Yardbird
Yardbird has been around for awhile. I first learned of the restaurant and its legendarily long lineups when I arrived in Hong Kong in 2015. In the past, they didn’t do reservations, and the lines would snake outside the restaurant for hours. In 2017, they moved to a larger space, and quite recently, they started taking reservations.
The restaurant was opened by Chef Matt Abergel, who worked under three starred Masayoshi Takayama in New York before moving to Hong Kong to take over Zuma. He opened Yardbird with his business partner, Lindsay Jang, in 2011. Over the years, they’ve received much fanfare and accolades, and in 2021, they earned their first Michelin star and have held it until now.
Yardbird focuses on Japanese Yakitori, using the Cantonese Three Yellow Chicken, and using every part of the chicken in some dish or other, leading to interesting skewers - like chicken bicep or ventricle.
We arrived exactly at six, where a throng of patient patrons were already hanging out and waiting for the restaurant to open. Yardbird is located in what appears to be an industrial building on a quiet street in Sheung Wan, beside traditional Chinese shops selling dried seafood.
The interior is deceptively cavernous, with a front bar area and a narrow passage leading to the open kitchen and additional seating.
A menu highlights all the different skewers and cuts you can order. There are some unique ones I haven’t tried before like neck skin, knee or inner thigh.
Surprisingly for a yakitori place, there was a large assortment of dishes that were not skewers or chicken.
In normal fashion, I started with my favourite Umeshu highball, the Umeshu freshly made in house every year.
Upon arrival, they left us a bottle of Flagrant hot sauce, which is also created by Chef Matt, along with some Szechwan pepper flakes.
The first order that came was a bowl of Yardbird soup - a rich and salty chicken stock with young burdock leaves and stems.
Next to arrive was the chicken liver mousse. Very similar to meatfruit at Dinner by Heston, a light and fluffy chicken liver paste spread on top of a soft toasted milk bread with some crispy onion rings. Absolutely delicious.
Yardbird take on a Caesar, not great. Topped with nori and fried anchovies, there was a lot of texture from some bitter greens, but this was hardly a Caesar salad. There were a lot of short sprouts, plenty of texture, but not much in the shape of leaves and did not resemble anything I would consider a Caesar salad. Perhaps my own fault for ordering a salad at a yakitori joint.
The first skewer to arrive, small pieces of chicken skin, grilled until perfectly crispy. Normally, I expect the skin to be folded in on itself, and a little chewy. Yardbird spaced out the skins so every bit got crispy.
Next, and one of the highlights, the chicken oyster. This piece of dark meat from beside the chicken thigh was rich, smokey, juicy and perfectly cooked. One of the best skewers of the night.
The corn tempura balls. Surprisingly light and loose. There was so little tempura batter that the ball barely held together, and would collapse once you bit into the ball. Best version of the corn tempura I’ve ever tried.
Korean Fried Cauliflower. Slightly spicy with a crispy shell, perfectly steamed soft cauliflower inside.
Chicken Achilles - I thought this was going to be the Achilles tendon, but it looks like part of the thigh with a nice juicy piece of fat attached. Delicious.
A classic scotch egg - a soft boiled egg surrounded by a ground sausage coating, deep fried, quartered and slathered with kewpie mayo. Not particularly memorable, and wouldn’t order it again.
Chicken breast skewer, topped with wasabi and soy sauce.
Chicken Bicep. Smokey, juicy, rich, but otherwise unremarkable.
Chicken ventricle - I took this to be parts of the heart. Perfectly cooked, but a bit bitter. Wouldn’t order it again.
Chicken tendon. I struggled a bit to tell this apart from the chicken bicep. I was expecting the tendon to have a texture closer to cartilage.
The absolute highlight of the night, the chicken and egg rice. This is a must order if you come to Yardbird. It reminded me of the chicken rice we had at Odette, a three Michelin star restaurant, except it was much, much better.
It was a very soft short grain rice and peas, close in texture to risotto, topped with a onsen egg and crispy deep fried chicken skin. They mixed everything up, so the crispy chicken skin added texture and the onsen egg added richness to the already rich risotto.
The inspiration for this dish came his work with Masa in New York, where he learned the rice technique from Masa’s signature uni risotto.
The best dish of the night by far, and an amazing way to finish the meal.
When asked for the cheque, they returned with a tray of three small packets of spice, presumably to take home and snort. I asked quizzically, but they said to scan the QR code underneath to pay. First time I’ve seen that.
If it was evaluating the yakitori alone, I would be pretty disappointed at Yardbird. Perhaps I’m spoiled after trying some of the best yakitori in the world, but in comparison, Yardbird didn’t even come close. However, there were a lot of memorable hits - the chicken liver mousse gave the meatfruit a run for its money, the chicken oyster skewer in particular was very well executed, and the egg and chicken rice was the best I’ve ever had. So in conclusion, would return, just not for the yakitori.
Total damage 1900 HKD/3 people.