Located at the ground floor of Tropicana City Mall right opposite the escalator coming up from Carrefour, Sushi Tei is one of those places I have noticed for quite but somehow haven’t visited despite the frequency I find myself at this place since it’s opening.

Well I finally went there last week with Kerol since we decided to dine at TCM and Cheesie suggested she could join us and there’s “this pretty nice Japananese place” we could go. It turned out to be just the place I had wanted to try for quite a while.

Sushi Tei is rather nicely decorated, and with illustrated menu

The concept of Sushi Tei is pretty similar to one of my favorite belt sushi chains – Zanmai. A conveyor belt with the most common sushi dishes going around, but also spot a pretty extension menu for other dishes from sashimi, rice bowls, hand rolls, to udon and even curry rice and more.

Other than mid to lower end ingredients that are typically associated with conveyor belt sushi chains, Sushi Tei offers some of the stuff you find at classy Japanese restaurants, including umi (sea urchin) and toro (tuna belly).

Salmon Avocado Yukke, hand rolls, Hotate Wafu Carpaccio

We ordered quite a number of dishes, and they were all quite delicious, with the exception of the hand rolls (RM 4.80 and RM 3.80, which were just ordinary according to Kerol).

I particularly love the Hotate Wafu Carpaccio (RM 18.80), four good size scallops  paired with seared tuna soaked in Japanese style soy based vinaigrette and topped with alfalfa sprouts and a hint of ebiko. The sweetness of scallops with the slight sourish, salty taste of the sauce and the different texture and freshness from the sprouts were just heavenly. I highly recommend it.

The Salmon Avocado Yukke (RM 12.80) too is another dish typically not associated with these type of restaurants. A generous serving of diced salmon with avocado and a raw quail egg on top that goes surprisingly well with the Japanese garlic peanut sauce that is sometimes served with salad.

Irodori Chirashi don, Sansai Udon, salmon sashimi, Inari sushi

While Kerol ordered the normal Chirashi Don (RM 11.80) to lace her stomach, I asked for the Irodiri Chirashi (RM 30.00), a higher end version of the same raw seafood on sushi rice dish. The difference is the latter came with two amaebi (sweet shrimp), octopus, and even toro (tuna belly) that was so delicious. This is in addition to salmon, squid, and other sashimi slices in there.  In my opinion it was well worth the extra I had to pay.

Cheesie got the Sansai Udon (RM 13.80) which she enjoyed, and a plate of inari sushi (RM 1.60) for good measure too. We also tried the Salmon Sashimi (RM 9.80) that were pretty fresh and generous in serving despite the attractive pricing.

tuna belly, scallop, KY, Cheesie, and Kerol

Overall, we had a very good dinner at Sushi Tei. It was very decent Japanese food without all the bells and whistles of a full blown “proper” Japanese restaurant. Total bill came to about RM 40 per person with the 10% service charge added in, it was well worth it.

I think Sushi Tei will now be my favorite conveyor belt sushi places, replacing Zanmai as the former is just too crowded at almost any day during dinner time.

Address:
Sushi Tei
Lot G-16, Ground Floor
Tropicana City Mall
3, Jalan SS20/27
47400 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.130757,101.626421
Tel:03-7728 4299

Tags:  cheesie,  kerol,  sashimi,  sushi,  tropicana city

Posted by KY | 33 Comments »

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

Tags:  amy,  beef,  chawanmushi,  horng,  Japanese,  kobe beef,  sushi,  tempura,  unagi

Posted by KY | 36 Comments »

I usually avoid doing food review sessions on my regular sports day, but when Jack from Superdining insisted that I should go to Kura Japanese Restaurant at One World Hotel on a Monday, I couldn’t help but agreeing to it. This was mainly due to the excellent experience I had at Rakuzen Chulan Square and Japanese food being one of my favorite cuisines.

Jack later told me the real reason he wanted me to go on that particular day was due to the fact that they have fresh seafood imported from Japan on that very day. The company usually imports seafood product from Japan twice a week.

Kura restaurant and the square watermelon

Due to certain circumstances, YC the penumpang glamor who first appeared on this blog in the Guinness Gastronomic Workshop joined Cheesie and myself and reached One World Hotel after spending the better part of Monday’s sunset stuck in the traffic.

The interior decoration and design of the restaurant was unique enough to confuse anyone who couldn’t exactly understand Picaso’s paintings. It usually takes 2-3 wrong turns to find your table after a bathroom break. However, I must say it is very tastefully done.

appetizers, California hand rolls, crab meat chawanmushi, gingko nuts

The restaurant is headed by the very experience chef Hideaki Nakashima who is most skilled in preparing wide range of some very creative Japanese dishes. The six appetizer dishes Nakashima-san served us certainly reflects his ability.

They were oshitashi (Japanese spinach) with fish sauce, tomato and hotate (scallop) with vinegar, ikura (salmon roe) with yam, tako (octopus) with plum sauce, and hotate with enoki and other mushroom. There’s also grilled and slightly salted Japanese gingko nuts.

The appetizers were pretty intricate in presentation and certainly did not lack at all in the tasting department. Each has its individual character and overall they introduced a different dimension in Japanese cuisine to me.

Sashimi (including Fugu!), and rainbow roll

Sashimi and sushi are always inescapable when it comes to doing a review at any Japanese restaurants. At Kura, we were served the freshest seafood that had just been flown in the very same day. Fugu (yes, the poisonous puffer fish!), kampachi (yellow tail), tai (sea bream), sake (salmon), tako (octopus), shima aji (yellow jack), amaebi (sweet shrimp), and maguro (tuna).

It was my first time having fugu sashimi, and unlike other raw fish, fugu is best consumed with a little bit of green onion and radish instead of wasabi in order to better appreciate the very subtle taste. It was actually pretty good. The other sashimi and the rainbow roll was as good as you could expect from a top notch Japanese restaurant. Super fresh and certainly of very good quality.

the good chef, RM 28 chicken teriyaki set, desserts

Since Cheesie speaks Japanese, chef Nakashima was overjoyed as they went into extended conversation only both of them understood. This certainly made the good chef very happy and soon we were served with extra Carlifornia roll and also the crab meat chawanmushi which were very delicious.

Though located within a 5 star hotel, Kura isn’t only for those who are willing to splurge on a good meal. The cheapest meal full meal, the chicken teriyaki set priced at RM 28, comes with a generous serving of very tasty chicken teriyaki, rice, a small appetizer, chawanmushi, miso soup, and fruits. Very affordable especially in this setting, with these type of quality.

YC (penumpang glamor), KY, Cheesie

When we were all pretty stuffed, they brought in some home made Japanese bean curd (with sliced strawberry on top) and several scoops of pretty unique imported ice cream for dessert. The melon and pumpkin ice cream were pretty unique and interesting, while the bean curd certainly different from the local variety in a good way.

Since this was a food review session, some of the dishes provided were actually not found on the menu. However, you could still order them via special request.

Address:
Kura Restaurant
One World Hotel
Bandar Utama
Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.147597,101.617817
Tel: 03-7681 1111

Tags:  cheesie,  fugu,  Japanese,  ky,  sashimi,  sushi,  yc

Posted by KY | 41 Comments »

The weather has been pretty miserable lately. The road is wet, sky gloomy, and laundry always damp and damned. However, this exact sort of pitiful weather is perfect for a bowl of hot porridge or some steamboat goodness. Which is why Cheesie and I decided to head to Nagomi Shabu Shabu at Jaya 33 for the most fitting dinner last Friday.

we ordered the duck set

In addition to Shabu Shabu with various type of meat (including Kobe beef), Nagomi also has a pretty comprehensive offering on fresh sashimi and sushi dishes. For the two of us, we ordered a duck shabu shabu set, sake deluxe maki (salmon roll with ebiko), and sake toro sashimi (salmon belly).

duck shabu shabu set, sake deluxe maki, sake toro sashimi

We chose the Nagomi soup, a miso based soup (I believe) for the shabu shabu. The duck shabu shabu set came with minced duck meat at the center holding a up a raw egg, sliced duck breast meat on the side, a bowl of rice rice, and a plate of raw vegetable, mushroom, tofu, and glass noodle. The sliced duck meat took only seconds to cook while the minced version had to sit in the boiling soup for a little longer, but they were delicious. I particularly like to have it with the foyu (fermented tofu) instead of the chili or soya sauce.

the three types of sauce

The sake deluxe sushi maki tasted very good too, with huge chunk of salmon and generous amount of ebiko (shrimp eggs) covering the roll. It was very good to lace our stomach with while waiting for the soup to boil.

Sake toro sashimi, of course, didn’t disappoint either. There were six slabs of salmon belly sashimi with a hint of the distinctive silver belly skin lining visible. As with tuna, the belly meat is most fatty and flavorful. The buttery texture with some wasabi and a dip of soyu, bliss!

awesome shabu shabu porridge!

Just as we were almost done with all the raw items, Cheesie suggested that we make porridge out of the now very flavorful soup base. It was an ingenious idea I’ve never gave a thought before!

We poured the rice into the steamboat; threw in the last pieces of meat, vegetable, and tofu; turn up the heat, and stirred. The rice swam lazily in the soup, but in about 15-20 minutes, the once solid rice fused with the soup and became porridge. It actually tasted so good with the concentrated flavor from the reduced shabu shabu soup. You should give it a try sometimes!

Nagomi is located on the ground floor of Jaya 33 in PJ

It was certainly a very good dinner. The bill came to RM 90.30 with the set costing RM 31, sushi and sashimi RM 16 & RM 25 respectively. Though not exactly cheap, I would rate the price as pretty reasonable, a place I would revisit.

Nagomi are can be found at Hartamas Shopping Complex and Menara Hap Seng too. Their website is here.

Adress:
PG-02B, Jaya 33,
No. 3, Jalan Semangat,
Seksyen 13,
46200 PJ, Selangor
GPS: 3.110274, 101.637139
Tel: 03-7986 2330

Tags:  cheesie,  duck,  Japanese,  ky,  sashimi,  shabu shabu,  sushi

Posted by KY | 36 Comments »

It is no secret that Japanese food is one of my favorite international cuisines. Sashimi, sushi, tempura, hand rolls, teriyaki, teppanyaki, I like them all. The culinary experience I had when I visited Tokyo 2 years ago is still fresh in my memory, as I lick my lips again…

Luckily, there are many good Japanese restaurants in this part of the world, and one of my absolute favorite would be Rakuzen, a place I visited on a regular basis ever since I came back from the States. In fact, the blog entry on Rakuzen at Subang Jaya is one of my first food articles. I bet you can imagine my enthusiasm when I was invited to a food review session at Rakuzen @ Chulan Square.

Sashimi Moraiwase

According to the friendly host and restaurant manager, Jack, Rakuzen Subang is where everything started, and this Chulan Square location is the second branch. Then there’s the Pyramid Zen, and I found out that they also run my favorite conveyor belt sushi place, Zanmai Sushi! I believe there is also a Zanmai outlet at Gardens, you can check it here.

the really zen like ambiance

Chef Ah Fai at Rakuzen is one of the top apprentices of the bald Japanese chef heads the Subang branch and has been making sushi & sashimi for more than a decade. For this review, he prepared the signature dish sashimi moraiwase, a sashimi salad, dragon roll, and assorted tempura. I was already drooling while taking these photos.

sashimi moraiwase, sashimi salad, dragon roll, tempura

The sashimi includes sake (salmon), maguro (tuna), otoro (tuna belly), ika (squid), tako (octopus), amaebi (sweet shrimp), uni (sea urchin), and a Spanish mackerel, everything imported from Japan and properly stored in their special -15 C fridge to ensure freshness. Order individually, everything would totaled to over RM 200, so the RM 150 dish offers very good value.

The raw fish were very very good, especially the otoro, fatty savory tuna belly that melts in your mouth; of course, the sea urchin is always one of my favorites too, texture of raw brain but with the tastes of that unique sweetness. It was very very satisfying, everything tasted perfect, with proper cuts and the right temperature too.

chef Fai and his creations

As for the sashimi salad, there were plenty of raw fish, squid, and a generous portion of ebiko (fish roe) on top of all the fresh vegetable, tomato, and cucumber in a creamy topping that tasted slightly sourish. This is perfect for someone who loves to have raw fish but doesn’t want to have the rice to go with it. (you can choose to fill your stomach with just sashimi and break the bank at the same time).

The dragon roll is made by deep frying a big tiger prawn and wrapped it with seaweed sheet, sushi rice, avocado, and topped with some Japanese mayonnaise. There were carrots, prawn, egg plants, and even the mint leaf in the tempura dish. I find the half fried mint leaf having a very interesting taste with a unique texture. I always eat the mint leaf served with sashimi anyway, try it!

Rakuzen at Chulan Square is just a short walk from Pavilion KL

It was a very sumptuous and satisfying lunch that is second only to the hospitality by the good chef and the restaurant manager Jack. The invitation was arranged by foodstreet.

Address:
Block B Lot 2A Chulan Square,
92 Jalan Raja Chulan, 50200 KL
GPS: 3.148518, 101.716114
Tel: 03-2145 6200

Tags:  cuisine,  dining,  eats,  Japanese,  rakuzen,  sashimi,  sushi,  tempura,  zen

Posted by KY | 36 Comments »