The Lowdown
Restaurant Name: J-Dog
Cuisine: Japanese Style Hog Dogs
Average Price per Person: $32 to $110 HKD or $4 to $14 USD
Location: Tai Hang, Hong Kong (please refer to the map below for details)
Recommendations: The J-Dog, Nori Dog and Kaso DogRatings (out of 5)
Taste: 3
Creativity/Authenticity: 3.5
Atmosphere: 2.5
Service: 1.5
Bang for Buck: 4.5
Crayscale !!!
J-Dog is one of the few hot dog joints in Hong Kong specializing in Japanese style hot dogs. This Japanese inspired hot dog shop is located in Hong Kong’s increasingly popular Tai Hang area in a small space with minimal seating catering to mostly take-out customers. J-Dog is extremely similar to the Canadian hot dog establishment, Japadog, which originated in Vancouver and has now extended it’s reach to New York City. Regardless of who came first (#pause), I’m glad Hong Kong now has a spot for tasty Japanese wieners.
J-Dog’s menu is fairly simple comprised mainly of hot dogs covered in dericious Japanese toppings including nori, bonito flakes, wasabi sauce, and crab roe. There’s also a section of all deep fried everything consisting of cheese stuffed chicken wings, spicy cod roe stuffed chicken wings, hash browns (croquettes), dumplings, potato battered shrimp, breaded crab claws and fish fingers. The J-Dog is the shop’s signature hot dog, a 50 centimeter long hot dog made up of 4 different types of hot dogs of your choice (it’s four wieners making up 50 cm)! That’s half a meter or 20 inches of delicious juicy meaty goodness!
We couldn’t help ourselves and decided to go with the J-Dog made up of the Chimi Dog, Kaso Dog, Nori Dog and Sabi Dog (see below for topping details). The J-Dog is definitely one of the longest hot dogs we’ve ever seen! Look at that thang, it’s ginormous! It’s the anaconda of all wieners, longer than a footlong, and has about the same girth as my arm #realtalk! Eugene and I were a little intimidated by this beast at first and we weren’t sure if the two of us would be able to take this sucker down. We actually managed to finish this and eat a second meal.
Looking to capture a bit of Japanese fast food novelty, J-Dog takes its orders via a vending machine at the front of the shop where payment is made via an Octopus card, which is essentially a prepaid smart card used in Hong Kong.
Once your order has been placed, plastic order cards (as shown above) will drop into the bottom slot of the vending machine. Give the plastic card to the guy behind the counter and wait for your order to be called.
The J-Dog made up of the Chimi Dog, Kaso Dog, Nori Dog and Sabi Dog (from left to right) !!! The knife and my arm are pictured as a size reference. This beast cost $108 HKD or $13.95 USD which is a pretty good deal if you ask me. Other individual hot dog costs $32 HKD or $4.10 USD.
Chimi Dog: tomato, shichimi tōgarashi, onion and mayonnaise on a spicy sausage. This was pretty tasty but my least favorite of the four dogs. The tomato was cold, which kinda turned me off a little bit. The bun isn’t the soft fluffy hot dog bun that I’m accustomed to and was actually more of a baguette with a hard crunchy texture similar to a Vietnamese sub or Bánh mì.
Kaso Dog: bonito flakes, cabbage, pork sauce and mayo on a pork sausage. This was my second favorite of the four. The toppings were reminiscent of takoyaki or okonomiyaki. Loved the combination of the salty bonito flakes, creamy mayonnaise and the pork sauce which tastes like a reduced Worcestershire sauce.
Nori Dog: seaweed, onion, chicken sauce, and mayo on a cheese sausage. This was the winner for me. The Nori Dog was the most flavor intensive. Couldn’t get enough of the sweet caramelized onions with that nori. Nom nom nom!
Sabi Dog: cucumber, wasabi sauce and mayo (see the trend) on a cheese sausage. The Sabi Dog was aiiite. Better than the Chimi, but not much better.
Cheese Stuffed Chicken Wing ($12 HKD or $1.55 USD). This wasn’t too shabby, but I probably wouldn’t order it again. I assumed that cheese would explode in my mouth as I sunk my teeth into this wang, but no dice. It was pretty underwhelming.
Hot dog take out boxes!
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G/F, 124 Tung Lo Wan Road, Tai Hang
p: +852.2512.2452
