Morihachi Yakiniku

Yakiniku, or barbecued meat (焼き肉), is one of the best and famous dishes in Japanese. Each diner has his/her own dishes of bite-size raw meat, and grill them on the hot grilling pan installed in the table. Yakiniku is originated from horumonyaki, meaning a dish of grilled offal, invented by Korean immigrants in the Kansai area after the Second World War.

Today we come to Morihachi Yakiniku, which is expanding its branches quickly recently and opening their fourth shop in Wanchai. Here we were in the Tsim Sha Tsui shop again, and about to try their Wagyu meat.

Wow, just looking at that made me drool. The Premium A4 Japanese Wagyu Ribeye was marbled evenly with meat and fat in 1:1 ratio, a beautiful characteristic of A4 beef. You should not though grill this kind of beef for too long or else it would be turned into tough and dry meat. Every bite into this grilled Wagyu beef was like a taste of heaven. It really melted in your mouth!

We then had our favourite dish, the Premium Gyu Tongue with Rock Salt, basically it is block sliced ox tongue.

We also added a plate of Kurobuta (pork from black pig) with Rock Salt.

The meat was very tender but since we needed to cook it thoroughly, it ended up a little dry. However, the smell of pork was strong and the meat went very well with their special tekiyaki sauce.

Here came the two dishes that we must order every time we ate here. They were the Chicken Gizzard Slices and Chicken Wing with Balsamic Vinegar Sauce. Both tasted extremely good, especially the chicken wings. The smell of vinegar and charcoal formed an unusual but interesting aroma that stimulated your appetite.

I wouldn't say this was a complete dinner if I had no rice, guess I am still a Chinese and I need such carbohydrates to keep me alive. We therefore ordered this chef's recommendation, Tobiko Foie-gras Bibinba in Stone Bowl, which contains foie gras and mushrooms.

This is what it looked like after mixing. The rice was good but I am not sure if foie gras was a good idea because the spicy sauce actually overwhelmed the taste of other ingredients. While the mushrooms were good and formed an interesting contrast in textures with the "rice crisps" at the bottom, the foie gras didn't stand out at all. Nevertheless, the overall dish tasted good.

We added a little vegetable to the raw food list, which was the corns!

To make this, you have to place all the quartered corns into this aluminium bowl with a big piece of butter in it. Then you grill the whole thing. After the butter melts and spreads all over the corns, it is done.

The meal was not cheap, but the quality of food was above average. The menu they have is very interesting because on the first page, it actually teaches you how to use different sauces, how to cook, and how to eat your beef with lettuce. If you want to have some drinks, they also have a big range of Japanese beer and alcoholic drinks, including my favourite fruit wines. If you come, it will be better if you can get more friends so that you can try  more different kinds of food. Also, you never know which one is the best because you have to add your little grilling skills in it too!