It started in Guangzhou and expanded into Shenzhen. It is Japanese cuisine but Taiwanese influence, and served Chinese-sourced ingredients. That’s Mota, an izakaya and irrelevant as the current pop culture.
To be precise, Mota is a Taiwanese-style Japanese izakaya if there’s such a thing. In 2014, the first restaurant opened in Guangzhou, and became an Instagram (or TikTok) hit. Within several short years of opening, it was voted the best izakaya in GZ because of its high-quality service, lively atmosphere, and ultra-high CP value.
At present, there are 7 stores in Guangzhou, all of which are very popular. Every time I pass by a Mota, I always see a crowd of people queueing. Every day, there are long queues of diners at the door, and it is also known as a must-eat Japanese restaurant in Guangzhou. Now that they have opened in Shenzhen, the queue was a crazy 2.5 hours!
Because it has the main theme of a “canteen”, the design concept is very simple and hearty, whether it is ceiling decoration, wall decoration, cups, chopsticks, dishes and seasoning bottles on the table.
It is always busy at the table side. Like this mentaiko grilled potato. A baked potato is smooched with a silly amount of mentaiko mayo on top and then aburi with a blowtorch.
Additional mentaiko mayo and chilli sauce are given as dips for the potato wedges on the side. The grilled potato was nice because of the smoky mentaiko.
There’s no elegance per se with the sashimi. The salmon and other fish were generously cut double the thickness of a high-end sashimi restaurant. None of the ingredients came from overseas to keep the price down.
The sushi shari looked like they were squeezed by machine, and they crumbled as soon as you picked them up. Again, there’s not skills to mention.
I am not sure if this hand roll was just for the sea urchin. There’s a strange taste to the sea urchin.
Instead of a single scallop, the extra-height sushi came with three layers of scallops.
The grilled gyutan (ox tongue) was thinly sliced and sprinkled with black truffle oil and tipped with bits of foie gras. By far it was my favourite dish of the evening. It was big enough to be shared by two persons.
Everything we ordered were very generous portioned, but that’s the only positive point. Most of the items were put together by fast-food level kitchen staff. It was based on a specific SOP and nothing special or shout about. Not worth the long wait.
Mota Restaurant 摩打食堂 (皇庭广场店)
广东省深圳市福田区福田街道福安社区福华三路118号皇庭广场F1
Tel : +86 18938062990
Visited Aug 2023
#motaizakaya @摩打食堂 #摩打食堂
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