Zenku

Zenku @ Nexxus Building

My cousin was visiting from the States, and she had heard from her other cousin, a food-writer for a local magazine, that Zenku was a fun and good restaurant. We shortened our list so it was either Mirror or Zenku, but because she became unavailable on the evening I had made reservations at Mirror for, I happily joined her for lunch at Zenku...

lunch menu

other than this, they have another lunch set menu in which the main is a seafood noodle dish, available at around $150 for two courses.

appetizer - sashimi 

octopus, salmon, tuna, sweet shrimp, hamachi

we both went with the lighter sashimi option, though we probably should've tried the gyoza which i've heard good things about. the sashimi weren't the freshest, but acceptable.

soup - miso with imitation crab meat

main 1 - daily selection of roast chicken stuffed with mushrooms ($198)

our waiter recommended this over the pricier negitoro bowl, and for his seemingly honest opinion, we took his advice. 

The chicken turned out to be a spring chicken, served with stir-fried soba and some market vegetables. The chicken, save for the breast part being really dry, was really tasty. The skin was crisp, and the fat had rendered out.  The sauce was a teriyaki-like sauce - oldie but goodie - but I wish there was more than just a small drizzle because it gave the chicken that Japanese flavour profile.

The soba was plainly stir-fried with seasonings like dark soy and pickles (its not as dark as it looks in the photo), which tastes much better than it appears. The buckwheat noodles' texture was excellent, and weren't broken in the cooking process. My cousin said she'd give this a go in order to use up the soba noodles sitting in her kitchen.

main 2 - Pork Tonkatsu Millefeuille ($218)

served with a little Japanese rice and shredded cabbage in citrus dressing 

we thought this was truly a genius dish, and all the media attention it received was certainly worth it... inside the thin panko crust were alternate layers of spinach, pork and cheese, and each layer quite distinct. The cheese was unexpected....but good and not over-powering. The pork was sliced very thin, which contributed to its tenderness but flavour-wise it got a little lost. The citrusy cabbage slaw on the side helped to cut through the richness of the tonkatsu as well.

inside view of the tonkatsu millefeuille

dessert 1 - opera cake with tofu ice cream (+$60)

This was not your average opera cake, but rather a Japanese twist. The layers were pistachio cream, sponge, black sesame cream, jam and chocolate ganache on top. On the side was a tiny scoop of tofu ice cream on an amaretti cookie, and some salty crumble...
Whilst we enjoyed the opera very much because of its discernable flavours within the multiple layers, the ice cream's texture was way too icy... they should and can definitely improve on it. The crumble turned out to be the same as the soba crumble in dessert #2, and this dessert could do without it. 

close-up of the layers

dessert 2 - Roasted Banana with Soy Caramel, Soba crumble and Miso Ice cream

Conceptually, this should've been fantastic. The soy flavour was there, the miso flavour in the ice cream was there. However, the 'caramel' was like a soup, in which the warm bananas swam. The soba in the 'soba crumble' was not detected, it was just like your regular crushed cookie. The ice cream was again, too icy like frozen milk.... Hmmm they could definitely re-think this to do a better execution.

miso ice cream on the side.

a spoon of everything....

we had a fun experience at Zenku - something which we value most about dining out. I like surprises and love the unexpected. and what was even better was the level of service.... the waiters were attentive but not pushy, honest and very helpful. zenku, i'll be back! 

Food:  ♥♥♥ - ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥♥

Price: $$$$

Zenku

2/F, Nexxus Building, 77 Des Voeux Road, 

Central, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2899 2216