Gonpachi - Iwate Fair

Price: $$$$

Cravingness: ★★★★☆

So you have known from my previous review on Gonpachi that Gonpachi is a famous Izakaya originated from Japan and they are passionate in bringing the best quality Japanese ingredients and Sake to Hong Kong. Recently Gonpachi continues its motto and brought back fresh ingredients from Iwate and created a seasonal menu available from now until the end of March. So grab your chance before it's too late!

Iwate, being the North East of Japan is blissed by nature and surrounded by spectacular snowy mountain and ocean where it holds the perfect habit for livestock and marine. Several unique ingredients such as melt-in-your-mouth Wagyu, succulent platinum pork, seasonal oyster and crunchy Fuji honey apple are a few that CEO Paul Kwok brought back for us. The clean mineral snow water from the Hakkaisan Mountain is one of the reason that Iwate breeds such high quality livestock and seafood.

Char-grilled Whole Iwate Scallop on Shell $98/pc

This is one hell of a scallop! One truly unique texture scallop that I have never tried anything similar in my life. It still had the smoothiness that all great scallop offers, but on top of that there was some chewy muscularity in it too. Seriously interesting!

Fresh Oyster with Ikura Cocktail Sauce - HKD88/pc

The oyster from Iwate is big and fat. I don't usually love big oyster as I am more of a French Oyster kind of person, but this big guy from Iwate was decent - it was sweet and smooth. The Ikura and cocktail sauce gave great flavour to the oyster. One slight downside was there was not much mineral taste to the oyster which I love.

Grilled Oyster with Yuzu Dashi Sauce - HKD88/pc

Another way to savour the Iwate oyster is by grilling on Gonpachi's fabulous Binchotan Charcoal. The sweetness of the oyster was kept and the grilling brought out the creaminess of the oyster! The yuzu brought a fantastic zesty note to the oyster.

Iwate Apple Caesar Salad with Crispy Iwate Pork Belly - HKD128

Fresh ingredients turned one ordinary salad into something spectacular. The bacon was paper thin and was EXTREMELY crispy. They were strong in flavour and had a nice smoky aroma. The Fuji apple was sweet, crunchy and juicy. The sweet onsen egg on top acted as a healthy dressing alternative but I think 1 egg was not enough for dish this big. There was also some mushy potato bits within the salad.

Deep-fried Iwate Pork Rolette with Apple and Ume Sauce - HKD148

Oh my oh my! Another one hell of a dish! This deep fried Iwate port rolette is like German Strudel and is truly addicting. The crispy breaded layer, the smoky and succulent pork, the caramelised apple and ume sauce were best thing on Earth. Yell for more!!!

The Kushuyaki

One can never leave Gonpachi without a smoky kushi grilled on the especially imported Binchotan. I had a skewer of Eel - HKD48 where its juicy oil burst in your mouth on your first bite. The eel skin was superb crispy and was nicely salted. YUM....

The Chicken Soft Bone - HKD38 was another excellent kushi. The yaki juice was trapped within the kushi while grilling and the juicy oil again burst in your mouth on your first bite! There are also melt in yo mouth fat in between chewy soft bones.

The Tempura

Tempura were as expected nicely executed. I had the Live Prawn Tempura - HKD138 which was sweet and juicy. I also had the Sweet Potato - HKD48 & Pumpkin - HKD48 for my veggie crave.

Seafood Hotpot with Iwate Cod Fillet, Prawns, Scallops and Clams - HKD268

This is an very interesting hotpot as the pot is literally paper. Of course it is an especially made paper from Japan, but the idea of using paper is very creative and beautiful (although it does not sound too environmental friendly.) Again all ingredients are from Iwate, there was the interesting scallop that I had earlier on along with some sweet prawns, clams and veggie within the pot.

Seiro Soba - HKD88

Seiro Soba is for sure the item that cannot be missed in Gonpachi. The night we went to Gonpachi, the Chef was making some fresh ones in house. How lucky! The buckwheat noodles was very delicate with a mild wheat flavour that lingers on your palate.

Soba Pancake with Caramelized Iwate Apple and Vanilla Ice-cream - HKD88

The soba pancake was delicious but the buck wheat flavour was weak. I could not tell it is made of soba if I am having it blind folded.

That's pretty much the end of my Iwate dinner, but here is a sneak peek of the next big events at Gonpachi that I am going to review later.

Hakkaisan Sake Carnival

featuring quality sake producer Hakkaisan from Niigata prefecture.from now until 15th April 2014

Kumamoto Fair

featuring fresh ingredients imported from Kumamoto, launched by the cutest thing on Earth Kumamon.

Rating
Food - ★★★★☆
Service - ★★★★☆
Ambience - ★★★★★
Overall - ★★★★☆

Gonpachi 權八居酒屋

Address (E) 4/F, The Lee Gardens, 33 Hysan Avenue, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Address (C) 香港銅鑼灣希慎道33號利園商場一期4樓
☏  2787 3688
Opening Hours: Sun - Thu: 11.30am - 1am, Fri - Sat: 11.30 - 2am
Reservation Available? Yes
Walk In Possible? Yes

Website: http://www.gonpachi.com.hk/


Date of Dining: 15 March 2014
Bill in Total For 4 (Dinner inc alc) - HKD1445
Bill Per Person (Dinner inc. alc) - HKD$723

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