days before, and on the day of the dinner they called us to ask if we would like to try their special menu for 990 HKD per person, but we decided to go for a la carte instead.
So when we arrived, we were sat at a table next to the bar, and we ordered a selection of wagyu meats (250g for 700 HKD) to share. It was great that the waitress advised us that this would be plenty. We had already plans to order 500g but she said that would be too much. That’s good to know.
We had seven different meats to try – and one piece per person. We were advised to eat them in a specific order, so we started with the ox tongue, followed by the outside skirt. Both should be grilled medium to well done, and we should add wasabi to the outside skirt piece. We did both and the meat tasted great, rich in flavour but still soft in texture.
Next up were the sirloin butt, H bone and tenderloin. These pieces should be grilled medium rare and we could either eat them without any seasoning, or we could dip them in sea salt, soy or a special sauce.
Finally we had Zabuton, which is the best piece of the shoulder and really great in flavour, and the fatty rib finger, which I enjoyed the least (just too fatty for my taste).
As sides, we shared the homemade kimchi (60HKD), a bowl of raw vegetables with miso paste (80HKD), tofu with onsen egg (70HKD) and a seafood pancake (100HKD). The sides were pretty standard – the kimchi was spicy but the portion was small, on the other hand we had a big bowl of vegetables and a big portion of tofu (but just one egg) – and a seafood pancake that seemed to be deep-fried as it was crispy outside but a little too doughy on the inside.
Would I come back? No. As much as I liked the quality and the taste of the meat, I felt the dishes were over-priced, and the sides were nothing special. We paid 1,330HKD for a nice dinner, but this is way too much – even for Hong Kong. I felt cheated that my two cups of green tea even cost 70HKD, which should come free at a Japanese and Korean restaurant. The service was friendly, the waitresses clearly knew the menu, and they were very efficient – but then there are many other restaurants that I would like to try first, before coming back to this one.
298 Nikuya Room
2/F Pearl Oriental House, 60 Stanley Street, Central
Telephone: 3568 9298
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