Arima, Admiralty, Hong Kong

The Chinese (or Lunar) New Year period is a time for family gatherings. We had a get-together with my wife's side of the family at Arima, a Japanese restaurant in Admiralty.

This restaurant is in an office building where there are other restaurants in that floor. Most of these were closed with it being the weekend and this place was fairly quiet when we arrived. We had a private room where our seats were placed around the hot plate cooking station. The room overlooked the harbour towards Kowloon, which was quite pleasant (albeit with reclamation works in progress) and made it a bright space.

The View

We had a teppenyaki set where the chef cooked our main courses in front of us. A pre-prepared salad and appetiser were served to us as the chef was preparing his food.

The garden salad, shown below, had mixed leaves and cherry tomatoes with a sesame flavoured dressing, which all made a nice and fresh starter.

Salad

The Appetiser consisted of peas, fish liver and oyster. The Liver was soft and tasty; the lightly battered oyster with mayonnaise was good and peas were just snack like.

Appetiser

King prawn was the first dish to be cooked. These were big prawns at first and quartered when fried and served up on the scallop shaped plate. This was a nice  started to the main courses, with the prawns having a buttery flavour from the seasoning the chef gave it.

King Prawn

Abalone was next, which was quartered as well then fried. It had the usual chewy texture without being sore on the jaw. Quartering it probably helped in the easing the chewing process.

Abalone

The large scallop was halved and after frying was served back in its shell for extra presentation. This was probably the best fried dish of the day; it was seasoned lightly so the flavour and texture was simple was great.

Scallop

Thin slices of beef were then cooked to our liking, for which I had medium. This equates to a few seconds of cooking, then the beef was used to wrap fried garlic and spring onion. The beef was of decent quality and the filling gave the overall dish some more crunch and flavour.

Beef

Miso soup was the standard issue with Japanese meals. It was not bad, served at a decent temperature and contained the usual seaweed and tofu.

Miso Soup

Fried rice was cooked when we were drinking the soup. The chef did well to cook a large amount of rice with the egg, spring onion and ham for ten lunchers and spilt them up evenly.

Fried Rice

The last cooked dish was fried vegetables. The main constituents were bean sprouts and cabbage, with shreds of carrots tossed in as well. It was fine with a decent taste, crunchy and not too oily.

Fried Vegetables

After we finished the mains we were given dessert of fruit and a choice of ice cream, shown in the pictures below. The fruit was really good, the melon was sweet and juicy and the strawberries were large and slightly sour. For the ice cream I chose vanilla flavour and that rounded off the meal nicely.

Fruit Dessert

Ice Cream Dessert

All the food that was cooked in front of us was seasoned basically so it was the ingredients, some of which are very nice, that make the taste. Nothing was bad and it was all very filling by the time we finished. Service was fine but not excellent for the price you pay.

As noted, it is not cheap, which could explain why Arima was quiet the time we visited. Also, as it is in a commercial and government area (the Hong Kong Legislative Council building is next door). It probably has a decent trade during lunchtimes but the meal set we had was a relaxed and expensive lunch, which probably suits overpaid and underworked politicians, but not the option to choose if you want to grab a quick, cheap bite to eat. Therefore one had better go a la carte if you visit but do not have the time or money.

Scores:

Food: 3/5

Presentation: 4/5

Service: 3/5

Setting: 4/5

Total: 14/20

Bill: HK$680 for two, about GBP£35 a head (if including the 10% service charge).

I ate: Teppenyaki Set for two.

I drank: Asahi beer and green tea.

I wore: 7 For All Mankind Jeans.