Aqua Belle, Intercontinental Hotel, Onna, Okinawa

Konichiwa from Japan, where this entry is part of the greater Hong Kong series. On my birthday we popped into the Intercontinental Hotel Manza Beach Resort for my birthday lunch.

They have a few restaurants and we chose Aqua Belle, which does a western style lunch buffet. It has a well-lit, spacious setting and we got a window seat to have a good view of the sea.

For my first visit to the food counters I went for soup and salad. I poured a Clam Chowder from a machine and accompanied it with a baguette and Hokkaido butter. The soup did tasted like a it was from the sachet though. From the salad counter I picked a variety consisting of a green salad with vinegar dressing; potato salad and pasta salad, which was a better starter.

From top: Salad and Soup

I moved onto main dishes on my next visit and picked Chicken, Risotto and Pork Belly. The pork was actually served from someone standing at a carvery, which I thought was roast beef. However, the pork was nice and tender with salt and chilli tomato sauce to accompany it. The risotto was a little bit too sticky and lumpy but OK to taste and the chicken pieces were well grilled with some kind of spicy, tikka-style marinade. You will also see at the top of the picture below an iced milk tea, which was available from the counters to make for yourself.

Clockwise from 11 o'clock: Chicken, Risotto and Pork

The grilled chicken was that nice that it made another appearance on my third plate of food, which also consisted of pasta, chicken cooked another way and salmon. The pasta had beans mixed in and a cheese type sauce, which overall was a little bland. The fried chicken had a tomato based sauce and was fine. The pan fried salmon steaks were good though.

Clockwise from 11 o'clock: Two types of Chicken, Salmon and Pasta

On my last visit to the counters I chose sweet items. I took a plate of Cookies, Bread and Butter Pudding and Cake, along with a bowl of Watermelon and Dragonfruit. The cookies were crunchy, the bread and butter pudding was sweet and moist but could have done with some custard, the cake was a nice chocolate sponge type but not too sweet and the fruit was refreshing. What is not in shot is a purple coloured, Sweet Potato flavoured ice cream, Mr Whippy style. That was the last item I ate, which filled me up sufficiently.

From Left: Dessert and Fruit

So Aqua Belle does some good and some average Western type dishes. The waiters are friendly and efficient when clearing our plates and topping up our glasses with water and it offers fair value for money, compared to other hotel restaurants in Japan.

Scores:
Food: 3/5
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Setting: 4/5

Overall: 13 /20

Total bill: Free, it was my wife's treat!

I ate: All of the above.

I drank: A self made iced milk tea, water.

I wore: The smile of a birthday boy.