Hong Kong - Shirokiya No.1 Japanese Casual Restaurant 白木屋居樂屋

One of the best things after a long afternoon/evening of tennis is the group that adjourns for dinner.  The Kowloon side is relatively unexplored for me and it's always nice to get to new places.  There are hits and misses of course but I thought that with the right expectations and knowing what to order, Shirokiya can be a hit. 

The key to success:  stick with the fun stuff and avoid the classics.  Classic sashimi and sushi are not the highlights here so you can give them a miss unless you really must.  It's an Izakaya for heaven's sakes.

What we had fun with and enjoyed:

The Japanese omelette stuffed with eel

The carpaccio of salmon, yellowtail with a light dressing. 

The dressing on this dish made the difference - with a Japanese twist, the tang was nicely balanced with the soya and dusted wtih crushed pepper, it was quite an appetiser.  Only complaint - the octupus was too chewy.  If you order this, see if they can substitute with more fish and give Octopussy a miss.  Other complaint: this was forgotten and came after we ate most of our other food. 

Hamburger Steak Sushi

An interesting combination of 2 classics.  Wasn't spectacular but few can complain about Japanese style hamburg steak. 

Crab meat pizza

The pizzas were surprisingly very good - thin crust and generous toppings.  The crab meat pizza was our favourite, followed by the teriyaki chicken.  Given the salmon a miss since we thought it was less than mediocre.

Korean style Kimchi fried rice. 

Surprisingly tasty and made even better with the bacon and eggs.  It was actually the first dish to arrive (did I say service is a little weird here) and the hungry wolves polished this off in about 45 seconds flat.

Curry hotpot

This took a long time coming and we were hoping to cancel since we were quite stuffed but they charged us for it and insisted that they were already preparing it.  It wasn't bad at all especially if you like your Japanese curry but we would have enjoyed it a lot more if it came in the thick of dinner.  Generous chucks of prawns, scallops, clams, chicken and accompanied by lots of cabbage, potatoes and carrots made the soup very sweet and drinkable. 

Lest I forget, the drinks list is pretty incredible- both alcoholic and non.  I enjoyed my white peach calpico a lot!  Very thirst-quenching!

While I won't go out of my way to eat at Shirokiya, it is a worthwhile option if you want  to check out the humongous MegaBox mall in Kowloon Bay.  Make sure you're in a good mood since the service can be a little trying too.

Unit 34, Level 2,

Megabox,

Entreprise Square 5,

38 Wang Chiu Road

Kowloon Bay

Tel: +852-2817 5788