Part of your 5-a-day

Ever since I first paid a visit to b.a.r. Executive bar (27/F Bartlock Centre, 3 Yiu Wa Street, Causeway Bay), I had been obsessed with returning to this amazing Japanese bar. The place is the sushi bar equivalent of a booze joint - not many seats around the room, and you definitely want to grab a stool at the bar, as it is where the show is. The Japanese cocktail master who officiates in the place certainly has some of the most entertaining shaker skills I have ever seen. We tried counting his moves and failed...

Fresh Apricot with apricot brandy

We decided to start the evening with a few bites of Japanese food, just to cushion the blow, as last time Peech and I came to this bar...errrr... well I can't exactly remember what happened. You get my point. We decided to pay a visit to one of his favourite Japanese haunts (Irori, 2/F Bartlock Centre, 3 Yiu Wa Street, Causeway Bay), which happens to be conveniently located a few floors below the bar.

Japanese tomato in sesame citrus sauce

A fleshy and fruity Japanese tomato, nicely firm to the bite, generously dressed up with a deliciously nutty and citrussy, creamy sauce. The balance of flavours was perfect.

Japanese white corn

These delicious kernels are in season again. They are traditionally eaten raw, and are so sweet the sugars actually start to ferment inside the kernels, adding a nice kick. Simple and beautiful.

Grilled ox tongue with spring onion

Slightly firm to the bite, packed with that delicious umami only grilled meat has, and nicely complemented by the slightly astringent taste of the onions, which cut down the fattiness. Delicious and very nicely done.

Firefly squid

I love the firm and slightly chewy texture of squid. These lil' babies were full of sea flavours and came with a delicious white miso dip.

Striped jack

The slices were cut quite thick, which really brought out the delicate flavours of the fish. The fish was of course impeccably fresh.



Stir-fried burdock with chicken

A nice flavour combination - slightly astringent burdock, nutty sesame oil, fruity shredded carrot and tasty sliced chicken. Very nice.

 At this point I was feeling very full, and it was time to move a few floors up to get a liquid dessert... On top of his amazing shaker-twirling skills, the cocktail-sensei at Executive bar has an exceptional flair for flavour pairings, and uses fresh fruits in a lot of his cocktails; when entering the room, one is always greeted by an overflowing plate of fresh fruits to pick from, which will be paired on the spot with whatever he feels you should drink... I like to think that there are no to identical cocktails made from the same fruit in this place, which is probably not strictly true, but one has to admire the care put in their preparation. Depending on your choice, the fruit will be peeled, deseeded, squeezed, crushed, mixed and finally blended and shaken-shaken-shaken before ending up in your glass. The alcohol content feels deceptively discreet, and it is very easy to have 5 too many of these delicious concoctions. Tonight, we would stay in the safety zone and settle for 3 cocktails only, followed by a whisky (as it turns out the place also has an extensive offering of very fine cask nectars...)

Fresh Apricot with apricot brandy



Fresh Asian pear and bacardi



Fresh Japanese melon and bacardi



Nightcap for grownups - Suntory Hibiki 21 years

I never used to like whisky so much until I tasted my first sip of the Japanese's take at this beverage - always very round and sweet, they drink very nicely. Note the hand-carved ice ball in the glass...

It was then time to go home and I proudly stumbled out of the bar walking (almost...) in a straight line ;)