Sanuki Udon, Taman Bukit Desa

Located on the hills of Taman Desa is a pretty much undiscovered Japanese eatery. I would not call it a restaurant as it's really an eatery. Owned by Fuji-san (the dude that also owns the yakiniku place in Taman Desa. http://darthko-foodcritic.blogspot.com/2011/08/yakiniku-taman-desa-kuala-lumpur.html), this was his first adventure into the world of F & B. 
Anyway, it turns out to be very Japanese and on week nights, this place is filled to the brim with Japanese expatriates. The udon here is made fresh everyday and you can buy them back and cook them yourself. I love the way this guy maintains freshness and quality of his food. Everything is done with discipline and order thus serving food with consistent quality all the time.
The menu isn't huge which is good I reckon. (Huge menus most of the time mean only one thing. Jack of all trades and master of none.) Other than udon, they also serve some side dishes such as karaage (fried chicken cutlets), edamame, salad etc. In the evenings, they will have yakitori. (chicken skewers) Chicken arse lovers will love this place as they serve yakitori bishop's nose. LOL!
I normally order the house special. You can either have it hot or cold but I always have the hot one. I should remind myself to try the cold one next time. The house special comes with just udon and poached egg. (no oil, which is good) Add a little chilli in it, mix it up and it's actually a very refreshing bowl of udon. Well if you want it spicier add more chilli. I was told that the idea for this house special came from the boss trying our local Chilli Pan Mee. It does make sense as it basically is the same except you don't have too much other stuff in it such as anchovies and minced pork.

This time I also tried the Udon in soup (cold). The weather's here too hot so cold noodles for lunch is always a good idea. The soup is very much like the ones that you eat with soba. Noodles are fresh and has a very good texture. 

Slurp the udon out and add a little wasabi to it to give it a more interesting taste.

Udon is pretty much a healthier choice compared to our local food. Once in a while, it's a good change to our oily diet. Price wise, I would say it's pretty decent here. Freshly made udon for RM5 a bowl, not bad but not cheap either considering you don't get anything else in it.


Points - 3 (0.5 is given due to the cleanliness and service)

Akasaka Ramen, Tokyo Japan

I am reporting this live from Tokyo, Japan. It has been more than 10 years since I was here. First thing I did once I dumped my luggage at the hotel was to look for ramen. Japanese ramen is my favorite. Coming to Japan and not having ramen is a sin and those that do not will burn in hell while getting choked with ramen.
Happened to walk past this place called Akasaka Ramen which looked really inviting. Small eatery with the usual vending machine where you buy a ticket for the ramen that you want. Simply pass the ticket to the waitress waiting and in a couple of minutes, food is served. Systematic and beats the hassle of trying to communicate to her.

This Shoyu Ramen is superb. Soya based soup, thick and full of flavor. I love the fact that the soup is all based from pork stock. Fresh, noodles just right, good serving. Only thing was the egg which was just a very normal hard boiled egg. Yummy!

Now this is the cream of the place. Pork Ramen. Whitish, thick pork soup with tender pork slices. The soup itself is a meal. It is so fulfilling, I was screaming with joy when I had my first mouthful of it. Sweetness of a soup perfectly done. Not salty but just so full of flavor that you can literally feel the pig running around in your mouth. LOL. The pork slices were sensational. It melts in your mouth. I mean it. It is done with perfection, soft, tender, juicy, you name it. Absolutely heaven.


This is one place I will come back before I return to KL. Price is reasonable. Shoyu ramen for 750 yen and the pork ramen for only 680 yen. Free iced water plus eat all you can bean sprouts (appetizer) which are marinated with sesame oil and sprinkled with chilli powder. Great little place with the usually polite Japanese service.


Points - 4 Thumbs Up!

Ficelle, Taman Danau Desa, Kuala Lumpur - French Bakery

This is a very interesting place. A French themed bakery in the middle of crappy Taman Danau Desa. Nicely decorated corner lot place with tables outside under the cool shade of some old trees that have not been cut down yet. A bit of class in a somehow middle class Ah Beng suburb.
Was here for a quick lunch and I was surprised that they actually served Japanese Curry Rice here. ( I reckon they are like those French themed restaurants in Japan, where they try really hard to emulate the French in everything they do.) Ordered the Japanese Curry Karaage Rice (Chicken) and mushroom soup. Not cheap. The rice is like RM 12.90. It better be good.

The mushroom soup here is actually pretty good. Although the serving's a bit too small, the soup has a variety of mushrooms in it. Tastes a lot like a creamy wild mushroom soup. Sprinkled with some minced parsley on top and a little pepper, this soup is tummy warming and delicious. There must be at least four types of mushrooms in it. Button mushrooms, a Porcini looking one, white mushrooms and brown ones.
Good. 
Points - 2

The Japanese curry rice came and Boy! was I disappointed. It is really small. There were only 4 pieces of chicken "nuggets". Come on, it's 12 bucks. Fill me up ok! Points taken away.
They used pretty good quality rice for this and it was cooked right. Not too hard and not too soft. The curry on the other hand was very very normal. It tasted like the ones you get at any Japanese convenient store. Those packed curry - cooked in 5 minutes mini boxes. The limited fried chicken nuggets were not too bad but then the curry was nothing to shout about. Typical Japanese curry which is never spicy, more on the sweet side with a little curry spices in the mix. 


Points - 0.5 for the rice


Will I come back again? I might. Just to try the rest of the stuff they have and maybe to look cool sitting here, having a mocha and playing my ipad.

Japanese at Zakuro, Mont Kiara Kuala Lumpur

I haven't been to Zakuro in years. I have known the owner of Zakuro for years and have always been rather amazed by his creativity and talents. Over the years I have attended a few dinner functions that Wilfred really impressed me over the simple dishes. Call it Japanese fusion or in the words of the man - Japanese food is very flexible and has been able to adapt to the rapid changes of people's taste.
Anyway, I had a meeting in Plaza Mont Kiara and when the client suggested lunch, I recommended Zakuro. It was still early and the we were the second bunch of lunch seekers in there.
First order was my usual set lunch - Tori Misoyaki which is chicken cooked with miso. Something different for a change when most places will only have teriyaki chicken or the normal tori karaage (deep fried chicken).


Zakuro maintains the usual Japanese standard of having a little appetizer to kick things off.
Today it was salmon. They are not too stingy with the salmon as mine had 3 fat pieces in it. I noticed that the salmon tasted a bit like sardines or was it my tongue playing tricks on me. As an appetizer, it was mediocre. 

Salmon appetizer. Needs to be more appetizing right? Points - 0.5 cos it somehow tasted like sardines.

My set lunch came a little longer that I expected. Chicken is not the hardest to prepare and it does not take 20 minutes to do it. Hmmmm!!!! Good portions and for RM 18 this is a good deal. I have not had miso grilled chicken and I must say this is pretty good. They did a good job in grilling the chicken which maintained the juices in it while the meat was tender. Didn't get stuck between my teeth. It was a little sweet and for people that prefer saltier dishes, this is not something you will like. The chawan mushi (steamed egg) on the other hand was very very normal. (I am sorry dude but I have to be honest, right?) I reckon that there was just a tad too much water in the egg making it diluted which caused it to lose the egg flavor. Steamed egg must taste like egg. It was smooth though but the missing eggy taste, points deducted on that. Another point to note with Zakuro is the rice they serve. I must say that they serve really good quality Japanese short grain rice served with a dash of black sesame seeds sprinkled on top. It brings out a different kind of aroma to the natural rice smell. Yummy. 

Another appetizer that came in the lunch set. Mushrooms. Points - 1

Grilled nicely, not burnt on the sides maintaining the juices. Good. Points - 2.5 (0.5 deducted for taking too long)

The steamed egg was just too light. Observe closely and you will still see the bubbles on the side. Too much water. Points - 0.5 for being smooth and hot

Finally, we got a surprise from the kitchen. We were served salmon sashimi. Hardly do this for lunch but the salmon looked extremely fresh. The orange color of the fish was so inviting that I could not resist. Spread a little fresh wasabi on it and dip it into the soy sauce.
DAMN! This is good. The slice of fresh salmon was the right size, about 2 centimeters thick. It was actually sweet (natural freshness of the salmon) combined with the nausea-tic wasabi and soy sauce. Now that is what I call sashimi. As I was always said, Japanese food is all about the freshness of their produce.

Check out the fat cuts of fresh salmon. Absolutely fantastic. Points - 3

All in all, Zakuro has maintained its standard and quality over the years. Although it has been through ups and downs, I believe that their loyal customers will return time and time again just for the quality. 


Food quality - 3
Service - 1.5 (my lunch set just took too long considering there wasn't many people yet)
Environment - 1 (something new here but the place looked pretty much the same but clean.)

Japanese Ice Cream, Tokyo Street, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur

While I was queuing up for the mochi, my boss got herself a cup of Japanese ice cream. The queue was pretty long here and I soon found out why. The ice cream is actually frozen and they have to put each serving in this machine that miraculously transforms the frozen ice cream into soft serve ice cream. Trust the Japanese to come up with these inventions. Well done but impractical as people have to wait 10-15 minutes just to get a small cup of ice cream.
Anyway, they have a pretty good selection of flavors here which I wondered why she didn't choose. Black sesame, macha (green tea), chocolate and the list goes on.
Wasabi (horse radish) was the chose one. Green in color and it just looked like ice cream. I was a little reluctant at first as I am not into the nose clearing effects of wasabi. 
Lord! It tasted pretty good. Smooth, soft, cold with the wasabi kick to spice things up. Not spicy and none of the nose clearing bit. It was not sweet but hell...how can wasabi be sweet but it was something new for the taste buds. I kinda liked it.

I apologize for the half eaten ice cream. She just couldn't wait!

Wasabi flavored ice cream. Little green in color served with a small piece of waffle. 

Price? RM 8.90 for a small cup. Well, who ever said Japanese stuff was cheap.


Quality? Good. Taste was pretty awesome considering this was not the normal flavor one would order.


Service? They better find a way to expedite their serving procedures. Takes just too damn long!! I just want my damn ice cream. Scoop it into the cup please!


Points - 2.5 (0.5 taken off for the slow service)

Xenri, Japanese Food, Wisma Elken, Old Klang Road Kuala Lumpur

I was told that this place belongs to the owner of an MLM called Elken. He supposedly loves Japanese food so much and since he could not get what he wanted, he opened one himself. I think there's another branch in the city. (Menara Hap Seng)
Anyway it was my sister's birthday and we decided to come here. I've only been here once and the food was pretty good but the service was something else. 
We were led to the same room again in the back. (Wonder why they keep stuffing us back there??)
Xenri's got the typical Japanese decor, very Zen and yet they try to modernize it a bit. Western restaurants have their wine showcases and Japanese somehow also have their Sake showcases plus the occasional Koi pond.
The room we had is the Japanese tatami styled rooms where you have to sit on the floor. Good thing they also have a "hole" under the table so you don't have to kneel or squat. 
We ordered quite a bit as the family was there and I only got to try a few things.


1st one was the Xenri 6-course special. For simplicity, I'll list them down in the following photos with my remarks.

Bean curd appetizer. It was slightly on the cold side. Deep fried bean curd served in pork broth topped with shark fins. Taste was a little bland. I reckon this should not be served first.
 Points - 0.5

Sashimi platter with 2 slices of tuna, salmon and white tuna. Nice cut. They're not cut too thin. About 2 cm cut of fish that at least you have something to chew on. Xenri maintains the quality of their sashimi. Fresh!
Points - 3

Another appetizer that should have come before the bean curd. Cold tofu served with jelly fish and tomato. It had this pretty delicious sauce that came with it. A little sour but appetizing. The tofu was very normal though. Points - 1

Deep fried chicken roll. This was just too dry and did not have much taste. Maybe they should come up with a dip to make it less dry.
Points - 0

Una-don (Rice with Eel) The main dish of the Xenri special. The Unagi (eel) just did not have the Japanese unagi taste. The unagi sauce was neither here nor there. To make good unagi, the sauce is key. This was really disappointing.
Points - 0

I had the Saba Shioyaki & Gyu Niku set. 

Grilled Saba or Mackerel. The fish was fresh but it was grilled right. Not enough salt and too burnt on the sides. The skin was not even crispy. Sigh! Points - 0 (only reason why I finished it was I was not going to waste RM 44)

The beef in the set was good. Nicely done as it was not over cooked. Tender and juicy combined with the sweet and a little salty sauce. NICE!
Points - 1.5 (0.5 was taken away as there was only like 5-6 slices of meat)

Appetizer of tuna with mayonnaise topped with salmon roe. Very normal stuff. Tastes just like canned tuna. Points - 0.5

Chawan Mushi (Steamed egg). I must say this can compete with the one my mum makes although mum wins hands down. It was not over cooked like most places, maintaining the smoothness of the egg combined with pork and mushrooms.
Points - 2

Finally my own man was kind enough to offer me a slice of his dish which was beef with ponzu sauce.

Beef medium cooked with ponzu sauce making it very appetizing but there was too much garlic on the sides. (I prefer the meat to be less cooked but my old man wanted it medium) Points - 1.5 Not too bad though I prefer the one served at Yoko's Changkat Bukit Bintang.

All in all Xenri is a nice place to have dinner. Located in a secluded part of Old Klang Road, you can have a quiet meal here. The service on the other hand needs improvement. I pressed the electronic service bell many times over dinner and that gets really frustrating especially when you're not a patient person. (Me! the least patient diner ever) Each time I wanted something like menu, more tea, where's my rice, bill etc, I had to send my little niece out to get a waiter. Why the hell do you have the damn device when it does not work!


Price wise? It ain't cheap here. One dinner set will cost RM 40 and above before tax and service charge. For 3 people, you're definitely not leaving here without forking out 200 bucks.


Quality? Pretty consistent quality of food. Japanese food is all about freshness of the produce. Their sashimi is top grade.


Taste? Average. I expect more especially with a price tag like theirs.


Will I return? Yes, once every 3-4 months. I don't make that much money to indulge here. I will come back for the sashimi.

Mochi Sweets, Tokyo Street, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur

Desserts. Yummy! I love sweet stuff. My girlfriend says that if I continue with my sugar intake and if I get diabetes, she will dump me across the border in Thailand without my passport and leave me there.
Anyway, stumbled across the newly opened Tokyo Street in Pavilion. I must say that it is something new and fresh. Plenty of shops here, all Japanese except for one or two shops. Good thing is that they have a lot of restaurants here and I will be sure to pop by soon.
First stop was the Mochi stall. It's called Mochi Sweets and it looks posh. Good decor and the service was friendly.
I decided to try their special 6 pack box which I overheard is of limited stock. Only a couple of boxes left. Paid RM 20.25 and off I went. I was also told to wait 20 minutes for the mochi to thaw first as they are frozen. Best eaten 20 minutes later as the skin gets soft.

Always have to give it to the Japanese. They are masters when it comes to decor. Everything just looks so neat and inviting.

For RM 20.25, the packaging was very nice. Typical Japanese packaging that makes it a good gift.

The six pack i bought had 6 of their best sellers. Macha (green tea), red bean, blueberry cream, chestnut cream, chocolate and mango yoghurt. I checked my watch and 20 minutes is up. The box also included a plastic fork. (Japanese thoughtfulness) I tried the green tea flavored one first. Always try the original flavors first. 
Wonderful. The mochi was cool, the skin was soft, tender and chewy. The green tea was just nice. None of the overwhelming artificial green tea taste. It was not as sweet but I guess I can do with the lower sugar levels. The only thing I disliked about it is that I found the skin slightly on the thick side. Next was the red bean mochi. Damn! This is good. Nicely made japanese red bean. Not all mashed up into pulp but with little soft bits of red bean in it. It was almost perfect with the soft mochi skin. Eaten cold and with my iced coffee, it was heaven.


The mochi is not exactly cheap but once in a while you have to spoil yourself. I will return but maybe just stick with the green tea or the read bean, or maybe both.


Must try.


Points - 2.5 (0.5 was taken off due to the thickness of the skin)

Japanese Ramen, Matsuba, OBD Towers Taman Desa, Kuala Lumpur

This is a regular Sunday dinner joint for the family. Reason: The kids love it and we adults have not other choice and am too lazy to travel further for dinner. It is a pleasant Japanese restaurant located in a condominium called OBD which by the way is mainly occupied by Japanese expatriates.
Anyway, it is pretty much value for money and it's a pleasant, brightly lit typical Japanese restaurant in Kuala Lumpur.
Most people here will just order their Japanese ramen as they have a pretty huge variety of ramen here. The usual char su ramen and other hybrid ones which sound more Chinese than Japanese.
On a Sunday, I usually will order their dinner sets which are pretty reasonable. (RM26) It comes with a bowl of ramen (small), rice plus dish (depends on what you want. You can get teriyaki chicken, gyu niku etc), salad, fruits and pickles.
I quickly jump into assessing their food here. The ramen is typically served shoyu style here which is soya sauce base soup. I reckon that is the easiest to make and prepare. It is not exactly rocket science. Hence, the soup will always taste like a big bowl of Ajinomoto (MSG) has been thrown into it. Some people just love MSG in their food but I don't. You cannot avoid it when you dine outside but hell, why do some restaurants put so damn much of this damn chemical in their food.
The ramen here is cooked pretty well. The size of the ramen is the right size. (If you recall in my earlier ramen post, some places serve ramen that is just too thin.)

The char su(pork slices) they serve are just too lean. I reckon that you need a little fat in this to make them juicier and tender. When it's too lean, the taste just isn't there.


Points : 1 (0.5 extra is given cos my darling nieces love it.)

For RM 26, the set's pretty reasonable. Gets you full but taste wise, they better buck up!

The other dish on my set was this fried pork with bitter gourd. Damn! This is surely not Japanese. It tastes just like the Chinese dishes you get at the mixed rice stalls.


Points - 0.5

Other noodle dish we had was their Yaki Soba. Well, it's just like Chinese fried noodles ala Nippon style. Nothing exciting, it was not bad either but just not Japanese. 


Points - 0.5


Matsuba is not a bad place. It's serene, service is friendly and food's not too bad. Only thing is that I would call this place more of a fusion Chinese and Japanese restaurant. Pretty good for a quick no fuss dinner.

Taro Ramen 太郎拉麵- Low Yat Plaza, Kuala Lumpur

Noodles. I can have noodles all week and will not grow tired of it. Noodles are just so interesting. You can have them dry, with soup, fried, cold, hot. The Chinese fellow that invented noodles should be given a Noble Peace Prize instead of some of the idiots that get it these days.

The Japanese too have done themselves proud with their own ramen. Most places serve Japanese ramen in a shoyu based soup but this place it's a bit different. It's called Taro Ramen or Taro Men in short. The first time I had taro men was in Tokyo about ten years ago. I was amazed at the different type of soup compared to the normal ramen you get on the streets in Tokyo. Thick, miso based soup cooked with pork bones. 

When I came across Taro Ramen in Low Yat, I had to try it. It's a small cosy restaurant with just 3 employees which also happen to be Burmese. Quick browse through the menu and everything seems like the normal Japanese restaurant in KL. Nothing surprising in their line up. Quickly ordered their recommended Char Su Taro Men. 

Serving was good with nice cuts of char su. Tender and juicy. This pig was cooked right but the soup and noodles were just an OK OK-lah! (photos taken with my old iphone 3)

Service is pretty efficient in this place. The Burmese girl acts more Japanese than the Chinese girls in other Japanese places. Gambate!
I was rather surprised with the serving. They are generous with their char su here. I had about six pieces of it in my bowl. (most ramen stores in KL really "stinge" on this. The most you will get in a bowl is probably 3 very thin slices!)
First thing, taste the soup. Not bad. You know that they tried hard to replicate the ones in Tokyo but it was just a little too light compared to the ones in Tokyo. Taro Men's soup should be thicker, strong pork flavors to it. This is just ok, maybe it was done for the local Malaysians that are not used to the thick type of ramen soup. One thing to note before I forget it that the soup was hot. Very important to have hot soup for noodles.
The ramen was a bit too thin for my liking. It should be at least another 0.5 mm thicker then it would have been perfect. Cooked slightly soft which caused this poor fella a lot of points by now.


Overall, I would say that for a quick fix of ramen cravings then go for it. For RM15 bucks a pot, it's not that expensive. Service is good and polite. (Point to note!) Clean and cosy. Food wise - they need to improve on the soup.


Points - 1.5

Not for the Faint Hearted

I reckon most of you would have tried most of the inner parts of a pig. But this, I bet you've never tried. Ordered it a week in advance and Fuji san (proprietor of the Yaki Niku place in Tmn Desa) was kind enough to book it and prepare it for us. Actually I was quite surprised that he remembered it cos when we talked about it last week, we were pretty drunk after rounds of sake bombs.


First look of it and it just looks like any other part of the pig. It actually looks like the intestines. It smelled really good with a dash of sesame oil and some ponzu sauce. Ponzu is literally citrus juice. Mix some lemon juice and shoyu, that's simplified ponzu for you.

Check this out. Small dish that tastes absolutely delicious. Pair it with beers or sake. Perfect combination. (Photo: Courtesy of Moby Low)

This dish is one of the most refreshing and tantalizing dishes of the night. The "parts" were crunchy paired with the ponzu sauce, it had this citrusy twang to it that makes your taste buds go wild. Fuji san did a fantastic job with this. There was no overkill of too much lemon juice and it was not too salty at all. Just perfect. Down a little beer after it. Perfect combination. (this dish goes well with any alcohol. Hot night down the beers with it and cool night have some sake.)

By now, you must be still wondering what in the world is this dish? I have been thinking high and low on how do I call this dish and yet sound cultured.

Seriously I can't. It's a simple dish of "Buta Omanko" which is literally translated as Pork Vagina! Reckon that it should be called Pig's Uterus (thanks to Linda for the correction)

Now you have it and yes I tried it. It was superb!

Points: 4