The fourth floor in Suria KLCC has been sort of a “restaurant” floor ever since the mall started its operation years ago. While different restaurants come and go, there are always a good mixture of different cuisines to choose from, and luck for people like me, there’s always at least a Japanese restaurant there.
One of the latest Japanese restaurants to venture into KLCC market is Yuzu, and I’m glad that it is quite an improvement from the previous Japanese restaurant on the floor from a few years ago.
Yuzu Japanese restaurant at Suria Level 4, KLCC
The restaurant itself isn’t big, and like pretty much any restaurant in this mall, seating is a bit cramped. The interior decoration is fresh and unpretentious, but best of all, it has a pretty good lunch menu at least as far as value for money is concerned.
Most importantly, service is also pretty fast, catering pretty well for the KLCC office crowd.
Soba Gozen (RM 40) and Yuzu Gozen (RM 58)
I’ve been there a couple times since I was moved to KLCC again, and every time we opted for their lunch set.
For RM 40, Soba Gozen gets you sushi, a small bowl of soba, a slice of unagi (eel), a couple shrimp tempura, miso soup, and a chawamushi, not bad huh?
Yuzu Gozen (RM 58) is one of their higher priced lunch sets, and it comes with assorted sashimi, half a dozen sushi, grilled beef, tempura, salad, chawamushi, appetizer, and fruits. Not a bad value at all.
Sanma Mentaiki set (RM 37)
For those who likes grilled fish, Sanma Mentaiki (RM 37) gets you the girlled fish stuffed with mentaiki (one of my favorite ingredients), tempura, fruits, salad, chawanmushi, and miso soup.
Food quality is more than decent, and considering the location and convenience, Yuzu is definitely a place worth considering if you’re in KLCC.
If you are willing to bump up your budget just a bit, Ten Japanese Fine Dining right across the road is the place to check out.
Address: Yuzu Japanese Restaurant Level 4,
Kuala Lumpur City Center Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur GPS:3.158126, 101.711833 Tel: 03-2161 4176
While Japanese affair at higher end restaurants can be pretty damaging to the pocket, many of those places also offer a lunch menu with much better deals. One of the places we visited a couple times for lunch over the past few months was Hanare Authentic Japanese Cuisine at The Intermark.
Hanare at The Intermark
The restaurant is located on the ground floor, just below the lobby of Double Tree by Hilton. The interior is tastefully decorated, with open kitchen, a sushi/sashimi bar, and a teppanyaki bar.
This place has a great ambiance, but terrible cell data service. Luckily, wifi is available for those of you who can’t eat without staying online with your smartphone.
combination set – sashimi and teppanyaki ebi hotate
One of the more popular lunch options here is the combination menu. For RM 48++, you get to choose from any of these two options:
sashimi mori (3 kinds of sashimi)
shake sashimi (salmon)
yaki sakana (grilled fish – cod, mackerel, or salmon)
unagi kabayaki
tori katsu (deep fried breadcrumb chicken)
tempura mori (assorted tempura)
kakiage (deep fried kakiage prawns and vegetables)
While the portions look rather small individually, the combination of them really does fill up the stomach.
Other than the combination set, there are sushi bento (RM 70), makunouchi bento (RM 55), a light salad lunch (RM 38), and dedicated lunch sets with sushi (RM 70), sukiyaki (RM 75), mixed fried seafood (RM 48), steak teppan (RM 80), and more.
bara chirashi sushi, one of my favorites
Another entry in the menu I tried here was the bara chirashi sushi (RM 45). It is similar to the basic chirashi sushi but with the seafood usually cut in cubes instead of the traditional sushi/sashimi cuts. The choice certainly did not disappoint.
Prices at Hanare is actually a little on the higher side when it comes to lunch sets, but for the quality of food as well as the ambiance of the restaurant, I think that this is a fine option.
Tucked right next to the Philippines embassy and just a stone’s throw away from Pavilion and the KLCC Convention is Maison Francaise, an elegant French restaurant situated in what was formerly a bungalow.
Dining area is separated in a few areas that used to be patio, living room, pool side, and so forth. Art works, white tablecloths, leather seats, fresh flowers; decoration is simple yet classy.
Maison Francaise at Changkat Kia Peng
Being at the less glamorous of KLCC area has its benefits, you can get here without having to go through any traffic bottle necks, and you never have to park your car more than a few steps away from the restaurant.
While dinner session is usually pretty busy, as the manager and chef mentioned, Maison Francaise is usually pretty quiet over lunch. So for this session, we sampled the lunch set priced at at RM59++ for 2-courses or RM75++ for 3-courses.
amuse-bouche came in the form of in-house smoked salmon
Even though it is a set lunch, we still started out with amuse-bouche, a bite size pre-appetizer selected and prepared by the chef. The in-house smoked salmon isn’t anything fancy, but carries a delicate smoky taste which we like.
duck pate, home-made mushroom soup
The lunch menu may change from time to time and usually carries a couple different options for each course.
Appetizer was between duck pate with truffle and walnut dressing and mushroom soup finishing with truffle oil and whipping cream.
The pate, with its inclusion of walnut dressing, is a little drier than your normal pan-fried duck liver, and should delight fans of this appetizer. Mushroom soup was beautiful, creamy, and those truffle oil really gave it an extra dimension which we love.
leather jacket with green olive & garlic, slow cooked beef angus
Main course was either fish or beef.
The fish option was leather jacket with green olives and garlic, braised fennel. The seasoning was perfect with accompanying vegetables positively enhanced the seafood.
The slow cooked Angus beef, an “oyster blade” cut, is meticulously prepared in seven hours cooking. The result is a piece of meat that’s so tender you can cut it with just using the fork. The flavour of the meat is not lost, and the supporting cast of root vegetables complimented the dish beautifully.
raspberry mousse temptation
To conclude the lunch set was the dessert in the form of raspberry mousse temptation, a cacophony of sour, sweet, and very rich creamy taste. I particularly like the tiny bulbs of raspberry “bubbles” that pops in your mouth.
Haze & KY at Maison Francaise
Maison Francaise is a pork free establishment that carries a good wine and champagne selection, the restaurant also serves liqueurs and espresso coffee.
I want to go back again.
Address: Maison Francaise 5 Jalan Changkat Kia Peng 50450 Kuala Lumpur GPS: 3.151256, 101.715215 Tel: 03-2144 1474, 019-243 1200 Web: maisonfrancaise.com.my
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
