You're pretty much guaranteed to improve your chances of an authentic Japanese dining experience by picking a restaurant near to Sogo in Causeway Bay and Bicho has the advantage of being virtually on top of it. The intimate yakitori restaurant with its simple but excellent - and incredibly reasonably priced - food is on the 26th floor of a commercial building crammed full of more sushi restaurants than you could ever possibly visit.
We ordered about three dishes each, having wolfed through the raw veggies provided at the start of the meal. We started on a slight damp note with the lychee and pork which we weren't totally sure about, mainly because neither component had a particularly strong flavour. However, things quickly improved. On the veggie front, the vegetable cake tempura was excellent and the aubergine with miso, delicious and interesting. The beef and the pork neck more than made up for the lychee/pork dish on the flavour front. The pork neck was fantastic - not at all fatty. Another slight disappointment were the stuffed chicken wings - the meat was beautifully cooked but the stuffing wasn't my thing. However, the tofu with sesame dressing was a great fresh accompaniment to the mains.
The meat and vegetables were excellent but the star was the squid-ink coated fried udon noodles. Not only did they taste delicious but there was added comedy value in that everyone had temporary moments of Gothic-black lipstick or dirty pirate-teeth!
Small things, small minds and all that but I liked the little touches like the fact that you got to choose your own design of sake cup and that the dining experience was complemented by really helpful and cheerful staff. The other thing I liked was that we ordered three dishes each - which was plenty - and a bottle of house sake for HKD230 a head. Serious value.
Continental Diamond Plaza
523-527 Hennessy Road
Causeway Bay
Tel: 28387022
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