Restaurant review: Kido in Tsim Sha Tsui has great grilled skewers, both chicken and vegetable, at reasonable prices
- Get the Tokushima awaodori wings and the thick-cut ox tongue if you’re after meaty, generous skewers
- We recommend the vegetable sticks for the accompanying kani miso – it’s so good, you can eat it on its own
Cuisine: Japanese, specialising in yakitori (grilled chicken skewers).
Price: about HK360 per person without drinks or the service charge.
Ambience: we visited Kido on the day the government announced guidelines limiting the number of visitors from across the border and asking businesses to let their workers work from home. The streets were quiet and you could find seats on the MTR at rush hour – but when we opened the restaurant’s small door (tall people will have to duck to get inside) we found the place packed, and we were glad we had booked ahead of time. The grill is near the entrance and the restaurant can get smoky, so wear clothes that can be thrown into the washing machine afterwards.
Pros: Kido offers a good variety of chicken parts, with many of the skewers available as both Japanese Yamato Nikudori chicken and the unspecific “farmland chicken”, which was cheaper. They also serve non-chicken skewers, as well as kushiage/kushikatsu (fried skewers).
Cons: we were sitting at a small table, rather than around the open grill, so instead of pacing the cooking to how quickly we ate, the chefs prepared everything at once. As a result, we were served almost everything within about 10 minutes. It’s best to order only a few dishes at a time.