Okonomiyaki translates as 'the way you like it grilling', and Yang describes the style of cuisine as 'do-it-yourself savoury Japanese pancakes'.

Yang's restaurant is one of a new wave of Japanese food outlets to have opened in Hong Kong in recent months, attracted by the city's growing base of sophisticated, well-travelled customers with high disposable incomes.

Other recent arrivals have brought with them coffee from Kumamoto, bread from Kyoto and tonkatsu from Ginza.

Yang's style of okonomiyaki hails from Osaka. 'There are three popular okonomiyaki styles of cooking,' he says.

'The Hiroshima style starts off with making two pancakes and then sandwiching yaki soba [stir-fried noodles] in the middle. The Tokyo style cooks the cabbage first and then forms a well in the centre to add the eggs and batter. The Osaka style premixes everything together in a bowl and then throws it on the hotplate.

'We've realised that anything other than the simple Osaka style is difficult even for chefs to perfect, much less our guests.'

Some aspects of Japanese cuisine have been tweaked for Hong Kong tastes, Yang says. For example, Japanese restaurants usually have a limited menu, but Hongkongers demand a wider selection.

'In Japan, they have basic combinations of set toppings like they do with pizza - Hawaiian, meat lover's, supreme and so on. But in Hong Kong, people like to build their own flavours from scratch,' Yang says, adding that Bang Bang Pan Pan offers 21 toppings, two sauce choices and an additional list of side dishes on its menu.

Two other recent arrivals in the city are Ginza Bairin, from the 82-year-old tonkatsu speciality shop in Ginza, and Okada Coffee, from the 64-year-old coffee chain in Kumamoto. Both are expanding their menus to cater for local tastes. Okada has added a line of cold drinks and a simple savoury menu. The original Ginza Bairin menu in Japan offers only 20 items, but more than 60 are being offered at the Hong Kong outlet.

'The biggest departure from our store in Japan is that we now serve sashimi on our menus because Hong Kong people associate raw fish with Japanese food,' says Shigeru Saito, the general manager for Italian Tomato, the master franchisee for Ginza Bairin's Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei and greater China licences.

Although the restaurateurs have few qualms about beefing up their menus, tweaking recipes for local tastes is another matter.

At Bang Bang Pan Pan, Yang, a French-trained chef, has developed a lighter pancake batter using less potato flour to appease customers' complaints that the traditional version is too dense and filling.

But Okada restaurant manager Cat Kwok has taken the opposite approach, saying: 'It's true that our Japanese customers have slightly different tastes than our Hong Kong customers. The Japanese like things less salty and sweeter; it is the opposite for Hongkongers. But we're sticking to what the Japanese like so as to stay authentic.'

Staying authentic has attracted a loyal following of Japanese expats, who account for 70 per cent of Okada's customers.

Authentic cuisine has also won the day at Ginza Bairin, where chefs prepare the restaurant's signature tonkatsu, or fried pork chop, using the same methods passed down by the original chef in Ginza. Its hirekatsu don features thickly sliced pork tenderloin covered with breadcrumbs imported from Japan, fried in cottonseed oil heated to 170-180 degrees Celsius then doused with the restaurant's own tonkatsu sauce, made from more than 20 types of vegetables.

'It is important that if we carry the brand name of Ginza Bairin and its reputation since 1927, that we taste as close to them as possible. Many of our customers have been to the Ginza outlet and are here to compare,' Saito says, adding that the owner of the Ginza restaurant tastes every new dish before approving it for the menu in Hong Kong. 'It is a slower process, but we don't want to risk mistakes.'

Okada Coffee executives flew in their coffee master from Japan for two weeks at the store's opening and plan to invite selected staff to their teaching centre in Kumamoto.

'Our speciality coffee is a blend of seven to eight coffee beans in a secret formula,' says Kwok. 'We roast all our beans ourselves about twice a week, and brew it in lower temperature water. When a cup of coffee is made perfectly, it tastes a bit sour and fruity, not bitter.'

In addition to using the same recipes and techniques, Okada Coffee and Ginza Bairin also import most of their ingredients from Japan. Okada's menu points out that the green tea is from Fukuoka, the black sugar is from Okinawa, the sweet potato is from Kagoshima and the red bean is from Hokkaido. Even the water used to brew the coffee is from Kumamoto. Ginza Bairin receives daily shipments of black pork, which has a higher fat content than regular pork, from Kagoshima and Miyasaki.

Sarah Kurybara, the owner of Bo-Lo'Gne Caffe & Bar, which opened in July, says the success of the restaurant relies on the pre-made Danish dough imported from the company's factories in Kyoto.

'There are already a lot of bakeries here that make Japanese-style bread,' says Bo-Lo'Gne chef Grace Chen Nga-chi. 'But our dough is special because it is made from 81 layers of butter and flour, then cut into strips and braided to create a bread loaf similar to the texture of a croissant, but less flaky.' The sale of its Danish bread loaf makes up more than 70 per cent of the outlet's revenue.

'In Kyoto, the Bo-Lo'Gne factories used to have trucks when they first started in the 80s that sold the bread in different neighbourhoods. Nowadays, people in Japan just order directly from the factories,' Kurybara says. 'We're the only carriers of the bread outside of Japan, and the only retail store.'

Like its Japanese counterparts, however, the local Bo-Lo'Gne outlet offers a delivery service in Hong Kong, and about 30 per cent of its customers order the bread over the phone or online.

Kurybara, a former accountant, says the Japanese bakery's willingness to work with her, a first-time restaurateur, indicates how keen it is to expand internationally. Lower labour and distribution costs in Hong Kong help to balance the extra costs of importing goods from Japan, she says. As a result, the local outlet is able to charge the same price as the Kyoto restaurant. Ginza Bairin charges 20 per cent to 25 per cent less than the store in Ginza, one of Japan's most expensive districts.

Hong Kong is considered a perfect testing ground for the greater China market and both Ginza Bairin and Okada Coffee hope to expand to the mainland in the next few years. It is still too early for Kurybara to commit to expanding the business.

Bang Bang Pan Pan owner Yang says he's already brainstorming the new set of Japan-inspired concepts, from innovative sushi to yakitori, but adds: 'It's great to follow in Japan's footsteps but the hope is that ultimately Hong Kong will become not just a trend-follower but a trendsetter.'

Seven to savour

Bang Bang Pan Pan

34 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay, tel: 2203 4009

Signature items: do-it-yourself okonomiyaki - plain or with curry or chilli sauce with toppings such as pork belly, kimchi and cheese

Bo-Lo'Gne Caffe & Bar

41 Aberdeen Street, SoHo, tel: 2950 0600

Signature items: Bo-lo'gne bread, deep-fried pork cutlet sandwich, choco banana dessert

Ginza Bairin

Shop B-24, K11, 18 Hanoi Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, tel: 3122 4128

Signature items: special bairin katsu sandwich, special hire katsu don set, rosu katsu don set

Jika Udon

B/F, Shop 23A-25, 36-44 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, tel: 2366 6718

Signature items: homemade cold udon with soy dipping sauce, cold udon with sesame dipping sauce, hot beef soup udon

Inaniwa Udon

Shop 2002, Level 2, Elements, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui, tel: 2196 8989

Signature items: cold inaniwa noodles with three dipping sauces (onsen egg dressing, duck dressing and yam dressing), handmade chicken meatball yakitori skewers dipped in egg

Okada Coffee

B/F, Shop 38, 36-44 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, tel: 2367 0332

Signature items: Okada coffee blend, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, chestnut sundae

Romankan Yokohama

Shop 603, 6/F, iSquare, 63 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, tel: 2369 0788

Signature items: pork cutlet sandwich, katsu tenderloin over rice with ground sesame and tonkatsu