Zuuuuuuuma

My friend, Kelsie, was in Hong Kong this year working for several months. I'm pretty convinced she went everywhere and did everything in Hong Kong, except maybe actually work or sleep! One of her favorite restaurants in HK is Zuma so we gave it a try last night. Zuma is an authentic, but not traditional, Japanese restaurant with locations in Dubai, London, Miami, and Istanbul. The one in Hong Kong is in The Landmark in Central. The Landmark is a development of offices and really high end shopping. Zuma is on two floors of The Landmark - one floor is for dining and there is a garden terrace outside and the top floor has a Sake bar, DJ, and lounge. The floors are connected by this awesome illuminated spiral staircase.

When we arrived the place was completely packed, which is saying a lot because it's a huge restaurant/lounge. The picture above is at the end of the night when we were the last ones there, but I'll get to that later. We started with a drink upstairs at the Sake Bar. I had the Rubarbu - a rhubarb infused sake, 42 below vodka, passion fruit, and maybe some other stuff. It took about 20 minutes to make, but it was yummy!

The restaurant was at full capacity so we ate at the sushi & robata counter. A robata is basically a Japanese grill. The counter was completely made of giant slabs of granite and stone. The atmosphere of the restaurant was very clean with stone and glass being a major component to the decor and presentation of the food. The menu is set up as small dishes to share, like tapas.

We started with some sushi - crispy salmon roll, spicy tuna roll, and unagi (eel). I wouldn't say there was anything different or special about it, they were all delicious. Can't go wrong with sushi in a Japanese restaurant. We also had some pork belly skewers - AWESOME! Basically like eating chunks of flavorful, grilled bacon. I took the liberty in ordering us some sake. They have a huge book of different sakes so I just picked the cheapest, biggest bottle they had. I think it was 250 HKD for 750ml - that's a little over $30 USD for sake the size of a bottle of wine. Our waiter like our method of picking sake. He was Austrian, but was working at the Zuma in Dubai and had just moved to HK 6 days ago. He was gorgeous. Love you, Mike!

Next, we moved on to some of our small plates - chicken skewers with baby leek, tempura shrimp (none for me of course), and miso marinated black cod wrapped in hoba leaf. The black cod was the best thing I have eaten in a really long time. Literally, the fish melted in my mouth, it was like butter. Sorry I didn't take a picture before eating the food, it just looked so good we had to dig in!

So, when we ordered I had mentioned to the waiter that I am allergic to shellfish. Before any of our food came out the executive chef came over to see who was allergic and to make sure I wouldn't go into an analeptic shock if someone had touched shrimp and then prepared my food. I told him I'm sure I'd be fine, but if I die he has to pay for my dinner. I thought it was so nice of him to come over and pay special attention to my allergy - definitely not something you find in the small restaurants in HK! After our meal he came back to make sure I was alive and offered us dessert, but we declined. We were stuffed! Instead he sent us another round of martinis AND another bottle of sake! Oh boy. That did it for us. We moved up to the lounge with our new drinks and ended up closing the place. We were literally the last ones there, even the DJ bailed. The chef, Matt, joined us for a drink and we were able to chat and thank him for a great meal and for the drinks. Well, what was supposed to be the start of our night in a long string of other bars turned into the start and finish of our night. We did not get far after all that sake. Thank you, Matt!