Inaniwa Udon Nabe

Date of visit: 13^th September 2010

Inaniwa Udon Nabe @ Elements

For a family dinner I picked this restaurant as Elements is accessible and is one of the better restaurants in Elements. It was a Monday and we were seated in one of the rooms for more privacy (not that we needed it, we were only five!).

menu

soy milk hot pot set ($160x2)

left: cabbage, assorted fungus and...

soup base... 

hot pot set is listed on the menu as $160 per person but since minimum order is two, the minimum charge is $320.  came with a plate of assorted vegetables and a plate of assorted seafood/meats. we also decided to add another plate of seafood ($95), cabbage ($15) and shimeji mushroom ($12) 

the soup base of soy milk was milky white and wasn't pure soy as I imagined it might be. There's definitely some dashi in there since it had the 'umami' taste - pretty enjoyable. 

the plates that came with the set included Japanese sliced pork loin, clams, salmon, and in the bamboo stick is some minced chicken, which you slide cuts of into the boiling pot. 

the other plate had cabbage, Japanese bean curd skin, black fungus, fresh and enoki mushrooms. 

the plate of extra seafood (not photographed) had two large prawns, scallops, salmon and some shellfish.

as the broth got evaporated or divided into bowls the waiters refilled the pot with stock. ingredients on the whole were fresh, particularly memorable were the broth, minced chicken and the slippery smooth bean curd skin (really different in texture to ones we get locally), as well as the large prawns. 7.5/10

Inaniwa udon in hot soup with Hokkaido crab meat ($108)
the broth is very thick, so we were warned. come to think of it, it may have been the enoki mushrooms that made the broth become so viscous, rather than some form of starch being added. i like thin and slightly thickened soups so I quite liked this. There wasn't much crab meat to justify the extra $4x, but price aside the noodles were really good - thin, slippery and slightly chewy - my favourite! 7.5/10

Inaniwa Udon in Tomato and Pork Bone Broth with Japanese Pork ($108)

The udon noodles were again good, though I didn't care for this broth. I was expecting something heartier but all this was was sour tomatoes and sliced pork in a broth which tasted very pedestrian. for me the noodles didn't match the broth at all. (ps. very subjective, because dad clearly liked this bowl of noodles better than the crab meat one above). 5/10

Inaniwa Udon in Hot Soup with Prawn Tempura ($108)
This would probably be my favourite style of serving these udon noodles - in a very simple Japanese shoyu-based stock. I know that the best way to enjoy these noodles are probably having them served cold and you dip them in the sauce/broth, but I much prefer hot soup noodles, so provided you don't let the noodles sit so long in the broth, the texture of the udon remains intact (read: eat quickly!). the tempura shrimps were crunchy, but then again they were quite small and I'm not sure whether it justifies $48... I loved these noodles so much I just might have to go back soon and be open-minded about trying their cold varieties! 8.5/10

Homemade Squid cake ($65)

a must order - i don't think i've had anything like this before, and these slices of squid cake were bouncy and had tiny bits of squid meat for a variation of texture. seasoned very well too, so no sauce was needed. 8/10

Cheese Rice Cake ($48) 

these cute little rounds of mochi had a molten cheese centre, and were crispy on the outside, whilst the mochi layer was hot and only slightly chewy, the cheese melted easily in the mouth. they were fried really well to achieve the crispy exterior minus the oily/greasy taste. after a plate we decided we needed another one too =P 8.5/10

Cross section of the cheese mochi...

if i remember correctly everything was polished off! we all really enjoyed this meal.... i wonder when my next visit will be?

Food: ♥♥♥♥
Service: ♥♥♥
Price: $$$ (about $200 per head)
Inaniwa Udon Nabe Japanese Restaurant
Shop 2004, Elements,
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2196 8989