My first visit to a yakitori place! Sumi-Ka is located near Taylor's Business School, tucked away in a quiet corner on the 1st floor. You can opt to sit inside this enclosed area which is a non-smoking sections and consists of 3 tables with a maximum seating capacity of 6 each (make a reservation if you don't want to stink of oil and smoke), or at the main area including the bar grill where native Japanese smoke, drink, eat and laugh.
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| Elegant signage marred by illustration of yakitori |
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| Menu |
Obviously, they specialise in yakitori and its famous accompaniment, Japanese beer. There are plenty of chicken, beef, pork, vegetable and seafood yakitori options with several listings for appetiser, onigiri and donburi.
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| Potato Salad (RM 12) |
Even though they serve complimentary and refillable shredded cabbage and edamame, we ordered the Potato Salad. It was so good we ordered a second serving despite its expensive price. Very creamy and fragrant, the cold dish was absolutely divine against the heatiness of freshly grilled meat.
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| Yakionigiri (RM 5) |
This was much better than the yakionigiri I had at Bon Odori. Here the grilled rice bits are crispy whilst the moisture in the onigiri is adequately retained. There were some bits of seared salmon to enhance the flavour of the rice ball. Pickles were also provided to complement the lightly salted rice.
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| T-B: Mochimaki (RM 5), Uzuratamago (RM 3), Shiitake (RM 4) |
- The Mochimaki is essentially glutinous rice cake rolled in sliced pork. It has quite an interesting texture with the savoury pork and chewy rice cake.
- Quail eggs slathered with soya sauce tasted like...quail eggs =P It wasn't too bad and I like the fact that the egg did not have a leathery skin despite having been grilled.
- The shiitake mushrooms were average tasting...at least the mushroomy smell wasn't too strong.
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| T-B: Muneniku Mentai Mayo (RM 4), Nankotu (RM 4) |
- The breast meat topped with a generous dollop of marinated pollock roe in mayonnaise was good. I sort of expected the breast meat to be dry but it was surprisingly tender and moist.
- The Nankotu tasted just as soft bone should, except maybe a bit more crisp since it was grilled and more flavourful due to its seasoning.
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| Shimejibata (RM 10) |
- The shimeji mushrooms sauteed in butter came wrapped in aluminium foil and topped with dried seaweed. The butter smell and taste was extremely strong. Not my favourite but apparently it's a best-seller at Sumi-Ka =)
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| T-B: Shoyu Kawa (RM 3), Momoniku (RM 3), Shio Kawa (RM 3) |
- The soy sauce chicken skin was very crispy with mini pockets of aromatic oil...absolutely divine =D
- Chicken thigh meat was okay, not very outstanding. Moist and tender.
- The salt grilled chicken skin was served wrapped around a garlic clove. The chicken skin here is also very crispy and since I'm not a fan of garlic, JS had them all. He said <garlic breath> that they were crisp on the outside and slightly soft on the inside =P
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| Mochimaki (RM 5) |
Another close-up of the sliced pork roll with glutinous rice cake.
We had one other dish which JS here forgot to capture >.> I have always wanted to try ox tongue and Sumi-Ka serves Gyutan so we ordered a stick. The 1st piece I had was yummy...it tasted like chewy soft bone with a beefy taste...the texture is kind of like freshly blanched pig's kidney, very "song hau" if you know what I mean. The 2nd piece I had was chewier and the 3rd piece was the chewiest with the strongest taste of innards. People who dislike the smell of innards should just stay away in case you get a strong tasting one. Adventurous eaters should give the unique texture a try =)
Sumi-Ka is rather expensive...the bill came up to RM 40 per person for 4 people (we had multiple skewers of the orders shown above). Although we said that we will not return immediately after the meal ended as it cost so much to eat "satay", we found ourselves craving the unique and yummy cooking at Sumi-Ka =D
PawPoints: 4 Paws
Pawket: Olive
Sumi-Ka
1st Floor
19, Jln SS15/4
Subang Jaya
Tel: 5632 9312
Daily: 6pm - 12am
