Kingyo Japanese Restaurant @ Life Centre, KL

Kingyo is the new Japanese restaurant in Menara Life Centre, taking over from Munakata. It is a relatively quiet restaurant, even more so on a week night. Here's our review of their Teppanyaki Course Menu.

       

          

Menu

           
The choices were quite good and we had a tough time deciding which to go for. In the end, we had Course B and Course E.

                  

Nice ceramics but not the best I've seen

                

Salad

           
The salad came in a chilled bowl which meant that the vegetables were extra crunchy and refreshing. The salad sauce was very creamy too.

              

Zensai

               
The appetizer consisted of a maki which was coated in very crunchy salmon roe but its taste was average, marinated jellyfish and blanched prawns that were sweet and crunchy. Seems like a lot of items at Kingyo are crunchy huh? On a side note, wonder if they reuse the decorative chrysanthemum flower? =P

               

Teppanyaki condiments

             

Butterfish and Oyster Teppanyaki

             
The butterfish was naturally sweet and its flesh firm whereas the oysters were just cooked and retained a hint of rawness. 

                   

Salmon sashimi

           
The sashimi were fresh and juicy and each slice was thick and chilled.

               

Clockwise from top: Salmon, Vegetables, Oyster and Squid Teppanyaki

           
The grilled salmon flesh was moist but the skin was very crispy. The oysters here were juicy and fortunately, the squid was not tough. I love the vegetables which had a crisp texture.
                 

Beef and Vegetables Teppanyaki

               
The grilled beef was very good - nicely done and not tough at all.

              

Tempura

             
Tempura here is good with a light and crispy batter.

               

Miso soup, rice and pickles

             
Love this combination - I should try just eating these 3 items for breakfast like normal Japanese =P There were 3 types of pickles which I enjoyed thoroughly. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of the miso soup which was salty by my standards (which means it may be very salty for some) and had no seaweed!! Only a few blobs of scallion and tofu were floating about in the soup.

                 

Fruits

              

Overall, I quite enjoyed the food at Kingyo. I liked that their teppanyaki items were all generously sauteed in butter and had the delicious fragrant melted butter aroma. The waitresses however don't seem to be very experienced.
           
         
PawPoints: 4 Paws
Pawket: Cheese
                    
Kingyo Japanese Restaurant

G-05 Ground Floor
Life Centre
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 2163 7888
Daily: 12pm - 2.30pm. 6pm - 10pm

Hanare @ The Intermark, Kuala Lumpur

Happy New Year!!! I wanted to start the new year with a yummy review but unfortunately, the ones I currently have drafted are all disappointing. Since all posts are disappointing, I might as well start the new year with a review of my favourite cuisine which is Japanese ^_^ <yoshi!>

This review is on Hanare, one of the fine dining restaurants at Intermark. Having heard good reviews about this place, especially the weekend buffet (not always available), my friends and I decided to come here after work.

Elegant grey decor

Love the chopstick cover

L-R: Grilled salmon and ikura sushi (RM 35), California maki (RM 30)

Price is no doubt steep considering it is a fine dining restaurant but the makis were just average. The ingredients were fresh but the seaweed was a tad soggy.

Tendon (RM 30)

Being on a tight budget, I had the Tendon which was the cheapest don on the menu if you exclude the Ochazuke and plain udon. The assorted seafood were extremely crispy but being the scrooge that I am, I did not find it exceptionally out of this world compared to Tendons in other Japanese restaurants.

Anyway the point is come to Hanare only if you have extra cash to spare. Perhaps the sashimi and other higher end items will taste super duper amazing for the price you're paying.


PawPoints: 3 Paws
Pawket: Cheese


Hanare

Ground Floor, The Intermark
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 2164 2133
Daily: 12pm - 2.30pm, 6pm - 10.30pm

Fukuya Authentic Japanese Cuisine @ Jalan Delima, KL

I have been longing to dine at Fukuya ever since I found out it was fine dining and saw night shots of its front lawn. Unfortunately we went there for lunch as lunch sets tend to be cheaper and the glamorous-looking front lawn looked...mehhh...in the glaring light of the sun.
          

Signboard

           

Entrance

       

Menu

     
I love their unique menu which has a piece of bamboo stick as a page binder. The front cover is also made of Japanese washi paper and looked very authentic.
         

Table setting

     
It is not very visible from the above picture but their tables are covered in leather which gives a slightly luxurious feel. The lighting, however, was too dim for us as we were seated at a dark corner which looks out to a dark, slightly rundown garden > . < The quality of the wooden chopsticks was quite bad, in my opinion, for a fine dining restaurant...even Senya has much better chopsticks than this.

      

Salad

   
The above salad came with both lunch sets and was served extremely chilled. It was very refreshing with slivers of raw ebi and its son, ebikko. The dressing drizzled over a mountain of lettuce, alfalfa sprouts and tomato wedges had hints of wasabi.

      

Chawanmushi

     
The piping hot chawanmushi had a piece of chicken, mushroom, gingko nut and even prawn (which is a first for me). It was extremely smooth but a lot firmer than the average chawanmushi...I prefer mine to be slightly bouncy.

      

Appetiser

   
The appetiser consisted of boiled horenso aka spinach mixed with bits of either tuna sashimi or bonito flakes. The dish was unique and tasty but it was a tad too cold as my teeth felt rather sensitive.

     

Seiro Set (RM 43)

   
The Seiro set consists of a choice of steamed rice with grilled eel (you can opt for grilled salmon or scallops as well), sashimi, tempura, miso soup, homemade radish and cucumber pickles (that were extremely sour) and dessert. Although not stated in the menu, the set comes with chawahmushi, salad and appetiser too.

      

Sashimi

   
This is the sashimi that came with the Seiro Set. Although no doubt it is top grade sashimi, I felt extremely letdown as they were served at room temperature and not even the slightest bit chilled. It was warm and Fukuya was not as generous with the sashimi as other restaurants. This could probably be because they've already given lots of unagi at extremely cheap pricing.

      

Grilled Unagi on Steamed Rice

     
I highly recommend you try this! The eel was basted with a lovely sweet sauce and its skin was slightly crisp from the grilling whilst the meat was succulent and tender. The fine bones embedded in the eel were also meticulously plucked out. Its aromatic and yummy gravy penetrates the rice and bed of egg roll strips as it is being steamed which results in an awesome meal on its own. This itself is definitely worth the entire price tag of RM 43.

       

Tempura

   
The soft shell crab tempura looked really good but probably because I squeezed lots of lemon onto it and took my time eating it, it was a little soggy. I didn't mind though as the lemon juice gave it a whole new dimension and made it very yummy. A unique addition was a shiso leaf tempura that remained extremely crispy.

       

Fuku-Fuku Lunch (RM 40)

   
The Fuku-Fuku Lunch Set came with appetizer, chawanmushi, salad, steamed rice, homemade radish and cucumber pickles, miso soup and dessert. There is a choice of two main dishes and we had the tuna and salmon sashimi and grilled saba mackerel.

     

Sashimi

   
Similarly with the sashimi served in the Seiro set, this did not give us the wow factor as it was served at room temperature =( What a huge disappointment =(

        

Grilled Saba

     
The grilled saba mackerel was really good and juicy with crispy skin. It came with a lotus root pickle which was surprisingly very crunchy and yummy.

       

Miso Soup

     
The miso soup was just nice with lots (and I mean lots) of wakame and tofu. Nothing spectacular but just wanted to show this unique lacquered bowl with red lacquered insides. Very outstanding indeed.

       

Dessert

     
Dessert was two honeydew and watermelon cubes. Quite disappointing as I had expected at least green tea ice-cream like other fine dining restaurants. Oh well, I guess they've got to make some profit with their relatively affordable fine dining lunch sets.

      

Service was not very good as it seems that Fukuya only has a few staff who know good English and have impeccable manners. It was difficult to get them to take our order as they were quite busy and the other wait staff kept pretending not to see us waving. When one finally did come over, she had a heavy accent, probably Thai or Filipino, and I couldn't understand what she was saying at all > . <
   
One thing is for sure though, although the food at Fukuya is no doubt good and of high quality, next time I opt to go for fine dining, I'd definitely go to Cocotei instead.
 
 
PawPoints: 4 Paws
Pawket: Cheese
         

Fukuya Authentic Japanese Cuisine
9, Jalan Delima
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 2144 1022
Mon - Sat: 12pm - 2.30pm, 6.30pm - 10.30pm
Sun: 6pm - 10pm

Gonbei San @ Starhill Gallery, KL

Ah...Gonbei San - the top guy of the fine dining buffet pyramid. Curious about its offerings and how much more fine dining it can get buffet-style, we headed over to Starhill Gallery one day. The whole mall exudes elegance and a sort of untouchable / unreachable sense to it (much like the elite Tan Sris and Puan Sris) and the same applies to Gonbei San.

   

The view from across

 

Main entrance

   
The main entrance itself feels surreal like you're entering an entirely different world. The drum is beaten once to signal your arrival and you have to walk through a series of criss-crossing bamboo poles shaped somewhat like a teepee to reach the inner chambers of the restaurant...
   

Interior

   
Once inside though, we found the seating arrangements here a little odd...most of the tables are 2-seaters and the seats are placed at a right angle. When we attempted to shift the chair so that we can be seated facing each other, the slightly snobbish manager hurried forward and told us sternly that we were not allowed to change the seating arrangements. Thankfully, a more experienced waitress came over and offered us another table.
   

Ceramics!

     

Mango Juice

   
An assortment of juices is available for the little kids (in you)...
   

Sashimi

   
Sashimi! The whole point of going to a fine-dining Japanese restaurant is for their super fresh and juicy and bouncy sashimi! Here they have salmon, tuna and butterfish. Needless to say, the sashimi at Gonbei San totally lives up to expectations - chilled, juicy and bouncy - and we took many many servings...
   

Maki and more Sashimi!

   
I couldn't resist sneaking a few makis - here I've taken futomaki, soft shell crab maki and ebi maki =) The futomaki wasn't too well-prepared - I much prefer Sushi Zanmai's one. The ebi maki was average but the soft shell crab maki was really good. One point to note was the uneven and "un-clean" cut of the makis...you can see jagged bits of rice sticking out.
   

Pickled cold salad

   
The pickled seaweed on the left was typical but the one on the right which I couldn't figure out its contents, was kind of odd. It was crunchy and tasteless >.<
   

Seafood salad and carbs

   

• I also couldn't resist sneaking a bowl of cold soba which was quite average. 
• The seafood salad in Thousand Island sauce was fresh and yummy. 
• The black blob on the plate is stewed hijiki, a type of sea vegetable, which was not too bad but Tenjin's version tastes much better and is more flavourful.
• I love potato salads and this was no exception =D

   

Chawanmushi

 
The Chawanmushi has mushrooms, seaweed, bits of chicken bits and a squid ball and was slightly firm with a nice smooth texture.
   

Teppanyaki

   
Clockwise from top left are the prawns, beef, mussels, chicken, squid and fish teppanyaki. No prizes for guessing but I enjoyed the prawn teppanyaki the most as they were shelled (except for the tail bit) and you can just pop them into your mouth consecutively. The mussels were really good and juicy too. Actually, all of them were equally good and not the least dry.
   

Agemono

   
From the left in a clockwise order, we've got tori karaage aka fried chicken, sakana katsu aka fish cutlets, tori katsu aka chicken cutlet, lamb teriyaki and butter fish fillet. They were deep-fried to perfection and very yummy.
   

Fried Rice

   
As usual, I had to satisfy my carby self so had this bowl of fried rice which was really good, perfectly separated rice grains and adequate wok hei.
   

Onsen Tamago

   
The onsen tamago was slurpilicious.
   

Tempura

   
The tempura came with the usual dipping sauce.
 

Close-up of Tempura

 
We tried the prawn, sweet potato and ladies finger tempura and they were all good - light and not oily.
   

Traditional Japanese Dessert

   
These were my choice of desserts - mochi rolled in sugary peanut crumbs, chrysanthemum jelly with wolfberry and mini dorayakis filled with a choice of sweet red bean paste or smooth peanut butter.
 
I felt the mochi was slightly too sweet for me and after the heavy meal, I was really too lazy to chew on the gooey mochi. The mini dorayakis were addictive but there was no way of distinguishing which had peanut butter sandwiched in between and which had red bean paste.
 
My favourite was the chrysanthemum jelly...it was totally refreshing with sweet wolfberries embedded in each slice. A real palate cleanser, I easily had 4 or 5 of those irresistible squares O.O
 

Western Dessert

   
There were many types of Western desserts available which included an assortment of cakes but as were totally stuffed, we only had a fruit tart and some chocolate dipped marshmallow and strawberry. These were typical Western desserts and not very outstanding.
   

Black Sesame Ice-Cream

   
There were many ice-cream flavours available but we only took the black sesame and green tea ice-cream.

   

Green Tea Ice-Cream

   
Both the black sesame and green tea ice-cream were velvety smooth and creamy with a strong black sesame and green tea taste respectively.
   
Overall, the sashimi here is really good and fresh and most of the food tasted quite good but at this price, I'd rather go for quality over quantity. Plus there are other buffet restaurants serving the same or even better quality food at a much cheaper price.
   
By the way, if you are a fan of novelty washrooms, do visit Gonbei San's as they've got a modified shishiodoshi for a tap!
    

    

PawPoints: 4 Paws
Pawket: Salami
      
Gonbei San

T2 Relish Floor
Starhill Gallery
Tel: 03 2782 3801
Daily: 12pm - 3pm, 6pm - 11pm