Delicious deep-fried veggie balls

Neither Hello Kitty and I are fond of restaurants who don't take reservations, and we don't care to line up for food beyond, say, a 15-minute wait.  As a result, we have been strangers to one of Hong Kong's most beloved restaurants - among a certain crowd, at least.  My first and only visit to Yardbird came nearly 3 years ago, and Hello Kitty has never tasted their regular dishes.  We are much more familiar with the group's sister restaurant Ronin, as the latter is open for advanced booking.

But Hello Kitty felt like giving Yardbird a try, and it turned out there were seats available on a walk-in basis at lunch.  So off we went and got ourselves seats at the bar counter.  In fact, I sat in these very seats on my first visit.

Sweet corn tempura, sea salt, pepper - one cannot come here without ordering up a serving (or two) of this.  This is the second day in a row I'm having some deep-fried corn, and I absolutely love it.  I did find it a tad on the greasy side, though.  Delicious on its own, but even better with Yardbird's house blend shichimi (七味).

(chicken) oyster, sea salt, lemon - sot-l'y-laisse is always a good idea, and absolutely wonderful when it comes with skin.  Soooo tender and succulent.  I was really tempted to have another skewer or two, but I guess I ran out of stomach space at the end...

(chicken) wings, sea salt, shichimi - Hello Kitty was surprised by the size of these, and honestly, so was I on my first visit.  Very tasty, though, with all that shichimi.

Scotch egg, cabbage, Bull-Dog, Kewpie - how interesting to take Scotch egg - something so British - and made the flavors more Japanese with the addition of Bull-Dog Sauce and Kewpie mayo.  Very nice.

(chicken) meatball, tare, egg yolk - tsukune (つくね) is a must at any yakitori joint, and it certainly is good here.  Love the crunch provided by the cartilage.  

KFC, yuzu, chili, lime - it was suggested that we take a half serving of this, but I flat out refused.  This is damn good, and I was gonna chomp down as much cauliflower as I could.  That crispy batter lathered in the spicy and tangy sauce was so, so good.  I was happy and satisfied.

Clams yaki soba - FAIL.  First of all, when you use the name "yakisoba (焼きそば)", people would expect those thin noodles covered in that tangy sauce.  This was not it.  I understand that they use a higher quality type of noodles, with a lot more bite, but it wasn't what we thought we ordered or wanted.  Admittedly, the buttery sauce with all that spring onion tasted pretty decent.

But then the clams completely failed.  While the huge manila clams from Washington State provided plenty of springy bite, they also came with a lot of sand inside... and there's nothing more off-putting to me than ruining everything with sand in your clams.

I got talked into trying a glass of wine that I suspected might be bongwater, and of course it was...  Sigh.

2018 Milan Nestarec Forks and Knives White - very tropical, fragrant nose with lychees.  Obviously a natural wine and I thought it was very slightly pungent, with a little flint.  Almost overripe but the acidity was still here.  Kinda short on the finish.