Sushi Sase

My husband wanted to go to Japan for a last-minute weekend trip but I talked him out of it. I didn't want to spend half the weekend in transit, even if it did mean eating amazing food for the rest of the weekend - crazy as it sounds, all I wanted to do was sleep in, do laundry and get some R&R right in our own home. To make it up to him, I decided to surprise him - if we couldn't go to Tokyo, perhaps I could bring Tokyo to us.

I often hear expats - especially those who previously lived in Tokyo, of which there are many in Hong Kong after the 2011 earthquake - complain that there is no good sushi in Hong Kong. I used to be among them. Sushi Kuu serves decent sushi but is bogged down by too many distractions on its menu - a sushi restaurant should really only serve sushi. I'd heard from friends that Sushi Yoshitake and Sushi Rozan are both excellent - that is, if you don't mind spending your kids' tuition money on a single meal. I needed to find something in between - sushi good enough to be considered very good sushi on par with Tokyo, but at human prices.

Surprisingly, I found just the spot, and it happened to be under our noses all this time. Sushi Sase, located on Hollywood Road in central Hong Kong, is a quiet sushi oasis - as soon as you step past the curtain and the automatic sliding door, you are transported to an authentic sushi-ya in Japan.

Chawanmushi (savory egg custard)

 First course of the Hokkaido set (available at lunch) - uni and ikura donburi

 Kai (red snapper)

 Uni

 I forget what this was - looks like hamachi

 Hairy crab with roe

 Delicious hand-cut udon

 Tamago and unagi

It was a win-win for all - hubby's desire for Japan was temporarily but very satisfactorily quenched, and instead of getting on a redeye flight, we only had to walk down the street!

Food rating: ****
Bang for buck rating: 4

The essentials:
No website
Location: 49 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong
Omakase - HK$1400 (~US$200); Hokkaido set (lunch only) - HK$400 (~US$50); Mini-kaiseki (lunch only) - HK$650 (~US$85)