ALWAYS JOY — Restaurant in Hong Kong

Disappointed as had high expectations from my previous experience at ronin and yardbird.

I understand they were trying to be innovative with the pairing of flavors trying to infuse western and eastern ingredients but the execution was confusing and lack cohesion.

For example the clam with corn and jin hua ham sauce was overly salty, to begin clams naturally would have a slight saltiness and by adding jin hua ham into the sauce together was overpowering. The sauce on it’s own was decent but didn’t go well with clams. The threadfin bream pickled cabbage differs from the sichuan style pickled fish flavors I would have imagined rather it tasted like pickled cabbages they give you for appetizers at chinese restaurants. Again the pickled cabbage and the fish itself flavor wise doesn’t complement each other. If you ate the fish on its own there was no pickled cabbage flavor.

Secondly not worth the price, for example the geoduck for $180 only came with 2 pieces which the size was petite and they split the pieces in halves.

Out of all the dishes the pumpkin mochi was probably the only one the flavors made sense. Yet texture wise they haven’t gotten that “mochi” texture right, as it tastes like a gnocchi rather than like those taiwanese sweet potato balls which I was expected for the name. Maybe it was intentional of them.

Only good rating is for the staff there and...

Glad to see one of our favorite spots in HK, Ronin reincarnated into the newly opened Always Joy. First of all, the name is amazing and the interior design is very on point. The food and drinks were all fantastic! The menu is different but you would know it's by the same team behind Yardbird and Ronin. Like a rock band releasing their new album, the concept may be new but the identity is still here. The Oxtail Oden was by far our favorite dish of the night, it was superbly cooked with braised oxtail stuffed to the brimmed into the abura-age. Other dishes like the flagrant heads and tails and smoked sardine sandwich were also a highlight. As usual, sashimi and oysters were also fantastic. Drinks wise, whilst they stopped making my favorite drink at Ronin (Smoke and Mirrors), they have an alternative jalapeño based cocktail for my enjoyment (almost as good as smoke and mirrors). Can't wait to go back to Always Joy in the...

Back again, the Japanese grilled Mackerel was a bit disappointment (is not bad but not excellent level)……Finally have time to try out this restaurant since they relocated and changed name (their former restaurant is called Ronin, and the whole crew from Ronin has moved to this restaurant)……..food wise their fish dishes is still as impressive as always, their new menu and new way of fusion is pretty interesting however some of the dishes like the Celtuce and the fish cake sandwich tasted just so so, the celtuce was a bit too salty and the sandwich with fish cake just doesn’t taste right for us………we did like the atmosphere of the new restaurant better as it is more spacious and brighter than before, although music is still quite loud……..service wise their staff are quite friendly and efficient and...