Set on the 101st floor of the ICC after an ear-popping experience as you torpedo up the multi-storey building, you arrive into an intimate moody restaurant that boasts modern interiors, rewarded by panoramic sweeping views of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. Pass the sake casks and impressive display of Japanese spirits by the entrance, each culinary offering is segregated by an interior design of modern flair. But it is the robatayaki room, Inakaya’s most impressive feature, that takes you a world away from the rest of the restaurant. The bright timber and bamboo lined walls, energetic waiters, lined fresh produce in wicker baskets and Japanese signs transport you to an authentic Japanese woshoku restaurant - while this is great, you can’t help but query the discord between the varied settings within the same restaurant.

There is a minimum of spending of HK$1,000 to sit in the robatayaki room, and you’d think you would be pressed to order a lot of food. However, not only was this ultimately not the case, but we also quickly found that with the lack of labels to indicate the price of produce in the wicker baskets, the pointing exercise can get dangerously expensive, fast. We begin the meal with some simple starters, a flying fish roe salad and a sashimi salad. The sashimi salad with sea elk, salmon and sweet shrimp paired with wa fu dressing proved to be a refreshing starter, but it was really the flying fish roe salad that impressed us, as unlike others, it used rough cut cucumber and a hefty amount of crabmeat paired with just the right amount of mayonnaise. Next we ordered the assorted sushi platter, which turned out to be a delightful surprise of delicate cuts of fish, some rarely featured in Hong Kong. Next we opted for the assorted tempura to sample another Japanese culinary variety on offer; the light, fluffy and wispy batter that homed the tempura was fantastic. Next up, we turned our attention to the teppanyaki bar, where we requested for the sliced garlic beef, a juicy cut of meat paired with just the right amount of garlic to give the perfect garlic kick, the only complaint was that it was served medium, when we asked for medium-rare. We were also wonderfully pleased with the use of rock salt by the chef, an uncommon condiment we found, among Japanese restaurants. Less impressive was the American ribeye, which made less of an impression thanks to its tepid temperature. Last but not least, we turned our attention back to the robata grill, where our slow-cooked kinki fish was finally ready. Initially, we were a little concerned that this slow cook method of such a thin fish would drain all the moisture of the otherwise sweet-fleshed fish, but we quickly ate our words (and all of the fish) when we were served a delightful, fragrant and succulent white fish. After a meal heavy on the grill and teppan, we recommend the yuzu sorbet to freshen up the palate with a nice kick.

With one of the most extensive sake lists in Hong Kong, you can pick from sake varieties such as vintage sakes, shizuku, yamahai, nama zake, premium sake rice and even extends to sparkling sake. The sommelier is well-informed and there are helpful notes in the form of fermentation periods and Parker points.

The wait staff were very attentive with a four-to-one wait staff to customer ratio. They were very accommodating when we requested to try food from their other dining rooms and the pomp and energy around the room when cooking and serving the food made for an entertaining overall experience that we highly recommend.

Although there are a good range of dishes at varying price points, the top quality items are by and large not cheap, especially when you factor in the relatively small size of the portions, however you obviously also pay a premium for the setting. Dinner with wine will average around HK$1,500 to HK$2,000 per head. Lunch menus can be cheaper, with washoku lunch sets ranging from HK$280-HK$420 but the teppanyaki lunch course menus start at HK$380 and go up to as much as HK$980.