鮨わだつみ Sushi Wadatsumi (K11 MUSEA) — Restaurant in Kowloon

After 2.5 months of booking and waiting, we finally can try out Sushi Wadatsumi’s first outpost in Hong Kong, which was also granted the Michelin gong, awarded one star for 4 consecutive years. The set we picked features 3 appetizers + 12 sushi + 1 sushi roll + miso soup and a dessert. We’re served by Sushi Chef Lo today. 

Pre-meal: We started out with some crab meat steamed egg, flavorful and warms us up. 

Appetizer: 1️⃣ We got served some smoked skipjack tuna, as you can see the meat is very fresh and even slightly-transparent, jelly like. The spring onion on top did bring out the flavor.
2️⃣ Squid with roe with perilla flowers on top - we’re all blown away by how flavorful the flowers are and they compliment the squid and roe. Squid was not chewy at all, very tender but not that sweet. 3️⃣ Hokkaido eel fried with a super crunchy skin - The meat itself is so fatty and the ginger on the side helps cleanse your palette while keeping the dish balanced Sushi 1️⃣ The Japanese parrotfish sushi was very light and doesn’t leave a big impression to me 
2️⃣ Red snapper sushi was fattier than the parrotfish despite giving off similar flavors, and very fresh 3️⃣ Sawara / Japanese Spanish mackerel was smoked with straw grass, hence it gives off a slight wheaty flavor at the very end, mixing with the meaty flavours 4️⃣ Amaebi sushi was also very fatty and sweet, and the meat was not old
5️⃣ The first of the two Tuna sushi is from Wakayama, with the leaner cut it taste more of the fish meat and sourness that usually comes with tuna
6️⃣ Second of the Tuna sushi is from Hokkaido, with the middle part of the fish, it is much fattier and soft. But I have to say this is not the best Toro I’ve ever had.
7️⃣ Japanese Jack Mackerel was well-balanced with the spring onions, giving off a refreshing twist. 
8️⃣ Interesting tasting of the Kohada sushi, marinated with vinegar and paired with perilla leaves. The additional strength and flavor was certainly memorable. 
9️⃣Our first time trying Hotate sushi where the scallop meat is half-cooked with the soy sauce marination, giving off a perfect texture between the raw chewiness and the drier, harder texture. 🔟 Hokkaido sea urchin was not as sweet as I thought, but certainly fresh and brings me a mouthful of flavors straight from the ocean. And, the seaweed was extra crunchy!
1️⃣ Next we got to try Hokkigai sushi was fresh and crispy! It was really interesting that Chef Lo has to smack the Hokkigai with his fingers right before serving to tighten up the muscles, hence creating a more condensed texture. 2️⃣ Last, we closed with a fatty Anago / eel sushi. The highlight was definitely when Chef added on the citrus skin, which gives an aromatic flavor to the whole sushi and closes on a high note!

Tuna Sushi Roll: Topped with sesame, it tasted flavorful and well-balanced.

Miso Soup: Chef said that the soup was mixed with 4 different type of Miso, along with kelp added in to create a rich soup that gives off a sweeter taste rather than salty. Very pleasant indeed! Dessert 1️⃣ Chef served us 2 pieces of Tamago, but the texture was premixed with shrimps and somehow it tastes a bit sweet like pudding! It is definitely a special treat from Wadatsumi that I’ve never tried anywhere else. 2️⃣ Finally, we really ended the meal with a Matcha Ice-cream. Not super flavorful but also nothing to complain about!

Overall: 
All the dishes and sushi were all in good quality and fresh. Nothing stood out like a sour thumb, but at the same time, nothing blew our mind like never before! We must say that the service level was very nice, not too pushy nor was it too cold. I find it as a balanced, harmonizing and comforting...

Context: we just attended the lunch service so cannot speak for the dinner service

Food: fish quality wasn’t great - felt as if it was just defrosted. Had a not fresh fishy taste. Inconsistent wasabi amount with each sushi - had some pieces with negligible wasabi flavour whereas others were overpowering and could not taste the fish at all. The tamago was overly sweet and the appetizer octopus did not have much flavour except a bland type of sweetness. The rice was not good either

The menu wasn’t the issue. Ingredient quality was.

Service: fine wasn’t exemplary so just a 3/5. Felt slightly unrefined for the price point. Easy remedy if the restuarant cares about it.

Atmosphere: restuarant didn’t necessarily have control about this but sat between two couples. Left was entirely silent the whole time (fine) whereas the right couple was chewing very loudly with their mouth open, on their phones the time, talking extremely loudly on the phone, playing videos on speaker - general disregard for other patrons comfort and the restuarant said nothing. It made for the experience worse especially considering our dissatisfaction...

First ever omekase experience and was absolutely blown away by the food, and in particular, the service. The staff explained each dish in detail in english to my partner (British) and they also paid excellent attention to detail. He is left handed and throughout the meal we noticed that his entire table setup had slowly changed to be suited to him (even the placement of the ginger! Which we hadn’t noticed at the beginning) We had lunch on a weekday, $1080 per person and it was around 16 courses, highly recommomend. Just to note that as it is in a mall, you have to use the mall bathrooms (but K11 Musea bathrooms are quite nice, it’s just a...