Eh, ever been to a Yaohan (八百半)?
Okay, that's a trick question as most Yaohan stores disappeared in 1997, so you would have to be at least 32 (assuming that you need to be at least 5 to have lucid memories) to see one. Anyways, Yaohan was a hypermarket chain out in the Tokai region of Japan and grew in the early 80s by expanding overseas - Thailand, Malaysia/SG, Taiwan, HK/Macau, Indonesia and stateside. They didn't expand into Tokyo until the late 80s, by which time they are already dying from the tab achieved via over-expansion. They moved their headquarters to Hong Kong in '92, but the entire chain imploded due to the '96 asian financial crisis. Their stateside operations were reorganized into Mitsuwa. Their Japanese and some overseas operations were sold to Jusco/Aeon, which rebranded them as MaxValu (マックスバリュ). Others close down or were taken over by non-affiliated local investors.
Why bring this up? Well, if you grew up in Hong Kong during the colonial era, your first exposure to Japanese cuisine probably came from a Yaohan food hall (they are anchor tenants in local shopping centers and really popular) which had to adapt to local preferences. Competing local diners and eatery also did their best trying to do something "Japanese influenced" while sticking with local cooking techniques.
That's the impression I got eating at Noname - they tried to convince you they are Japanese with the decor, but they are Cantonese in nature. The harder the restaurants work on decor, the less likely they are focused on their host cuisine (like Mexican joint with too much sombreros, goofy lights, mariachi music and Corona/Dos Equis banners), but when you get the food you constantly get the impression that they are cooking something resembling, but isn't quite Japanese.
Take the Yakitori or the salmon on this bento, for instance. Legit Yakitori joints use a trench grill with coals to blast their food with heat, smoke and carmelize the glaze. Here, it looks like they just griddled it with some teriyaki sauce and then used a torch to give it sear marks. Then there's the bento box, which as my wife would've put it...was over-seasoned and had a wacky layout. Why put a piece of fried mackerel next to the salmon? Or put gari (sushi ginger) on a bento without sushi? The ikura sansai is a squid and vegetable salad, but the squid is essentially orange cured cuttlefish 鹵水墨魚 served in Cantonese barbecue joints - it's also a bit fishy. The curry sauce served in their joint is like the stuff that came with HK style fish balls, while the "tonkatsu" is straight-up Cantonese pork chop from a cha chaan teng (茶餐廳) or HK style cafe. The small omelette on top of the rice is stylistically speaking just HK style scrambled eggs or 炒滑蛋.
So here's the important question? Is it a lousy place to eat? No - It's not that bad, as long as you accept that it's not really Japanese (that'll be Taku Ramen down the block or Taku Sando in Greenpoint). It's more like Cantonese-Japanese fusion, which isn't that bad. It would be funny to pull the posters off the wall and replace it with Hong Kong versions of Japanese movies, Japanese celebrity collectible cards from Yes! Magazines, HK ads of damae itcho (出前一丁), and run Cantonese covers of Japanese CityPop songs as background music (oh god I listened to so much of that growing up thanks to my folks). LIC doesn't need another place half-assing Japanese, but they can use more places full-assing HK style diners or offer up HK/Tokyo hybrids as that would actually be awesome. I mean, the value is decent and the decor is pretty, I am just not sold on the idea of this being a Japanese joint. read more