#sake pairing

Getting to Godenya is not easy: first there is the small issue of making a reservation. When you go on the website, it asks you for an online reservation code. Thankfully, my sister had actually made the reservation but was unable to go, and therefore gave her seats to me, so I bypassed that. The second small obstacle is that although it says it’s on Wellington Street, the entrance is actually a very discreet and non-descript gray door, in an alley just off Kau U Fong.

But once you make it inside this 8-seater restaurant, it’s all worth it. There is only one menu: an 8-course tasting menu, priced at HK$1,000 per person, with an extra HK$500 for sake pairing. I don’t think not having the sake pairing is really an option, as it is an intrinsic part of the experience.

The first dish is a beautifully creamy tofu skin soup, served at room temperature, with lily bulbs and topped with slices of salmon and shiso flowers (below). It’s a very light and delicate starter, paired with a slightly floral 2015 sake, served at 13 degrees.

The next dish is more traditional: with raw ark shell, ankimo (monkfish liver), and scallop diced up and simply tossed in a white miso sauce (below). This is served with a slightly warmer sake (15 degrees) from 2016, with just a hint of strawberries. It’s a simple yet complete dish, and totally delicious.

Next up is sashimi of kawahagi, a white fish, topped with liver sauce and deep-fried enoki mushrooms (below). I’m not crazy about the chopped hazelnuts on this dish, but that’s a personal dislike of hazelnuts on savoury dishes. I did however, like the very thinly sliced raw white mushrooms hidden underneath the fish. This is paired with our first warm sake of the evening, served at 44 degrees, that is otherwise a little nondescript.

Part of chef Goshima’s cooking philosophy is to incorporate both local cooking methods and ingredients into his dishes, and as such, in our next dish of a grilled tachiuo fish (apparently translated as a cutlass fish), there was a base of a Cantonese-style hairy crab soup, thickened with cornstarch or cassava (below). This was probably my least favourite dish of the night. It had some highlights: for example, I liked the unusual use of dill thrown into the mix; and the fish itself is perfectly cooked: succulent on the inside and crispy on the outside, but overall it was a little bland. What I really enjoyed, however, was the sake which came with this course, a 2004 junmai served at 47 degrees, which tasted like manuka honey, but without the overt sweetness.

The following dish is for me, undoubtedly the highlight of my meal, evening, week and possibly month. It’s a creamy monkfish liver, as well as some chunks of monkfish, cooked in a whole yuzu, and topped with black truffles and finely chopped black olives (below). Chef Goshima said that a lot of customers think it tastes a little like cheese, but even as a cheese-lover, I have to say it tastes even better. It’s perfect that the dish is served in the yuzu, because as you scrape the edges of the citrus, it provides the exact amount of acidity and sweetness to balance out the rather heavy liver. This was paired with a red rice sake, served at 19 degrees. This is a stronger sake than our previous pairings, but much needed to balance the food.

There is only one meat course in the menu, and it’s pork from Okinawa in a butternut squash sauce (below). After such a high, it was inevitable that the next course would feel a little underwhelming, and this was true of the pork. It was sliced into three pieces, and my first one was juicy and succulent; but the next two were dry. It is also served at room temperature, but I think would have been better hot. The pairing is with a sake umeshu, served at 16 degrees, and the sweetness of the plum works nicely with the pork.

The final savoury course is another highlight. It’s buri (wild yellowtail), cooked in the Cantonese-style, i.e. steamed and then doused with hot oil and topped with coriander and spring onions (below). The only difference is instead of soy sauce, chef Goshima uses dashi. It’s utterly delicious, and the benefit of using dashi instead of soy is you can actually drink the sauce like a soup. My only recommendation would be that since I’m sure chef Goshima is using sashimi-grade buri, I would have preferred it if the fish itself was only half-cooked, rather than fully cooked-through. The sake pairing is with our warmest sake yet of the evening, served at 53 degrees, with an almost mushroomy, savoury taste.

Finally, dessert is vanilla ice cream, topped with a tart yoghurt, Shanghainese-style osmanthus syrup, and finished with a little dash of sake, which gives it an almost coffee flavour (below). I really appreciate how chef Goshima has done his research on traditional Chinese cooking styles and ingredients, and manages to incorporate them so seamlessly into his cooking. This dessert is again phenomenal, and we were definitely at our quietest eating this course.

Overall, Godenya provided an excellent dining experience. As with VEA, I do find myself losing patience (in my old age) with tasting menus and I wished that Godenya would offer a slightly smaller tasting menu. For example, if he could do a 4-course menu with the ark shell and ankimo; the monkfish liver in yuzu; the steamed buri; and the dessert, I would be here every weekend. I wouldn’t even mind paying the exact same price for the same portions.