Bincho @ Hua Bee Restaurant Review

December 13, 2014

Bincho @ Hua Bee Restaurant Review

Bincho at Hua Bee is a Japanese restaurant at night but a mee pok stall in the morning, and sells rice bowls for lunch. In true classic hipster style, you enter through a backdoor, replete with the metal door and industrial-chic decor. I was really really impressed with the food at Bincho, it reminded me of my college years in Berkeley's Ippuku, where the owner would serve all the seasonal items. I really respect the boldness of chef Asai Mashashi's style, he incorporates fugu / cod milt (sperm) / chicken innards (heart and gizzard and liver). He also continually re-invents himself, as he just released a Christmas menu and from what I can tell, they are totally different from the usual dishes. Very very respectable.

We ordered the $120 omakase + $80 omakase + crab croquettes + oyster roll and some cocktails

For the omakase, it started with his signature chicken liver pate with baguette, which was alright. Mackarel and salmon, good tidbits but okay.

This was good, fresh bluefin tuna and salmon along with vegetable dippings with miso.

Pineapple and Lemongrass Cocktail (so much better than Ding Dong's)

This was good! Monkfish liver ankimo

This was so so much better than Fuku, and much cheaper too. Nice creamy texture and perfectly executed tempura batter.

Miso Cod, you could choose a choice of beef or lamb or fish

Grilled Chicken, he sources the chicken from this farm which gets French chicken and rears them in Malaysia. I actually don't like eating chicken because that was basically the only thing they served us at boarding school, but the chicken here is good! Well except the tail of the chicken which was really dry and slightly tough but the rest of the cuts were simply amazing. Sublime marinade with the slight char and nice bite, each cut of the chicken was very distinctive and enjoyable.