Kyo Hayashiya restaurant review: Matcha-licious desserts
This green tea mecca is the place to put your feet up and your shopping bags down
Sink your teeth into these super soft match-flavoured warubi mochi. Kyo Hayashiya
Shop 1203, 12/F, Hysan Place, 500 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay
Tel: 3580 1838
Grub: Japanese cuisine, specialising in matcha desserts and drinks
Vibe: Light, bright, and airy. If you’re feeling peckish and you’re in serious need of a shopping break, this green tea mecca is the place to put your feet up and your shopping bags down. The decor is simple and clean – and you’re about 90 per cent of the way there.
If you’re after a little privacy, ask to be seated at one of the screened booths. Otherwise, the seating is very open plan and spacious, which means you won’t be knocking knees with your neighbours – but you’ll still be at risk of suffering serious food envy, ’cause you’ll see everything.
Who to take: A best mate, a date, or your parents if you want to treat them (or if they want to treat you!).
What’s hot: Although Kyo Hayashiya is more well-known for their matcha dishes than anything else, we actually really enjoyed their Kyoto Unagi Don (HK$128 with tea) – which is grilled eel on a bed of rice. The eel is not overcooked in the slightest.
What we loved was that the accompanying tea came with instructions on how to brew the perfect cuppa in a do-it-yourself tea ceremony. We ordered the hojicha infused with peach flavour. There wasn’t much peach in it, but we appreciated the taste of the roasted tea leaves.
The Hong Kong Exclusive Parfait (HK$98) was good, if not outstanding (this reviewer is, admittedly, not a fan of red bean), and the warubi mochi in the Kyo Hayashiya Anmitsu (HK$98) was super soft and heavily matcha-flavoured. Between the two, though, we’d probably order the parfait.
What’s not: It’s pretty pricey for what you get – whilst we (and many of you) love green tea, we’re not sure we love it enough that we’d hit this place on the regular.
Having said that, if you and a mate choose to share a dish and a drink between the two of you (there’s a minimum order of one item per person), and you’ve got a little cash to splash, we’d say go for it – you won’t regret it.
Cost: Mains cost between HK$68-HK$128. Drinks are HK$48-HK$62. Desserts are HK$56-HK$108.
Edited by Nicole Moraleda
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