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 »

To commemorate my last day of work at KL and the hot chick’s vacation back to Malaysia. I decided that we should have a nice dinner at more exclusive place, a fine dining experience that is worthy of the occasion. It wasn’t difficult to choose Cilantro at Micasa Hotel, consistently voted as one of the best restaurants in KL. So I made the reservation last Tuesday and we headed downtown last Saturday night.

nice ambiance, truffle butter and the tiger prawn with fish roe

Micasa Hotel is not exactly easy to find, I would have been unfashionably late if I didn’t have trusted N95’s GPS navigation system guiding me to the restaurant. The somewhat hidden location gives an exclusive feel to the restaurant, the ambiance is very nice with the minimalistic deco, a Zen like environment.

Our waiter was very good, giving us the specials of the day and explaining the dishes in a professional manner. I ordered the dishes based on suggestions by Kelvin (who probably spent a small fortune dining there over the years). While waiting for our first dish to be served, we had some bread with the truffle butter. We were also served the excellent tiger prawn with fish roe, complimentary from the chef.

wagyu tartar (raw beef) and foie gras unagi

For starters, we had the Wagyu Tartare and Foie Gras Unagi. The wagyu tartare came with anchovy toast, egg mollet and Aioli sauce. Having been missing the raw beef sashimi I had in Tokyo, I just had to order this dish. The aioli sauce goes very well with the raw beef and egg, and the contrasting texture provided by the toast makes this dish such a delight to chew down.

The Foie Gras Unagi was very rich. Two generous slab of lightly cooked foie gras sandwiched between the grilled eel gives a very oily and rich texture that is best had with the accompanying salad. This dish is perfect for someone who loves fatty taste (in a good way).

wagyu with wasabi crust and duck breast with foie gras

For our main dish, I had the foie gras with duck breast while the hot chick had wagyu beef with wasabi crust. I had been missing foie gras since the Zipangu experience more than 2 months ago, so a generous slab of foie gras was not to be missed. The duck breast was really great, so succulent and tender. I had never imagined duck meat to taste as good as this, coupled with the foie gras and a piece of radish and some vegetable for contrasting texture and character, it was just perfect.

The wagyu beef with wasabi crust was served with some seared mushrooms. I had a taste and thought it was excellent as well, the beef so tender you could cut it just using the spoon. The crust gave it a more sophisticated taste. The mushrooms were equally as good. However, I suggest against choosing the combination of Foie Gras Unagi and the Wagyu as the combination can be a little too rich.

chocolate cupcake with earl grey ice cream

After the very satisfying main course, we ordered the chocolate cupcake with earl grey ice cream to share. If the appetizers and main dishes were excellent, the dessert was really out of this world. The chocolate cupcake has a molten core and the taste was just so good it was beyond words. Having the hot chocolate flows in your mouth while chewing some berries was just heaven on earth. The earl grey ice cream was quite unique though not too different from the green tea ice cream I had at Zipangu, it was very good.

The appetizers and main dishes were priced at around RM58 to RM68 while the dessert at RM32. With drinks, the associated tax and service charge, the dinner came to around RM361. Though it isn’t something I can afford on a regular basis, the experience was worth every cent.

Cilantro Restaurant at Micasa Hotel

By the way, Cilantro is closing at the end of the year as Micasa is geared for a year long renovation. They are set to open an outlet at Midvalley Gardens with the same chef, though there will be changes in the menu. There are only 3 weeks left if you are to have the Cilantro experience.

Address:
Micasa Hotel Apartments
368B Jalan Tun Razak,
Kuala Lumpur 50400
GPS: 3.156874, 101.722530
Tel: 03-2161 8833

Tags:  beef,  cupcake,  duck,  fine dining,  foie-gras,  french japanese,  hotel,  unagi,  wagyu

Posted by KY | 25 Comments »

For some reasons (don’t ask) I found myself at Kim Gary in Sunway Pyramid for dinner just the other weekend. Not knowing what to order as I have yet to find something that is actually any good from the restaurant, I turned around and look at the nice big poster promoting their new Stoned Grilled Unagi Rice and promptly asked for that instead.

I couldn’t finish this crap

I thought since I love unagi, I couldn’t go wrong with the decision. *beep* – wrong.

When I first saw the dish, it was the size of the unagi that caught my eyes, or shall I say, almost escaped my eyes. The big poster (top right) showed a nice chunk of eel filet, but in reality it was only half of that, equivalent to about 1.5 sushi. I was going to make a complaint, then I noticed that the picture (smaller of course) of the same dish in the menu actually spotted the tiny portion of Unagi. Borderline false advertising, but they cover their asses well.

The presentation for the food was actually not half bad sans the tiny unagi. However, the dish came with the unagi sauce instead of soya sauce, and there was no wasabi either. I began to wonder why they called it “Japanese style”. A bite later, all hope was lost, as they never bothered to use proper Japanese rice.

Worse still, it was actually Stoned Grilled Rice with Unagi instead of Stoned Grilled Unagi Rice. The bottom part of the rice was all burnt, I had no idea why they made the rice bowl that hot.

When the waiter came and clear the table, he didn’t ask why I had no finish the food. I took the initiative of telling him how bad the rice were, and all he answered “you have to stir the rice at the beginning“. And I thought it was a bad habit stirring your dish like a washing machine before eating.

By the way, if you need some ketchup, Kim Gary served them in packets so you can have the feeling that you are eating take-out orders from McDonald’s, how nice. -.-”

I am not likely to ever go there again.

p/s: I realise some of you come to this blog to look for recommendation of good food, hence I apologize for having to make a post of a bad dining experience. I’ll keep this to a minimum.

Tags:  bad-food,  unagi

Posted by KY | 38 Comments »