Hung Fai - Bilbao

Spectacular had never gone to a Japanese and advised us the owner hung up on fai that by the way he is a super attentive and friendly person with the clients, we ate a little everything and we got a lot of everything was super rich again

Asparagus with cheese. Freshest prawns were exceptional. The table was silent with only the sounds of eating . The highest praise

Visiting the Mercado De La Ribera I was expecting to see an interesting market with a lot of local produce and hoped there might be somewhere to eat. To my surprise half of the main hall is now given over to a number of rather nice eating places. The style is that each establishment is of a market stall, in some cases with excellent pintxos, others you place your order, there are then seats for each stall in the centre. The beautiful surroundings of the renovated Ribera Market make this a great place to eat. Hung Fai caught my eye as they had a cabinet of what looked like very good aged steak and blazing charcoal grill. The visible menus were all in Spanish, and the staff did not speak English, but quickly produced an English menu. The couple sitting next to me shared a steak, which looked really nice, delivered cooked rare to table on a little grill where they could choose to cook further if they wished. I think the steaks were sold by weight but to avoid discussion in my terrible Spanish I picked the ribs and potatoes and I really enjoyed them. It seems that the chef Hung Fai is well known, having appeared on a TV cookery competition, it would have been interesting to know more of this background at the time. The portion was 4 huge pork ribs that had been marinated in asian spices and then grilled. The meat was tender and tasty and of very good quality, potatoes a great accompaniment. I was really happy making my way through this huge portion. This is not trying to be BBQ in the American sense, there's no BBQ sauce, no long hours in the smoker, but it seems to me be a very interesting mix of the Spanish approach to good meat treated simply and well, and the asian flavours. My only minor criticism was that the tables and chairs were not particularly comfortable. As this is such an interesting place to eat, and the food is very good, it would have been to be really comfortable. If ever I'm in Bilbao again I will certainly return, I hope with a companion so we can share one of those steaks.