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Honzen

By Jeremy Webb (bestfoodinchina.net)
Updated: 2008-12-17 15:43

Honzen –more than raw talent...

The restaurants of large hotels can be peculiar environments, sometimes with disappointing and over-priced food. Yet, discreetly tucked away from the over-bearing marble lobby of the Kempinski Hotel, the Japanese restaurant Honzen has little of the unmistakable and unsettling transient atmosphere that permeates many hotel-based eateries; there is also none of the complacency that you might find in a chef who knows that many of his guests will not be back in town for a while.

Impressive an entrance it might be, the “hotel feel” is soon forgotten as Honzen’s guests are seated in the restaurant’s discreetly separated dining area. Designers have kept décor simple, leaving aesthetics to the hotel’s gardeners whose carefully maintained greenery draw a diner’s gaze out of large windows that stretch to the ceiling. There is little else to disturb the ambience – classical Japanese music is kept to a barely-audible minimum and the other guests, few in number for a Friday, lunched in total calm.

First things first, no reviewer worth his weight in wasabi would be forgiven for not interrogating a sushi restaurant as to the freshness their fish. “As part of a large hotel,” explained our chef, “Honzen has a special ‘a(chǎn)dvantage’”. Since the Kempinski’s six other eateries can use Honzen’s unused fish at the end of the day, unlike other sushi establishments, chefs can afford to buy more fresh fish, safe in the knowledge that it will not go to waste. Therefore, all sushi and sashimi, we were assured, is cut from fish bought on the same day that it is served. There is a good selection, too. The menu’s twelve varieties range in price from 84 RMB tuna to the Toro fatty tuna loin at 336 RMB. At 328 RMB, our assortment was not Beijing’s cheapest. However, its three types of sashimi and five types of sushi should satisfy even the most unforgiving sushi stickler; they were cut to the correct size, served at the correct temperature, and where needed, came with a suitable smearing of wasabi.

Since he has only a small kitchen to prepare hot food, it comes as a relief to our chef that most guests – an equal mixture of Westerners, Chinese and Japanese – concentrate on sushi and sashimi. However, it is not in this department that the chefs are most outstanding – Honzen boasts much more than just “raw talent”.

First we tried the Maguro Sashimi Salad. Apart from two rashers of streaky bacon – we knew not what role they played standing idly by in a shot glass - this dish was fantastic. Thankfully, chefs had showed restraint when flavouring the fish; too much of the miso sauce would have distracted from the juicy tuna, a sumptuous deep red encircled by a thin brown line – the result of an expertly timed searing session.

Second was the Cod Fillet Broiled in Miso-sake. The browned glaze made these two large pieces of cod look terrific and provided a moment of resistance before the flakes of the creamy fish slid apart in the mouth. The distinctive flavour of the miso worked well with sake and mirin to subdue any strong fishy sensation, replacing it with a delightful creamy taste.

It is not often one finds a soup deserving of so much attention, so it was exciting to be introduced to Honzen’s Emerald Edamame Soup. If our chef was to be believed, in other restaurants one would struggle to find anything like this thick Western-style soup. None of the striking green of the edamame - soya beans for those not familiar with Japanese - was lost in the cooking process and when swirled with white cream, even alongside the eye-catching sushi and sashimi, this soup was able to compete for our gaze. Its mild, almost nutty flavour made for a delicious broth that would be a welcome feature on more menus in Beijing.

This restaurant, elegant and unassuming, does not try very hard with anything apart from its fare. It doesn’t need to. The sushi and sashimi will satisfy purists and novices alike while the hot food will pleasantly surprise those who thought that Japanese cuisine scores points only in the raw fish department. More than just another hotel restaurant, Honzen’s excellent food carries the whole place effortlessly and easily earns it a place among Beijing’s top Japanese restaurants.

Location: Kempinski Hotel, Beijing Lufthansa Center, 50 Liangmaqiao Road.

Tel: 010 – 64653388

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