心燒食堂 | Hong Kong

Rating: ❤❤❤

I was looking for a place to eat with another couple when I saw the promotion at 心燒食堂 for a free serving of uni if you visit on your birthday month, so I decided to book since my birthday just passed recently. It's located in L'Hart where there are several other Japanese restaurants in the same building. The decor was a bit bland and bare with dark wooden furniture and limited lighting. Even the bar area was unlit for some reason. The ordering was simple enough with a piece of ordering form where you can mark which dishes you want.  

Sea Urchin (free) - even though I had reserved the sea urchin at the time of reservation, I had to ask the waiter before it was delivered to our table. The sea urchin is supposedly from Canada, and while it was fresh, there was a hint of bitterness for some reason.

Signature Grilled Prawn ($68) - the prawns were deliciously crispy as the skins were crunchy enough to eat. The prawn was easy to eat right off the stick, and it was simply splendid! [5/5]

Grilled Minced Meat and Miso Eggplant ($78) - normally, I love eggplant baked with miso sauce but the addition of minced meat was a bit weird and made the eggplant taste too rich and heavy. [3/5]

Signature Minced Chicken Stick ($38) - the chicken was overcooked as the meat was really dry. [3/5]

Grilled Ox Tongue ($48) - the texture of the ox tongue was too soft for my liking while the flavors were a bit bland as well. [3.5/5]

Grilled Australian M8 Wagyu ($88) - the wagyu beef was succulent and scrumptious as it was cooked just right. The meat was soft and fatty with rich flavors. [5/5]

Grilled Sweet Corn ($38) - the corn was sweet and juicy to eat! [4/5]

Grilled Pork and Asparagus Roll ($32) - the pork around the asparagus was too dry with too little seasoning. [2/5]

Grilled Eel ($58) - the eel was grilled just right with a bouncy texture and delicate flavors. [5/5]

Signature Grilled Chicken Wings ($32) - the chicken wings were a bit dry and not that flavorful. [3/5]

Grilled Chicken Tendon ($22) - the chicken cartilage was quite crispy but way too salty in terms of seasoning. [3/5]

Grilled Cheese Ricecake ($38) - the ricecake was interesting to eat as the outer shell was chewy like mochi while the melted cheese was light in flavor. [4/5]

Soft-boiled Egg and Chives Rice ($36) - the rice was quite flavorful while the soft-boiled egg was cooked perfectly as well. [4/5]

Grilled Riceball ($32) - the riceball was grilled to a nice crispy state which was a surprising delight to eat as the last dish of our meal! [5/5]

Verdict - the food quality was alright but not the first place that would jump to my mind if I wanted to eat yakitori in Causeway Bay. Some of the dishes were quite good but the quality can be inconsistent sometimes. The service was probably the worst aspect of our meal as we had to wait a very long time for our food to come. They said that it was due to their ordering system so regardless of what you order - whether it's cooked food or not - the kitchen will make the food in the order it received. That explains why the food would come out all at once or not at all. I'd recommend to order everything at once as we had placed a second round of order and we had to wait quite a while before our next batch of food came. 

心燒食堂
22-23/F, L'Hart, 487 Lockhart Road, Causeway Bay 
2383 8686

Follow me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/supertastermel