Nobu Hong Kong

One of my favorite restaurants in Hong Kong is Nobu in InterContinental Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. I’ve eaten there a number of times but I can’t believe the only time I wrote about it was way back in 2009 and it was one of my first few posts.

You get a gorgeous view of the Hong Kong harbour and the iconic buildings on the other side.

All the times I’ve eaten at Nobu I ordered the rock shrimp tempura with spicy sauce. Each time I promised not to order it so I can try something new. Each time I failed. I really can’t not order this! Nobu’s lightly battered fresh shrimp and fried to a crispy and coated with a mildly spiced mayonnaise based dressing is the original and the best I’ve tried. So many other restaurants have tried to copy this dish and failed.

Nobu Hong Kong- rock shrimp tempura with creamy spicy sauce HK$200 — rock shrimp tempura with creamy spicy sauce HK$200

Usually an order of rock shrimp tempura is enough for my lunch but in the spirit of celebrating Christmas and indulging in something sinful and expensive I ordered the uni tempura. I gulped when the waiter said an order was one small piece only but I was dying to try it so I took a deep breath and said, “one order please.”

I love, love uni and the ones I’ve tried in Manila have all been local sea urchin. This was my first time to try uni from Japan. Take a look at the deep orange color. Our local uni is more yellow or mustard in color.

Nobu Hong Kong- uni tempura HK$340 — uni tempura HK$340

A trio of seasonings was served with my uni tempura.

A small piece of uni was wrapped in nori (seaweed) and dipped in tempura batter and fried. The experience of biting in to a crunchy barrier then a soft yet resilient wrapper that seemed to impede my tasting the uber creamy and briny almost liquid sea urchin was worth every dollar. The contrast in textures and flavors was genius. Alas as much as I tried to prolong the sensation tingling in my mouth it was all over in two bites.

If I always order the rock shrimp tempura my mom always orders the unagi (eel) donburi. At least this time I was able to convince her to try the donburi set.

Nobu Hong Kong menu-001 — Nobu Donburi menu

I wasn’t able to try her salad but she kept repeating over and over again, “This salad is so good. We should make it at home.” As if mom!! That’s a poached egg in the middle surrounded with king crab meat.

Nobu Hong Kong- create your own donburi set - king crab salad with onsen tamago, creamy spicy lemon dressing — king crab salad with onsen tamago, creamy spicy lemon dressing

I’ve never seen unagi served with foie gras before. I also can’t believe my mom doesn’t like foie gras. Yay for me who ate about 4 small pieces of foie gras.