Sushi Zanmai @ The Gardens, Mid Valley City

There is no doubt that there are a lot of household franchise name offering some decent sushi in the Klang Valley region. But how often you came across crowd queuing up just to get a table and not even the food yet? What's even astonishing were that the impatience people of Klang Valley could actually queue up for some sushi.

The stall I was referring to is Sushi Zanmai. It may be a pretty new name in Malaysia sushi franchise industry, but the name has gain recognition amongst the sushi lovers in Malaysia. Each time I have the urge to try them out, but was pulled back by the long queue especially during the peak hours and weekends. Finally, my chance arises on a normal weekday during the non-peak hours at the Sushi Zanmai located in The Gardens, Mid Valley City.

Sushi Zanmai at The Gardens

It was only a quarter after 5 at my time of visit, and the place were already almost full with very little vacant table left.

At 5pm and the place were already almost full

The settings of place very much resembles the outlay of a Japanese restaurant with wood and sakura trees are the main theme of the layout.

Great ambiance and layout at Sushi Zanmai

So while waiting four our fresh sushi to be served on the table, I prepared some wasabi and Japanese soy sauce as the dip for my sushi. Just a thought on what is the different between wasabi and chillies? Chillies burn your tongue while wasabis excite your taste bud nerves particularly when you take too many at one go.

Wasabi with Japanese Soy Sauce

Jo Unagi (RM 6.80)
Their proclaimed premium roasted eel. Fair enough, it lived up to the expectation by offering a very meaty flavourful unagi. It was lip smacking good, a must order dish for those unagi lovers!

Salmon Zanmai (RM 19.80)
A platter of sushi that consisted of salmon, salmon belly, broiled salmon, smoked salmon and salmon roll.

Salmon and Broiled Salmon
The normal salmon tasted very fresh and smooth. The broiled salmon meanwhile offered a very unique taste of a little burnt on the top layer while being soft and smooth on the bottom layer.

Smoked Salmon and Salmon Belly
Smoked salmon was salted and resembles the taste of a bacon, a pretty new taste to me. I'd always like the Salmon Belly part and this is no exception. It was fresh and way smoother than the salmon meat.

Salmon Roll
Very ordinary sushi roll with some salmon meat within.

Tuna Salad and Salmon Salad (RM 2.80 each in a pair of 2)
Both the salad sushi consisted a lot of filling that came with a decent portion of diced vegetables for some extra chewiness. The taste were pretty ordinary but I find the tuna salad was slightly on the tangy side.

Chawanmushi (RM 4.80)
Japanese steamed egg in a cup that consisted of some meat and seafood.

Rokko, 6 kinds (RM 30 for 2 pieces each platter)
A platter of raw sashimi that consisted of tuna, yellow-tail, salmon, sweet shrimp, octopus and cuttlefish. I'd particularly enjoyed the tuna and salmon sashimi as they were both very fresh. However, I find the yellow-tail fish tasted too fishy and the texture was way too soft to the extent it break apart easily. Octopus and cuttlefish provided a different dimension for it's juiciness and chewiness while the sweet shrimp is a big no-no from me because it tasted too sweet and the meat seems to be in a rotten state.

Spider Roll (RM 12.80)
A soft shell crab roll that is topped with avocado and mayonnaise. A real bomb! Mayonnaise that melts in your mouth initially before the crispiness and sweetness of soft shell crab that rolled in upon each bite. With extra fragrant from the avocado, this got to be my favourite sushi for that day. Simply awesome!

All in all which inclusive of refillable grean tea and service charges, the total bill came to RM 96.15. The price might be a little on the steep side, but I've got no complain for the quality and taste of food that were being served. And now I know why those sushi lovers are willing to queue up even the queue look extraordinary long.

Atmosphere: 7/10
Food: 7.5/10
Price: 4.5/10
Verdict: Avoid visiting during peak hours to avoid queuing up!

Sushi Zanmai - The Gardens
Lot T217, Third Floor
The Gardens, Mid Valley City
Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel: 03 - 2282 1160 / 012 - 702 1160
Business hours: 10am - 10pm

Teppanyaki Mid Valley @ Mid Valley Megamall

Being a single child, I'm used to being alone. I don't really mind having my meal all by my own but sometimes people might just stared at you giving you that kind of perception that eating alone is a crime.

However, there was this style of eating where people won't find you awkward eating alone anymore, the teppanyaki style! Teppanyaki is a style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook the food. There was this Teppanyaki shop in Mid Valley where I'd always frequented whenever I was alone.

Teppanyaki Mid Valley

The part where I like about Teppanyaki style was that you were seated around the station. Now, no people will realized that I was actually eating alone!=P

Seated around the station

Next, just place your order and the chef at your station will prepare your order. In my case, I'd always ordered the Chicken Teppanyaki set. There are choices of prawn (RM 18.90++), salmon (RM 16.90++), cuttlefish(RM 12.90++) and beef (RM 10.90++) for your set.

Chicken meat being Teppanyaki-ed!

After the meat is cooked, the chef will scoop those meat to your platter. He will then prepare to fry the bean sprout, carrot and spring onion together!

About time to fry them together~!

Frying the Teppanyaki way!

Curious on how fast the bean sprout were consumed? Here's the comparison of before and after my meal.

Bean sprout were consumed like the water

Itadakimas

Soya and chili sauce

Usually the teppanyaki set will be ready within 15 minutes. However, it might take longer time should the crowd were larger than usual.

Chicken Teppanyaki Set (RM 9.90++)
The meat were tender and decently flavoured with pepper, salt and soy sauce. The same went for the bean sprout and both recorded a strong aromatic of charred smell. If you are a fan of garlic, the fried garlic will definitely add on the extra flavour to your set!

A budget Teppanyaki set
The taste might not be spectacular, but at it's price, you could not really have asked for more. What's more, their serving were rather generous especially the bean sprouts.

My bill came to a total of RM 12.20 after tax which included a glass of refillable green tea. For the money I paid for, it did very much satisfied my taste bud and hungry stomach.

Atmosphere: 5.5/10
Food: 6/10
Price: 6/10
Verdict: A Japanese teppanyaki set that will not leave a hole on your pocket!

Teppanyaki Mid Valley
LG 0-71, Lower Ground Floor
Mid Valley Megamall , Mid Valley City
Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

Jogoya Japanese Restaurant Revisited with Family @ Starhill Gallery, KL [6th Apr 2010]

I had just visited Jogoya Buffet Restaurant just a week ago. When I mentioned to my Aunt about the existence of it, she got excited and asked me to check out the current promotion then. Then I found out that the UOB credit card holders were still entitled to a 50% off per pax on the same receipt.

Without hesitating, my Aunt got everyone to agree on the buffet supper. How much excitement could I get since I had just visited the place 6 days ago to celebrate Michael's birthday? It's not the food that I'm looking forward on this time, but more to the bonding between the family members.

Revisited Jogoya Buffet Restaurant

The initial UOB promotion that ends on 31st March 2010, got an extension to 31st May 2010, offering the same 50% off each pax on the single receipt paid by UOB credit card.

UOB Dining Privileges

Mum and my Aunt

The buffet supper session was not as packed as my previous visit. Indeed, we were amongst the first to be seated. This time round, we were seated just right beside the Sushi and Sashimi corner.

Seated just beside the Japanese corner

I started the session with sashimi from the Japanese corner and I would say I'm very disappointed with it. The sashimi had the fishy smell and tasted a little tangy and we could only conclude that it was not fresh!

Below are some of the dishes that we had for the session.

Baked cheese meat
Over baked and the cheese were not cheesy. I just had a bite and that's all.

Stir-fried scallop
Some part of the scallop were still cold. It does make me wonder, am I taking sashimi?

Stir-Fried Salmon
Thankfully this was decent.

Teppanyaki Chicken
I love pepperish food but too much pepper kill the teppanyaki taste. They should rename this to Pepperish Chicken instead.

On my previous visit, I missed out the Japanese Steamboat or the Shabu Shabu corner. Let see what do they offered from this corner.

Shabu Shabu Corner

They have seafood, bean curd, mushroom and vegetables. Just pick your choices of ingredients before scooping some of their soup base into the bowl.

Pick and choose your ingredients

Next, you should bring the filled bowl back to your table. Ask for assistance to light up the fire to simmer your bowl of Shabu Shabu. Ready to be enjoyed when the soup seen to start boiling.

Shabu Shabu
My Auntie choice of ingredients. Consisted of Salmon meat, lots of mushrooms, vegetables and tau pok. How does it taste? Nothing really "wow" in particular, an ordinary Shabu Shabu indeed, but just with the salmon.

Next, I tried out their Sukiyaki corner. The Sukiyaki corner consisted of prepared ingredients on a porcelain bowl. Just pick your choice of meat and head back to the table for the cooking.

Lamb Sukiyaki

According to Jogoya, they claimed that they introduced the hot porcelain grill which uses the accumulated heat in the porcelain to continuously simmer the meat. Originated from Taiwan, this method allowed the gravy to infuse into the meat while manitaining the tenderness of the meat.

Hot porcelain grill method

Stir, stir your own Sukiyaki meat!
As for me, I could not really taste the difference. The meat was alright but I find the gravy was way too sweet for my likings.

My little cousin enjoying his meal

Fried Spaghetti Bolognaise
No complain though. It was alright.

I did had some food from the Dim Sum corner as well.

Gyoza
Tasted decent, but slightly over fried.

Fried Raddish Cake
Surprisingly, it tasted good with a decent wok hei. Love the part where all the raddish cake was perfectly coated with the seasoning.

Meat dumpling
Not my type of dumpling though.

Fried Mackerel fish
Decently fried while the juiciness of the fish meat is maintained. Fans of fried fish would love this! Add in some lime juice for some kick of tanginess.

And my pick for the session still got to be the Haagen Daz ice cream and the fragrant coconut drink.

Fragrant coconut drink

Our after supper face

My Uncle and Auntie did commented that the food, especially the Japanese corner were slightly below par as compared to those they had it in China and other part of the world. Both of my parents were satisfied with the variety of food offered, but complained that their tummy were not big enough to fit them all. My little cousin enjoyed the food, till he was too full to give any comment. Eugene meanwhile enjoyed a feasting night after some fasting period.

And as for me, I did not enjoyed it as much as I did on my previous trip, particularly the sashimi.

Atmosphere: 7/10
Food: 5/10
Price: 6/10
Verdict: The standard of the food did dropped, especially the sashimi.


Jogoya Japanese Restaurant
T3, Relish Floor
Starhill Gallery
181, Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel: +603 - 2142 1268
Fax: +603 - 2148 8171

http://www.jogoyarestaurants.com/index.html

Jogoya Japanese Restaurant @ Starhill Gallery, KL [31st March 2010]

It was the 26th birthday of Michael, on the last day of March 2010. We decided to dine in Jogoya Restaurant to welcome Michael's 26th. Jogoya Restaurant which is located in Starhill Gallery, is not something new amongst those residing in Klang Valley. In fact, it has been in operation for years and is the first Japanese restaurant in Malaysia that offer a Japanese buffet dine-in style .

There are few session to be chosen from. The buffet lunch starts from 11.30am to 4.30pm, buffet dinner from 5pm to 930pm while the supper session starts at 9.40pm to 12 midnight. Since it was on the weekdays, we chose the supper session to avoid getting stuck in the KL traffic.

Jogoya Restaurant at Starhill Gallery

At the time of our visit, there was a promotion going on at Jogoya Restaurant for the supper session. For payment made with UOB credit card. each of the head charge from the same bill will be entitled to a 50% off.

Queuing up time during the supper session

We were granted the entry sharp at 9.40pm. First thing I did was to look for their fragrant coconut.

Coconut being stored in the refrigerator

Refreshing, sweet and fragrant coconut

For the food, Mei Kheng and I proceeded to the section that serve authentic Japanese dish, the sushi and sashimi corner.

The shell food corner

Sashimi salad
Chunks of sashimi being served with seaweed.

There are plenty of choices from the Sushi and Sashimi corner. But for me, I am just interested with the sashimi. This is where I can get loads of fresh salmon, octopus and tuna.

Slices of fresh sashimi

Variety of sushi

And what do we get from the Sushi and Sashimi Corner?

Only sashimi
The sashimi were alright, not at the best but enough to persuade me for a few more helpings.

Next, we headed to the Fried Corner. When I mentioned fried, it does mean that they do serve Tempura as well but with a wider choice of other variety fried stuff.

The Fried Corner

Choices of sauce for dipping

Nuggets, wan tan, satay and pandan chicken

One thing that I liked about Jogoya is their tempura that are freshly fried from the wok.

Shrimp tempura and other tempuras
Crispy and succulent. What else more can I ask from a tempura that are fresh from the wok?

Besides the food that are readily available for you, there are also certain food that you need to order before being served to your table. Upon seated, each table will be allocated with table clips and you will need to those clips into the allocated bowl of your desired dish to mark your order.

Just drop the clip to the allocated bowl of your desired food

I called it the Steamed and Vegetable Corner because this is the corner where it serves freshly stir-fried vegetables and steamed fish.

Steamed and Vegetable Corner

Only if I can taste the Alaskan crab

I ordered a steamed fish, flower crab and a stir fried vegetable from this corner.

Steamed Red Snapper fish
Fish was fresh as the meat were still juicy and did not smell fishy. The gravy were well flavoured too, blending in well to bring out the best of the fish.

Steamed Flower Crab
It was rather a let down. The meat was rough. Clearly the flower crab was not as fresh as it could be.

Stir-fried Lettuce
Time to balance the diet, so a plate of vegetable should do just right.

Just right beside the Steamed and Vegetable Corner, there are those food that are readily available namely stirred fried broccoli, scallops, prawns and jelly fish.

Some of the readily available food
Nothing to shout about, in fact some tasted way below average.

The exotic octopus shape alike
I did not try it as I find it too cute for my liking.

Jogoya Restaurant, even being a Japanese restaurant, they do serve other type of food as well. Just for those that do not really fancy Japanese food, don't worry, because they have a section that serve Chinese food.

Dim Sum corner
The all time favourite such as Siew Mai, Har Kow, Loh Mai Kai and Yu Mai are there for selection.

They do serve fried raddish cake, fried dumpling, steamed chicken feet and a few more to complete the selection.

Pick your choice

A fan of Chinese dessert? You will be more than happy, because they have a variety of Tong Sui for your selection.

Chinese Dessert aka Tong Sui
Namely a few, honey sea cocunut, ginkgo barley, and ginseng sea coconut.

Dim Sum tasted rather pathetic

Next, I moved on the Roasted Corner. This is the section where the roasted food can be found. They have teriyaki, roasted lamb, beef, chicken and even satay to meet your demand of the day.

The Roasted Corner

Just beside the Roasted Corner, they are food that are readily namely stir-fried salmon fish bone, grilled sweet corn and mushroom shaped fish paste.

Ready food beside the Roasted Corner

Some of the food that I took from the Roasted Corner

Just in case you had not enough of fish, there is another corner that serve stir-fried and even grilled fish. I named it as the Grilled Fish Corner. There were a few choices of fish to be cooked in the pre-described style. Just drop your clip and wait for it to be served to your table.

Grilled Fish Corner

Unagi
Soft, sweet and juicy.

One of my favourite corner in Jogoya is the Beverages and Fruits Corner. At this corner, you can find plenty of beverages ranging from fruit juice to Chinese tea. Surely there will be one that fit in to your choice.

Beverages and Fruits corner

Coffee machine

Not a fan of coffee? Don't worry, because they have a corner that offer a variety of tea. Just pick your personal favourite tea bag and off you go with the tea pot to enjoy your favourite tea. Self-service though.

Pick your own tea pot

For those that fancies cocktail, rejoice because the beverages corner do serve a few cocktails as well.

The cocktail that caught my attention
Tasted strong, sweet and sexy. The Pledge of Love, indeed.

Fruits Corner

Fruits are just fruits, and it should not be considered as desserts. In Jogoya Restaurant, they have their very own desserts corner. With plenty of choices ranging from konyaku jelly, mochi, cookies to cakes, it seriously give you a big headache.

The Desserts corner

I would like to try each of it but obviously, my stomach is nearing my capacity. Well, just a few of them and I shall reserve the rest on my next visit.

Mochi and Apple Pie

Desserts again? No, this is the Ice Cream corner. Oh well, another favourite corner of mine.

Haagen Dazs Ice Cream
I don't get to Haagen Dazs ice-cream all the time. Time for some the ice cream feast.

For those diet watcher, there is another New Zealand Natural corner that serve lower fat ice-cream.

New Zealand Natural ice cream

Not only they serve ice-cream, but there are pancakes that are freshly made to compliment with your ice cream. I likes!

Haagen Daz with pancake

New Zealand Natural ice cream
A scoop of chocolate and strawberry flavour to end my eating journey for the session.

Random faces on Michael's 26th

Happy 26th Birthday Michael
No cakes, but the coconut to represent 2 and 6!=)

I pretty much enjoyed the dining session. Ask me to choose my favourite corner, and I will choose the Beverages, Ice Cream, Sashimi and Desserts corner. Wait, the Steamed Fish and Stir Fried Vegetable is my favourite too. I guess almost each corner is my favourite too as each of the corner offer different type of food.

Each pax is priced at RM 78++ for buffet lunch and supper, and RM 88++ for buffet dinner respectively. No doubt, it is not a cheap buffet, but if you are person that craves for a lot of food especially Japanese, then this might well be your cup of buffet. Do check out from the website at http://www.jogoyarestaurants.com/pricing.html from time to time for their promotion.

Atmosphere: 7/10
Food: 6/10
Price: 6/10
Verdict: Not entirely a Japanese buffet as they have many types of other food as well.

Jogoya Japanese Restaurant
T3, Relish Floor
Starhill Gallery
181, Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel: +603 - 2142 1268
Fax: +603 - 2148 8171