Senya Dining @ Isetan Foodmarket, KLCC

You may have already wondered what's up with the string of Japanese food posts lately? Well in conjunction with pawprints' birthday month <drum roll>, the posts should be related to pawprints' favourite food =D And what better way to showcase it than a string of posts related to all of Isetan Foodmarket's Japanese-manned stalls? =D

   
The last post of all is Senya Dining which is a dining counter. You can either takeaway the ready-packed donburis or have a quick lunch at the counter seats. The donburis are available either ala-carte or as part of a set with miso soup. Apart from donburis, there are also croquettes, sushi rolls, katsu and salads.
   

Senya Dining

      

Menu

Steamed Rice (RM 9)

     
The Steamed Rice is a typical Japanese dish - rice steamed in shiitake mushroom stew. The result is rice somewhat like glutinous rice, having absorbed all the mushroom flavours, and packed with lots of sliced mushrooms, strips of beancurd skin, diced chicken and something that looked and tasted like a Chinese herb commonly found in ginseng soup called Solomon's Seal aka Yuk Chuk. 

     

I must admit although the rice is very moist and soft, it lacked a savoury flavour which can be quickly remedied by adding a few drops of soy sauce. The red ginger pickles are also there for a reason, to add a tangy flavour to the steamed rice. The dish also comes with half a hard-boiled egg which require some soy sauce to alleviate its taste (they apparently now have more appetizing half-hard boiled eggs with a soft golden yolk). As I did not opt to reheat my donburi, the shiitake mushrooms were a little hard - perhaps it'll be softer if you reheat the rice.

       

Chicken Nanbanzuke Don (RM 10.80)

      
This is essentially fried chicken with an appetizing sauce of pickled mayo and onions. I usually don't ask for this to be reheated as the sauce tastes much better cold. The room-temperature fried chicken still tastes good cold as bento items should. The serving of fried chicken pieces which sits on a bed of shredded cabbage is generous. It can be a bit bland on its own so do make sure to coat each piece with the yummy sauce which also makes the rice more palatable. Highly recommended just because of the sauce alone! =)
    

Chicken Karaage Don (RM 9.80)

      
This is just plain fried chicken on a bed of lettuce and rice. The chicken pieces are still juicy and yummy even after it has been reheated. Nothing too special about this but JS liked it a lot.
      

Chicken Teriyaki Don (RM 9.80)

    
 You can't really tell from the picture but the chicken teriyaki actually glistens! The meat is so tender and juicy even though the chicken has been grilled till the skin is crisp. This is also highly recommended if you like teriyaki chicken =)
    

Salmon Fried Rice (RM 6.80)

       
This is just Chinese-style fried rice with cooked salmon pieces and ginger pickles. I quite like it as the pickles add more flavour to the rice and the eggs are still fluffy even though I reheated this. Or maybe I'm just a big fan of fried rice =D but I really enjoyed this donburi =) They were quite generous with the amount of salmon too (although you can't see it from the pic).
      

Miso Chicken Katsu Rice (RM 9.80)

      
I originally wanted to eat the Chicken Nanbanzuke Don again but I thought I should showcase more of Senya's donburis so I opted for this Miso Chicken Katsu Rice. Please don't be intimidated by the picture...it's actually not as scary looking =P In real life colour, the row of chicken katsu sitting atop fresh lettuce is slathered with a coating of dark brown miso paste and sprinkled with finely sliced spring onions.
     
It may take some getting used to for some people as the akamiso (red miso) paste tasted somewhat like Chinese yellow bean paste but nicer. It is quite salty for akamiso is known for its savoury taste and robustness so you may want to scrape it off on the sides of the container and add more to taste but it certainly makes the chicken katsu taste better =) The chicken katsu is not dry at all and it manages to retain some of its crispiness which is good. I'd recommend you to try if only just once as I have not seen this dish anywhere else.
    

Miso Ebi Furai to Chicken Nanban Don (RM 12.90)

I've not seen this donburi before and the day I was there, this one happened to be the last one. A very good deal for a surf and turf don. Again I did not reheat this as bentos are actually supposed to be eaten cold. The Ebi Furai was still crispy with a big juicy prawn within (there were 4 of them). Luckily this time, the miso wasn't very salty.
   
Actually I don't know the name of this donburi =.= but it looked like Chicken Nanbanzuke to me. When I had a taste though, I wasn't sure if it was nanbanzuke sauce or egg mayo -_-" It had an eggy taste but it looked like nanbanzuke sauce but it was too watery to be nanbanzuke =.= Anyway, the sauce went well with the pan-fried chicken pieces. A satisfying donburi indeed!
     

          
If you're looking for something filling yet affordable (comparatively to other food stalls at KLCC) and made with lots of care (but probably no love...I spied Japanese natives working in the kitchen and you know how much effort they put in everything they do), do hop on over to Senya Dining. I'm sure you'll find something you like there =)
        

PawPoints: 3 Paws 

Pawket: Onion
     
Senya Dining

Food Hall

Isetan Foodmarket

Concourse

Suria KLCC

Tel: 2382 7777

Daily: 10am - 10pm

Tamaruya Yakitori @ Isetan Foodmarket, KLCC

This Yakitori stall caught my eye when browsing through the Foodmarket. Yakitori can be a cheap and yummy meal if you are a small eater =)

       

Noren

    
I love these Japanese fabric dividers...they look so authentic and traditional!
      

Menu

       

Variety of ingredients

       

Take-away box

     
As we were quite full but still greedy (fine, fine, not us, but just me), we bought 2 sticks of yakitori - soft bone and chicken in salt dipping sauce.

      

Top: Soft Bone, Bottom: Grilled Chicken in Salt Dipping Sauce (RM 3.50 each)

     
Mmm...look at the succulent pieces of chicken!

• The Soft Bone had some chicken meat and crispy chicken skin attached to the crunchy and springy soft bone. It was very well seasoned and is more salty compared to the other yakitori but very good. Highly recommended to try!
• The salt dipping sauce was very aromatic and has a very different taste compared to the usual teriyaki sauce / soy sauce glaze. There was a hint of garlic-infused flavour which the succulent meat fully absorbed. Also highly recommended to try!

      

Yakitori in Salt Dipping Sauce (RM 3.50)

     

Yakitori in Teriyaki Dipping Sauce (RM 3.50)

        

Yakitori in Yakitori Dipping Sauce (RM 3.50)

      

Soft Bone (RM 3.50)

       

Grilled Vegetables

      
Apart from grilled meat and vegetables, they also have grilled chicken skin and grilled chicken wings. They've also got a wide variety of toppings to choose from (refer to the Menu) which we did not try as I was not aware of it until I enlarged the 2nd picture posted here =.=
     

Mixed Yakitori Bowl (RM 14.90)

       
This Mixed Yakitori Bowl immediately caught my attention when I walked past the stall another day. What better way to try all the grilled skewered meat than a donburi? =D It comes with an assortment of grilled chicken in various sauces, grilled onion half, 2 slices of grilled sweet potato and a grilled cherry tomato as well as lettuce and a topping of chopped green onion with salt.

The whole ensemble was yummy with either the yakitori dipping sauce or teriyaki dipping sauce mixed into the rice. However, I felt kind of =.= after I finished it. It is nice but I just can't bring myself to like it. I think the individual skewers fared much better as the taste is more enhanced.

     
    

     
      

PawPoints: 4 Paws

Pawket: Onion

    
Tamaruya    

Food Hall

Isetan Foodmarket

Concourse

Suria KLCC

Tel: 2382 7777

Daily: 10am - 10pm

Uohei @ Isetan Foodmarket, KLCC

The food in the display cabinet of Uohei always look tempting. They've got Takoyaki, Grilled Squid, Roasted Chicken Leg, Onigiri, Obento and many others. The prices are rather high especially for a ready packed Obento due to the numerous goodies within but I just could not resist buying the Takoyaki =P

Signboard

Takoyaki (RM 5.80)

Pardon the quality of the photo...I tried my best under bright yellow pantry lighting =( The price is rather high for three Takoyakis on a stick, considering you can get it for RM 4 at Jusco. But do give it a try if you're at the Isetan Foodmarket as the Takoyaki balls at Uohei are slightly larger and so well done - creamy insides with just the right proportion of shredded cabbage, perfectly grilled outside and huge pieces of non-chewy octopus (compared to Jusco's). The balls are slathered with mayonnaise (probably Kewpie) and topped with dried parsley flakes and flavourful katsuobushi. It smelled so good even though it was tightly sealed within the plastic takeaway box and still tasted wonderful (and smelled good) after 5 hours.

I'm still craving for it, if only it wasn't so expensive =(

PawPoints: 5 Paws

Pawket: Dough

Uohei

Food Hall

Isetan Foodmarket

Concourse

Suria KLCC

Tel: 2382 7777

Daily: 10am - 10pm

Fugetsu Okonomiyaki @ Isetan Foodmarket, KLCC

Have been wanting to try okonomiyaki for ages so was delighted that there was an okonomiyaki stall at Isetan Foodmarket which is manned by a Japanese chef.
     

Umainen Aiyanen

        
Fugetsu hails from Osaka, judging by the Kansai-ben (Kansai dialect) used on the noren (door curtain) - "Umainen Aiyanen".
        

The available flavours

     

The menu

         

The ingredients

        
As can be seen from the above picture, the okonomiyaki is made from tons of shredded cabbage, sliced Welsh onion, shavings of dried bonito flakes, an egg, bits of tempura batter and flour to hold it all together. Once the batter is cooked, mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce which is a thicker and sweeter version of Worchestershire sauce are slathered on the top.
       

Final product

     
Shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice powder) and dried parsley flakes are provided for additional flavouring.
     

Packed okonomiyaki

     
This okonomiyaki was fresh off the pan but surprisingly there is no condensation after being packed hence no chance of soggy batter =P
     

Prawn Okonomiyaki (RM 18)

     
The Japanese somehow engineered the packaging such that condensed water collects at the side of the box rather than drip onto the okonomiyaki.
   

Taken from above

     
The okonomiyaki is rather thick and is surprisingly very filling even though it only has a mountain of shredded cabbage. Four medium sized, shelled prawns were distributed equally on four corners of the okonomiyaki. The generous dollop of mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce as well as abundant dried bonito flakes gave sufficient flavour to the otherwise bland cabbage pancake.
   
The price is rather high but here, you can be assured of authentic okonomiyaki that tastes good =)
    

     

PawPoints: 4 Paws

Pawket: Onion

    
Fugetsu

Food Hall

Isetan Foodmarket

Concourse

Suria KLCC

Tel: 2382 7777

Daily: 10am - 10pm

Aoi Tei Katsu Sando @ Isetan Foodmarket, KLCC

I'm so glad that Isetan Foodmarket at the Lower Ground floor of KLCC is just like the food halls of major Tokyo and Singapore department stores =D Best of all is that some stalls are manned by native Japanese and Korean =D This chicken cutlet sandwich from Aoi Tei immediately caught my eye...

      

Logo

    

Description of different sauces

     
Four types of sauces are available - original Japanese sauce (which is somewhat like a tonkatsu sauce), wasabi tartar sauce, homemade curry sauce and creamy white sauce. When I was there just before 12pm, I only saw sandwiches with the Japanese sauce and curry sauce. Perhaps you can request for the other sauces even if they are not on display.

     

Katsu Sando with Original Japanese Sauce (RM 15)

     
The katsu sando are all in takeaway boxes. Each box has three pieces of katsu sando. There's a tiny area in the food hall itself for you to eat the takeaway food but I brought it back to office.

   

Too bad they are not three little pigs...

     

Wow look at the width of the katsu! O.O

      

Final shot of my katsu sando

      
The katsu sando is huge, if you can't already see from the pics =P Each piece of deep-fried chicken katsu is topped with shredded cabbage and sandwiched between white bread. Original Japanese sauce is slathered on the bread.
     

• Katsu retains its crispy panko coating and juicy flesh even though it has been sandwiched in the box for quite some time. The panko coating is so well compressed that hardly any loose breadcrumbs break off when you bite into it; however this doesn't mean that it's hard because it has been compressed and deep-fried, rather the coating is still fluffy yet crispy and still it doesn't crumble. How amazing is that?! O.O
• Shredded cabbage is soft due to the sauce yet crunchy. How do the Japanese make it like that?! O.O
• Original Japanese sauce has sufficient flavour without being too salty. Complements the katsu well.
• White bread is fluffy and spongy and definitely not local. Even after pressing down hard on it when holding onto the sandwich, it regains its original shape (thickness) when released (unlike the local breads which stay squeezed >.>). It also doesn't have a floury smell but has a wonderful bread aroma. This must be some Japanese bread. Why can't our local bakers make sandwich breads like that?! O.O

     

Katsu Sando with Wasabi Tartar Sauce (RM 15)

      
JS was disgruntled that I managed to eat it first so he was adamant to try it the next time we were there. This time he ordered the Chicken Cutlet Sandwich with Wasabi Tartar Sauce.
     

Consistent size

     
This time, the katsu was not crispy but neither was it soggy and so still tasted good. In this version, there is no shredded cabbage, only lots of tartar sauce and what I tasted to be chopped hard-boiled eggs. The hint of wasabi was just right, not too overpowering yet lending some zing to the overall flavour. This version is also highly recommended.
    
You've just got to try the katsu sando! Price is a bit steep at RM 15 but it's well worth the money and very very filling =D

    

PawPoints: 5 Paws

Pawket: Onion

Aoi Tei

Food Hall

Isetan Foodmarket

Concourse

Suria KLCC

Tel: 2382 7777

Daily: 10am - 10pm