Who would have thought that a shop bearing the name ‘electric company’ (路易奇電力公司) would actually be a yakiniku restaurant from Taiwan? Yakiniku Luigi is one of Taiwan’s top 10 Japanese yakiniku restaurants. It was established by Leo Wu Jun-jie, founder of hospitality group Luigi Restaurant Company, known for eateries such as The Other Floor by Luigi and Luigi’s Laundry Company. Currently, the yakiniku restaurant boasts more than 10 branches across Taiwan, each venue renowned for its high quality Japanese A5 wagyu offerings.
Luigi’s first overseas branch is located in Wan Chai along Lockhart Road. The restaurant features a minimalist industrial design with a grey and white colour scheme.. With seating for just 28 diners, the venue provides ample space, including an open kitchen where diners can observe Luigi’s skilled staff expertly slicing cuts of meat by hand. We visited Luigi for dinner on a weekday, and there weren’t many guests dining at the restaurant, so we were able to comfortably enjoy our meal on a spacious table.
Luigi’s menu is spread across two pages, offering diners a choice of three yakiniku sets, with over 80 percent of the selections featuring premium cuts of A5 Wagyu beef directly imported from Japan. The restaurant’s yakiniku sets consist of 10 to 12 courses priced at $958, $1,278, and $1,758, respectively; and Luigi’s adept staff skillfully grill your dishes right at your table. Customers who prefer to enjoy their items without assistance from the staff can opt for the ‘challenge price’ option ($598/$798/$1,098), allowing them to grill their dishes to their liking. Guests can also enjoy over 10 a la carte items from the menu, available at varying prices. Opting for our favourite dishes from Luigi’s a la carte selection, we chose to grill our food ourselves to get the most out of the experience.
Before diving into the meal, diners can go to Luigi’s self-service condiment table to pick their favourite dipping sauces. The restaurant provides 11 unique options, including black truffle sauce imported from Italy, sun-dried and salted kelp from Japan, umami-rich mentaiko, homemade salted scallion oil, and garlic confit, in addition to Luigi’s classic Japanese-style yakiniku sauce and yuzu-infused yakiniku sauce. Customers are welcome to help themselves to as much sauce as they like, so be sure to try all of the options.
We recommend trying the Japanese A5 Wagyu steak cube ($235), which features beautifully marbled A5 Wagyu beef fillet cut into small delightful pieces. Grilling the steak cubes until fragrant, we then dipped them into a raw egg yolk with yakiniku sauce before each bite. The steak is tender and juicy with a rich meaty flavour. With how rich these steak cubes were, two pieces of meat were enough for two people. Next, the thick-cut Wagyu beef tongue slices ($210) showcase cuts from the tender middle to rear portion of the tongue, offering a springy texture while retaining juiciness. Moving on from beef, we grilled sashimi-grade scallops ($55) to a light cook and paired them with sea urchin, enhancing scallops’ fresh flavours.
Other standout a la carte dishes to order include the chicken neck ($105) and the USDA inside skirt ($105). We also ordered Luigi’s assorted seafood donburi ($145) topped with sea urchin, shrimp sashimi, salmon roe, scallops, egg yolk, and crab roe paste. For ultimate satisfaction, mix all the toppings together and enjoy with your rice bowl. Surprisingly, Luigi’s menu doesn’t offer any dessert options, but we received a complementary portion of mugwort and fern mochi at the end of our meal, which made our dining experience even better.
The competition among Hong Kong’s yakiniku restaurants is fierce, yet this Taiwanese restaurant proves itself to be a worthy newcomer. Luigi offers a diverse range of premium Japanese ingredients at reasonable prices, with the added bonus of a carefully laid out condiment table. The attentive service provided by the staff further enhances the experience. If Luigi can maintain these standards, they are well positioned to become a formidable force in Hong Kong’s yakiniku scene. – translated by Cherry Chan
Here’s what our star ratings mean:
★: Not recommended
★★: A disappointing experience
★★★: A good experience
★★★★: A very good to great experience
★★★★★: An outstanding experience
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