Yakiniku Great

Most yakiniku fans are tempted by the fattiest cuts of beef to cook on the tabletop grill, so it was a surprise to get a press release boasting about a new place that specialises in lean cuts.
Yakiniku Great in Central is the Japanese chain's first overseas branch, and it's so busy that when I called to book, I was told we could have the table only until 8.30pm.
The staff were friendly, eager and helpful, although I wish the hostess had given me the list of special dishes at the beginning, rather than after I'd decided what to order from looking at the regular menu.

The second list had the restaurant's specialities, many of which are available in limited quantities, with black stars designating marbled cuts of beef, and the red star the leaner cuts. Many specials can be ordered as half or full portions.
The black-starred, thinly sliced misuji beef (HK$138 for a half portion), which we cooked for three seconds on each side as instructed by our waitress, was very tender and fatty — no surprise there. To compare, we tried half portions of two red-starred dishes. We were won over by the succulent tougarashi (HK$109), although not by the dai-sankaku (HK$134).
The high price of the black-starred Kyoto-style yaki-shabu (HK$198 for one piece) wasn't the only indication that it was considered something special: one of the chefs came over to supervise the waitress as she cooked it for us. The briefly seared, large piece of meat came with an egg soufflé dipping sauce. It tasted fine, but wasn't our favourite dish of the night.

From the regular menu, the prime beef tongue (HK$228) was tender, but not as thick as I like. Prime harami (HK$168) was beefy tasting, but, as expected, was tougher than the other cuts.
The vegetable side dishes — fresh, crunchy kimchi (HK$70) and sesame-dressed spinach (HK$58) and bean sprouts (HK$58) lightened the meaty heaviness of the meal.
The only dish we disliked was oxtail congee (HK$130), which was thick, heavy and lacking flavour.

Yakiniku Great, Manhattan Avenue, 225 Queen's Road Central, tel: 3565 6129. About HK$600 without drinks or the service charge