Out to lunch with actor Michael Tong at Michelin two-star Sushiyoshi in Tsim Sha Tsui

Although in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui, the newly opened Sushiyoshi - a two Michelin-star restaurant from Osaka - is a quiet, cosy haven amid the noise of the city. Located on the first floor of Hotel Otto, Sushiyoshi seats only 12 split between the chef’s counter and private room.

Video by Matthew Furniss

The minimalist interior features a 200-year-old Japanese Hinoki - a cypress wood table counter. “It’s very postmodern” remarks actor Michael Tong Man-lung, who is here with us to try chef/restaurant owner Hiroki Nakanoue’s innovative cuisine. Chef Nakanoue is known in Osaka for his modern take on edomae-style sushi, and we are told the dishes and ingredients are virtually identical to the Osaka outlet.

We are in the private room which has a sushi counter behind which the chef meticulously creates our first dish - waffle with scallop tartare and caviar. I take the chance to ask Tong about his early career and his time at TVB, before he moved to the mainland and seemed to disappear off radar.

“I started out as a fashion designer, before pursuing my dream as a singer in my mid-20s,” says the youthful looking 48-year-old. “But that didn’t go too well.”

“I liked to sing but little did I realise that liking something and turning it into your career is very different. All the complications come into play with going professional - first of all there’s the pressure. You have to do it every day. Second of all, your livelihood depends on it as you have to make money from it.”

Tong then turned to acting, joining TVB in late 1999 and made his name in television dramas. After seven years, he quit and moved to mainland China.