Address: G/F, 3 Thomson Road, Wan Chai
Website: www.kanizen.hk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/KANIZEN/
Tucked away at a corner just off Johnston Road, with an unassuming entrance is Kanizen. Priding itself for its authentic Hokkaido style Crab cuisine, its Hokkaido Hairy crabs are shipped fresh daily to the restaurant. Behind a sliding door, you are greeted by 2 baths of crabs, happily swimming away only to be eaten moments later!
Featured as one of Hong Kong Tatler’s Best Restaurants in 2015 and in numerous food programs locally, Kanizen promises a mouth watering crab experience.
This eatery offers both regular seating and private rooms for meetings and parties, as well as a ‘sushi-bar’ style counter for those who are more adventurous.
Food
Starters:
Uni/Sea Urchin Sashimi
- Extremely fresh and presented in its shell, it gives an air of ‘fresh from the sea’. It most certainly was! Creamy and smooth, without being fishy, this was the perfect pairing with our sake. Fit for Uni lovers like me :).
Edamame
- Salted and not overboiled, this was also a great partner to beer and sake, while awaiting out main meal.
Dinner Set Menu for 4.
Hokkaido corn soup with sea urchin and crab
- A few drops of Pine nut oil on top to add color and complexity to the dish. Enhances the freshness of crab and uni.
Grilled Hokkaido crab legs
- sweet crab meat grilled on charcoal, perfectly cooked and not chewy or stringy. Paired with the house sauce, which brought out the essence of crab.
Tempura Crab legs
- Light and airy tempura batter encasing the rich and soft crab meat. Paired with an egg yolk that was creamy and rich, with a gooey liquid centre that is very skillful and difficult to achieve.
- Green tea salt was also available to cut the richness.
- Rated as one of the best Tempura dishes of 2015 by Time Out Hong Kong, describing it as ‘tempura you won’t want to miss’; this is easily the best dish of the night and will keep me coming back for more!
Chilled Crab Platter
- Shredded crab with crab roe that was extremely fresh and literally, tasted of the sea. Crab legs just cooked and kept whole, were presented to assemble the entire crab.
- Just looking back at the pictures makes my mouth water! Sweet and fresh, as well as soft and flaking apart as you bite into it.
Crab hotpot (raw ingredients)
- Prepared in front of you, there is a selection of vegetables alongside the delicious crab legs and roe. The roe is later used to make a crab congee.
- Cooked in a ‘Washi’ paper bowl instead of a traditional metal pot, this is a unique and innovative take to hotpot. The Konbu broth or (seaweed) consume, sweet and fresh, brought out the crab flavor of the legs, as well as added much needed flavor to the vegetables.
Crab Dumplings
Filled with shredded crab meat, the dumplings had a delicate skin and generous filling. Shies was also added to enhance the crab flavor and freshness. A must try!
Crab Congee
Again prepared fresh in front of you, this is a combination of the Crab roe, Konbu broth (full of crab flavor now) and semi cooked rice. Slowly stirring the rice to develop flavor and meld with the broth and crab roe. This congee envelops the essence of Crab. Topped with a sprinkle of crispy seaweed, this was the perfect comfort food and end to the meal! You can’t get more crab flavor than this!
Verdict:
Dinners at Kanizen are slightly more expensive that lunches, though well worth the money! You are given generous portions paired with quality ingredients. Crabs are freshly delivered daily, that fits their philosophy of serving the best crab meal possible.
Lunch sets are very affordable ranging from HK$300-500, with great variety of both crab and non-crab dishes.
Overall, service was great and food, was undeniably some of the best crab I have tasted in Hong Kong! Highly recommend you all to try it out!
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