Hosokawa Japanese Restaurant, Hamilton, Brisbane

February 09, 2015

Hosokawa Japanese restaurant in Hamilton, along Racecourse road does its justice for traditional Japanese food, however, it may be hard to find street parking or you even may miss the place when you drive past. Do book before you come because sometimes, they may easily be fully booked even if sometimes you do see empty tables around. The restaurant is not as big as I thought it would be, with both indoor and outdoor seatings available.

A wide range of Japanese dishes were offered, there were also lunch specials that were available. We decided to try two of their lunch specials and one of their sashimi sets. It took a while for the food to come out which was quite annoying since seeing many other customers getting their food and gobbling them down.

'Small Sashimi Set' ($22) approximately 15 slices of chef's selection. What do I think of it at first glance? Definitely worth it. For the price and the amount you get on your plate, the thick cuts, just look at them.. Slices of Tuna, Kingfish, Salmon, Scallop, Octopus, Squid, White fish, Mackerel, just to name a few.. A big dollop of wasabi with cucumbers, caviar and two thin slices of lemon on the side. The chef had forgotten out octopus slices so he apologized and gave us octopus slices on a separate plate.

For the first main, 'Chicken Katsu set' ($13.9) consisted of miso soup, pickles on the side, katsu sauce, a bowl of warm rice and a plate of a simple salad and the chicken katsu. The katsu sauce was a bit strong but it was combined nicely with the warm rice and the chicken katsu.

The simple salad was a nice touch to the chicken katsu, consisting of thinly sliced white cabbage, carrots, tomato and cucumbers. The chicken katsu was quite thin and not as meaty as I thought it would be. There were some fatty bits but that didn't really annoy me as much, the crumb was nice and thin, not oily.

'Chicken Teriyaki' ($13.9) was also served with warm rice and miso soup, side salad on the chicken teriyaki too. The chicken seemed to have been marinated before hand with the teriyaki base, giving it that nice golden brown texture.

The meat itself had a nice moistness in it, only fat visible was at the ends, with meat all around. It was just normal though for me, it just seemed like a normal chicken teriyaki, but what I liked about it was that how the sauce wasn't too strong and the salad and warm rice helped balanced everything too.