KY eats – Asumo Japanese Wagyu Yakiniku, Subang SS15

Imported cuisines often come in waves, allow me to elaborate.

Back in the 80s, when you mention Japanese food in Malaysia, it’ll undoubtedly means sushi and sashimi. Over the years, different sub-type of Japanese cuisine made its way to our shore, in no particular order there were teriyaki, teppanyaki, tonkatsu, shabu-shabu, and even izakaya style restaurants.

premium Wagyu from Japan with 8 different parts

To be fair, yakiniku restaurants aren’t exactly new in Malaysia, but lately there seems to be a second wave of yakiniku specialty Japanese restaurants opening up in Klang Valley, many with a focus on quality Japanese Wagyu beef as their offering.

Asumo Japanese Wagyu Yakiniku is one of the latest such restaurants.

Asumo Japanese Wagyu Yakiniku, SS15

Asumo is located at Subang Jaya SS15, on the same row of shops that also houses many other Japanese restaurants, including crowd favorites such as Jyu Ruku.

It takes up two shop fronts, and has something like 40 private rooms, some cozy ones fitting 2 pax nicely, with a few that’s suitable even up to 6-8 people.

For our review session, Jean and I ordered beef, salad, a soup, some greens, desserts, and even a set meal. A little bit of everything to try out this latest charcoal yakiniku restaurant.

kale salad, sea urchin in seared sirloin, 5 kinds assorted namul

We started out with their kale salad (RM 25), which turned out to be something that looked very festive. The white dressing is akin snow on fresh kale that looked a bit like x’mas tree. It was quite refreshing and provided a good pivot from the tastes of those awesome meat that comes later.

The sea urchin on seared sirloin (RM 35 each) was a spoon of lightly grilled thin sliced sirloin topped with sea urchin (uni) and caviar. Rich, luxurious, an explosion of umami in your mouth, worth it.

We also had 5 kinds of assorted namul (RM 20), which is Korean for “edible grass”, or herbs. (remember that Yakiniku has its origin in Korean BBQ?), they includes:

• purple cabbage & corn
• potato & red bell pepper
• spinach & burdock root
• bean sprout
• shiitake mushroom

Like the salad, a good segway while transition between different cuts of meat.

Japanese Wagyu beef in all its glory

On to the main event, we ordered the 400g of Japanese Wagyu beef which came in 8 different cuts (RM 380).

• outside eye of knuckle (marukawa)
• thick flank (uchimomo)
• brisket (tomobara)
• sirloin tip (shinshin)
• upper hind shank (kamenoko)
• flank steak (sasami)
• short rib (nakabara)
• plus one more that was not labeled

Additionally, we also ordered the diamond thick cut tongue (RM 22).

Diamond thick cut tongue, Wagyu with sashimi & spicy leek sauce

Each of these different Wagyu cuts have common characteristics of being buttery, rich, and flavorful, while every so subtly different from each other especially in texture that is very welcoming.  I won’t be able to pick a favorite from the 8 different cuts to be honest, they were all very enjoyable.

There’s also 5 different condiments served to go with the beef – seasoned wasabi, white rock salt, green onion soy sauce, spicy leek sauce, and something they called Asumo signature sauce. My personal favorite would be either the signature sauce with a bit of seasoned wasabi, or just rock salt for the unadulterated taste of Wagyu beef. You can’t go wrong either way.

The thick cut tongue was a delight as well, took a bit longer to cook and provides a rich, firmer texture that gave us a different mouth feel.

charcoal grilled Yakiniku set (Japanese Wagyu set)

For those who’re looking for something more affordable to give yakiniku a try, they also offer three different charcoal grilled yakiniku sets

• Australian beef set – RM 35
• Australia Beef + Japanese Wagyu set – RM 59
• Japanese Wagyu set – RM 89

Each of the sets come with 5 pieces of beef, salad, soup, rice and somen. We tried the Japanese Wagyu set and thought it is a definitely a great gateway for more yakiniku in the future, and very suitable for lone ranger or quick lunch for sure.

matcha tiramisu & sweet potato spring roll with ice cream

Matcha tiramisu (RM 16) and sweet potato spring roll with ice cream (RM 13) were our chosen options for dessert. The tiramisu was moist, packed with strong tasting match powder, and presented almost like a tiny Japanese garden, cute. If I had to choose only one though, I’ll go for the sweet potato, it was unexpectedly good, a mix of crispy with slight savory taste of crust and very sweet, soft potato within, the ice cream was just icing on the cake.

Overall we were very satisfied with Asumo, will use one of their private dining rooms next time!

Menu:

Address:
Asumo Japanese Restaurant
No. 49 & 51, Jalan SS 15/5a,
Ss 15, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.08052, 101.59271
Tel: 03-5611 5733
Web: asumomy.com