Yardbird, Bridges Street, Hong Kong

I categorized Yardbird (33-35 Bridges St, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2547 9273) as Japanese for the food that they serve, namely yakitori and good ones at that, rather than what its background truly represents. For one, it's New York-esque chic-styled double storied compound is located in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. The owners of the restaurant, one Chinese from Canada and the other a Morrocan Israeli have done stints in Masa and Nobu in New York. One would be at a loss to count the ticks of subliminal multicultural influences that has created the beast bird that rears its head today.

It's Japanese food. At heart. Using chickens that are delivered fresh daily from the New Territories.

If anyone has noticed, there's a beer from Catalunya with Ferran Adria's name on it. I'm not sure how much he was involved, if at all, in the crafting of the brew. It was malty, pretty light and made good easy drinking.

Tried the Hitachino Nest Ginger Ale. This stuff is real ale. Hoppy and mild in gingery taste. Not the Schweppes kind.

We ordered some corn tempura for starters. This was basically a ball of corn kernels bound by batter, fried to a crisp on the exterior. The corn kernels on the inside were still hot, sweet and juicy. Pretty tasty stuff.

Next up was their chicken liver mousse that was served with buttered and toasted milk bread and crispy bits of fried shallots. This was excellent liver mousse. The textures were undulating for mousse, more like a crushed up terrine and had a robust livery flavour that paired well the shallots. I liked this!

There was a torikatsu sandwich that was off the menu. Minced chicken, deep fried and not over doused with tonkatsu sauce.

chicken oysters

chicken skin

lamb ribs

chicken wings

chicken hearts

chicken liver

Yardbird's yakitori items were well done. The ingredients tasted fresh and they had pretty much stuck to the original style of grilled meat on sticks with only the occasional traditional dressings and little to confuse the flavours. The chicken oysters felt especially premium with the juicy ball of meat wrapped in a bit of chicken skin

Korean Fried Cauliflowers

These were labelled KFC on the menu. I thought it was rather well done. The cauliflowers were coated in a tangy spicy yuzu sauce on the outside and must have been fried briefly for a light crunch above the moist vegetable. The sesame seeds added some dimension to the sauce that had actually packed some heat.

tsukune with egg yolk in shoyu

chicken and egg rice

The chicken and egg rice seemed like something that quite a number of people were ordering. Beside the deliciously crispy deep fried chicken skins, this actually tasted quite healthy (even after the egg was mixed in) considering all other previous stuff we had ordered. I guess it must have been the lack of heavy hand on the salt and that those little green peas really shone.