Itamae Sushi

This review is based on a dinner on 17 Aug 2014.
Whenever I have a NEED for sushi, fast and affordable, this is the go-​to place in HK!
This outlet seats about 60, half is at the conveyor belt’s bar area. I usually choose to sit at the bar, easy access to the sushi on the belt AND special orders from the chefs.
The place is usually very crowded, especially during dinner. So go a little early or much later.
I love using the ipad to order, I don’t speak Cantonese very well (or good enough to be understood).
First off, send an order through with a few items. As the order is being made, you can take your time to peruse the menu.
There is a flask of hot water at the table (or near you) which you use to refill the tea cup given to you when you if you order hot tea (with a japanese tea bag).
I also ask for wasabi from the staff, they will give you small take-​away satchets of wasabi. This satchets, in my humble opinion, is much better than the nuclear green stuff they put on the condiment tray.
Order the foie gras, generous and yummy. (see pics!)
Also the raw beef sashimi (see pics!) Grab a shiso leaf, put a slice of beef in it, daub some special sauce and roll it up. Then eat. Mmmmm…
The whole aji. (see pics!)
Will be back again!

You come here mainly to:
1) Order on the tablet
2) Eat cheap sushi that won’t make you sick
Unfortunately the pace at which you receive your items can be quite inconsistent. For our first round of ordering, we got them fairly quickly. For our second round, we waited up to 30 minutes between pieces. It got to the point where I think they forgot some of the items and I was getting so bored that we just left.
Most of the seating is around the bar which is fine. You can watch the endless amounts of orders printing out and really wonder how they keep track.

I’d been craving sushi for a while now and was glad when one of my friends said the same. She suggested we try out Itamae. Honestly, I had never heard of Itamae Sushi — I’d heard of Itacho, but the name Itamae didn’t ring any bells. It was only when I found out that it was behind Sogo and opposite World Trade Center that I realized I’ve actually passed by this restaurant quite a few times before!
My friends and I purposely arrived at 9pm because like most sushi joints, Itamae doesn’t take reservations so we knew we would have to wait quite a while if we were to come at 7:30. Anyway, by the time we came, we were all pretty much starving and looking forward to eating up the place. To my surprise, the restaurant wasn’t as full as I thought it would be. It wasn’t empty — maybe about 50% full — but it made me think that even if we’d come a little earlier, we wouldn’t have to wait very long.
We all got a bunch of different sushi to share, like the wasabi octopus, seared salmon, scallop, tuna etc. Everything tasted pretty good to me and I especially liked the salmon one. I actually read some reviews on the sushi at Itamae online after dinner, and some commented that the sashimi is not very fresh. I felt that the sashimi was fine when we were there — not straight out the water fresh, but definitely not stale either. Or maybe I was just too hungry to notice!
I also ordered a salmon and salmon roe mini don and a soft shell crab hand roll for myself. The mini don was really good — they were super generous with the roe. But the presentation of it was a little deceiving — the container it was put in looked deep, but its depth only reached about halfway down the container! In other words, the portion of rice was pretty small. I loved the soft shell crab hand roll — the crab was fried to perfection and was really crispy, although it didn’t have much of a crab taste. What I appreciated was the fact that the rice in the hand roll was actually really warm, showing that it was made to order! But on the whole, like my mini don, the hand roll was quite small — I finished it within four bites.
Overall, our dinner at Itamae was not bad. The food was generally up to par, but portions were small. Nonetheless, I do think that I will be back for more!