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Ten years ago, Japanese food is synonymous with with raw fish. When someone told you they’re going to have Japanese food, it is always sushi & sashimi. Over the last few years though, the cuisine from far east has slowly mature at the local scene, there’s places that only offers ramen, there’s tonkatsu, yakitori, and even izakaya style Japanese restaurants.

Latest to the scene is Klang Valley’s very first Japanese restaurant that specialized in tendon (not the connective tissues of animal..) – the dish with tempura on rice.

Shitamachi Tendon Akitmitsu at Evolve Concept Mall, Ara Damansara

Shitamachi Tendon Akitmitsu is located at Evolve Concept Mall, one of the newest malls located at Ara Damansara, just a stone’s throw away from Citta Mall (use the same entrance/exit from main Subang Airport road). Half the restaurant serves tendon, while another side sharing the same kitchen serves yakitori (another story for another time).

Chef’s special tendon

The menu consist of a dozen of so different tendon offerings ranging from RM 20 to RM 67. The choices are:

• Nami Tendon (mixed shrimp, scallop, white bait, 2 prawns & 2 vege) – RM 31
• Sumire Tendon (conger eel, prawn, 3 vege, small rice) – RM 40
• Kakiage Tendon (large mixed shrimp, scallop, whitebait, 2 vege) – RM 32
• Regular Tendon (whiting fish, squid & 2 prawn) – RM 36
• Deluxe Tendon (conger eel, prawn, 1 vege) – RM 49
• Super Deluxe Tendon (conger eel, mixed shrimps, scallop, whitebait fish, 2 prawn, 3 vege) – RM 61
• Chef’s Special Tendon (chef’s selection) – RM 67
• Shrimp Tendon (self explanatory) – RM 51
• Anago Tendon (2 conger eel bone cracker & 3 vege) – RM 64
• Squid Tendon (2 squid & 3 vege) – RM 27
• Vegetable Tendon – RM 22
• Tencha (mixed shrimps, scallop, soup stock, wasabi) – RM 20
• Kid’s Tendon (small mixed shrimps, scallop, whitebait fish, prawn, 1 vege) – RM 18

shrimp tendon, super deluxe tendon, chef’s special tendon, tencha

Additionally, the restaurant also serves tempura and a selection of sake as well as Japanese beer. The menu then, as you can guessed, is rather simple, and just the way it should be.

We were served shrimp tendon, super deluxe tendon, chef’s special, as well as tencha for our session. Haze and I were joined by Keiko & her business partner (they’re Japanese). The food was certainly top notch and satisfied not only the two Malaysians in us, but our two Japanese friends had nothing but great feedback on these tendons.

The sauce was prepared in-house by the Japanese chef, marrying the the light & fluffy tempura batter with fresh seafood cooked just before serving. While at the first glance it appeared to be hastily put together, the combination was in fact meticulously prepared and very well balanced. You can ask for more sauce, but we felt that whatever the chef decided was spot on.

check out the oyster, yums

I’m going to have to plan a second trip pretty soon, and hopefully there are more of such restaurants coming up!

Address:
Shitamichi Tendon Akitmitsu
EV-G-09, Ground floor
Evolve Concept Mall
Pacific Place @ Ara Damansara
Petaling Jaya Selangor
GPS: 3.110532, 101.586864
Tel: 03-7831 9929
Hours: Monday to Friday, 11am to 3pm and 6pm to 9pm; Weekends and public holiday, 11am-9pm

A few weeks ago we had the craving for roast duck, and there is no better place for roast duck than Loong Foong at Taman Paramount, so we headed there… just to discover that while the restaurant was open, the roast duck shop wasn’t.

Time for plan B – the classy looking Japanese Curry restaurant a few shops down the same row – Shokudo Japanese Curry Rice.

Shokudo at Taman Paramount

The restaurant is a blend of class and practicality. There are long wooden tables and benches for sharing, which exudes a bit of high school dining hall feel.

Ordering is done by heading to the counter, but they’re kind enough to serve the food to your table. Green tea and water refill is a DIY affair, which we didn’t mind.

tidbits to munch on before main meal

The menu consists of some two dozen dishes, including curry rice and appetizers. We tried aigamo rousuni (marinated duck breast, RM 8), hiyayako (cold beancurd, RM 4), koebi karaage (deep fried shrimps, RM 5), and kani salad (crab stick salad, RM 10).

The appetizers were generally pretty good and priced rather competitively, I can totally imagining chilling out with some Asahi & deep fried shimps.

prawns, pork, or beef curry rice

There are almost a dozen different curry rice to choose from. From chicken, pork fillet, prawn, vegetable, egg, and even cream croquette, all of which are priced between RM 13-15. For an additional RM 3, you also get a small salad, soup, and green tea, which is a pretty decent deal especially since the price is net.

After trying a few dishes, my favorite has to be their prawn curry rice. The seafood tasted fresh, juicy, and goes very well with creamy flavorful Japanese curry. The pork fillet is pretty decent, though I’d recommend Tonkatsu by Mai Mason over this version any day.

That being said, Shokudo is a pretty fine place for Japanese curry rice for any fan of this dish.

Address:
Shokudo
9, Jalan 20/13,
Taman Paramount,
Petaling Jaya Selangor
GPS: 3.106145, 101.625387
Tel: 03-7863-0922
Hours: lunch & dinner, closed on Monday