Like many rakyat of Malaysia, one of my favorite foods hail from the land of the rising sun, sushi, sashimi, udon, ramen, soba and the like. The cravings would come up from time to time, and it happened again last week, just before lunch time on a working day.
Munakata Ramen, Chirashi & Udon set
Since I work at KLCC and there isn’t any good Japanese food joints worth spending money on in Suria, I often would go to Ozeki right across the road at Menara TA. They offer good lunch sets at very reasonable prices (around RM 30+), not to mention a decent variety too.
But when I arrived outside Ozeki, I thought on this particular day I’d walk further down and see what else is around the vicinity. A few minutes later I saw a signboard displaying Munakata Ramen outside Life Centre, and I said to myself, why not?
the best Chirashi sushi I had!
The menu for lunch consists of varies ramen, udon, and the like (apparently their specialty), but I had my stomach prepared for some raw fish already, so I picked the Chirashi Sushi and Udon set.
The set was priced at RM49, that’s quite a lot to spend for a lunch set. In fact I asked the server if I could just have the chirashi sushi without the udon since I knew I wasn’t able to finish everything.
“It’d still be RM 49 anyway”, she said.
I took the deal, I was already seated in the restaurant and gotten myself comfortable anyway.
green tea, salad, and a bowl of very good udon
Salad came, it was pretty ordinary, I prefer the version served at Ozeki to be honest. Then came the udon and chirashi sushi, accompanied by a serving of chawanmushi and some fruits.
The udon was very good, texture of the noodle and the subtle taste of soup topped with some crunchy bits of tempura-ish stuff on top, one of the bests I had. The real crown jewel though, was the chirashi sushi.
Just look at the picture. Prawns, salmon, ikura, octopus, high grade tuna, unagi, tamago, sanma, and a couple other types of raw fish meticulously cut into tiny pieces served on top of sushi rice. This dish definitely had the most ingredients ever, and the combination yield the best chirashi sushi I’ve ever had. It was excellent!
Now was the set a tad too expensive?
Yes.
Was the serving size a bit too much?
True.
Choices of raw dishes in set lunch rather limited?
Absolutely
Would I have this again?
Definitely! I need to have this chirashi sushi again!
P/S: Munakata also offer ala carte buffet dinner at RM 60 or RM 70+
Address:
Life Centre 20 Jalan Sultan Ismail
50540 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
GPS: 3.15378, 101.70870
Tel: 03-2166 7441
It was the day before Chinese New Year and we arrived at Mid Valley Gardens with growling stomachs. Amy had suggested “this place with very nice char siu” that turned out to be the Canton-i that was closed for the new year. We moved to Fong Lye for Taiwanese food but met with the same fate again.
very classy interior, illustrated menu
Just when we were running low on ideas and high on hungriness, we walked by Yuzu and decided to go for it.
The restaurant was quite a bit bigger than it looked from outside the entrance. The interior is classy, comfortable, and best of all, their tables for four are actually big enough to hold 4 set meals. I get pretty irritated when the trays have to be slightly off the edge of table.
the three sets we ordered, sushi, udon, unagi, chawanmushi, tempura, etc
We sat down and after spending some 5 minutes on the pretty big and well illustrated menu, I decided to go for the Nigri Sushi & Inaniwa Udon set. Horng ordered a set that includes unagi, kamameshi (iron pot rice), and tempura. Amy went for unagi bento, miso soup, and a chawanmushi (steamed egg).
And then Horny‘s eye was captivated by this particular entry on the menu. Sliced kobe beef with stone grill. It took some 5 seconds before temptation took over and we decided to give this a go to welcome the year of Cow.
kobe beef, YUMS
Food did not take long to arrive. The inaniwa noodle is a type of cold noodle that is served with soba tsuyu (noodle sauce) with some condiments such as wasabi, spring onion, and seaweed. It was smooth and has a very subtle taste that I like, very refreshing.
My set also came with the teapot mushroom soup (like the one i had at Ninja Jones) that I really liked. The sushi though, while very fresh, had just a bit too much rice for my liking.
The kamameshi from the other set was very surprisingly very good, tasting almost like a cross between very good fried rice and lotus leaf rice but yet different. The unagi too, received very good reviews from Amy and Horny.
Horng, KY, and Amy
However, the most memorable dish has got to be the Kobe beef. RM 88 for a dozen thin slices of raw marbled beef. The alternating layer of fats and lean meat looked so good sitting right next to the stone grill with hot burning charcoals.
We grilled it just ever so slightly. With a dip in the sauce and down it went into the mouth. The texture was so tender and yet so rich and succulent. This was the best beef I’ve had so far. Amy was supposed to try only one piece since she “believes in kwan yin” and all but she ended up having 1/3 of everything. It was really very good and I would certainly have it again.
Yuzu is on the 3rd floor at Mid Valley Gardens
The bill came to be a bit over RM 200 for three of us. The sets were around RM 30-50 and the excellent kobe beef was RM 88. A very satisfying meal and I believe I would return to this place.
Address:
Yuzu Japanese Restaurant
T236, 3rd Floor
The Gardens
Mid Valley City
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.118675, 101.676085
Tel: 03-2284 7663
