CC by MEL — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Japanese Fusion cafe-cum-restaurant

The faze and popularity of this Japanese-fusion eatery never seems to die off - that Saturday afternoon I brought my family to Bukit Jalil area to do some work-related matters, and it was ngam ngam past lunch time when I finished everything. Brought them for lunch at this popular restaurant that has been in my list for like eternity only to get a shock!

The moment the lift door opened, it was like people mountain people see - there were few groups of diners already waiting in line. Since we were already there, might as well took the number and wait for our turn. 30 minutes later we finally got our table.

The whole space was simple, cosy and bright - also noisy because everyone was chatting happily while tucking into their food & drinks.

◾Sando Sun RM22 - smoked salmon, avocado, egg mayo, ajitamo Tamago, furikake.. everything sandwiched in between Hokkaido loaf. My eldest princess's choice. ◾Shake Don RM38 - salmon sashimi, aburi sashimi, salmon belly, ikura, tare, Japanese egg yolk, pickled Daikin & furikake. Love the presentation on how the salmon wrapped the rice like a ball, before topping with ikura roe, egg yolk and lastly edible flowers. ◾Truffle Puddle RM48 - black truffle, wild forest mushroom & porcini base, cream, pappardelle, marinated tempura enoki, truffle oil, truffle pate & japanese egg yolk. I quite like the earthiness of this pasta dish and everything was smilky smooth especially when I break the yolk and mix with the pappardelle. ◾Watermelon cake RM17 - first time having watermelon cake and it tasted as good as it looks. ◾Dirty matcha latte ◾Apple juice

Overall the food quality was good & tasty although it seems to be underwhelming & missing the wow factor. Maybe it was just me - my kids loved everything to the max though. The daughters even ask me to go back again .. not knowing the distance between PJ & Bukit Jalil- and that has not taken into factor the traffic yet.

Price is definitely on the high side but you get quality food - the usage of edible flowers almost in each and every dish makes them look prettier and Instagram-able. The cafe is also a social media...

Chaotic beautiful plating and also drives our palate crazy.

Place gets pretty crowded on a weekend and we tried our luck from time to time but to find ourselves turned around to other places. But not on a late Saturday afternoon, we were lucky to get our seats and there’s plenty more. But to our surprise we were told to have 60 minutes-only to dine in. “Wait, I understand this but why? When it’s pretty empty at this moment?” But it’s probably their routine SOP and we were told to check out the digital menu on our device.

The ambience of the place sends a good vibe with ample space between tables so you can have your own privacy but the place gets pretty loud when it’s pack. My stool on the other hand was stained and dry with unknown fluid, that does kill my appetite a little.

Feeling hungry we ordered fiery mapo tofu rice and the cheese kani rice (sorry we butchered the names) and we almost tap take away on the page but my spider senses told me to ask the staff and yes, indeed we do need to order from the desk.

Food came, the presentation was great, the pungent smell coming from the cheese crab was so intense it masked away the smell of mapo rice. I found myself to be admiring the plating, almost not wanting to destroy this artwork but my partner on the other hand has already put her head into the rice bowl.

The mapo tofu to my surprise has a fine balance, savoury and sweet, the spice level was acceptable too and the floral decoration has elevated the flavour to another layer. The short grains soaks up the sweet gravy and egg yolk revealing just the white tofu and beef cubes, my palate was dancing with joy! The bowl became a mess, glued together by the egg yolk, almost order a second bowl ;)

Finished the whole bowl myself I attacked my partners portion since she couldn’t finish hers, the first bite down just brings me back to Hokkaido, the pungent seafood smell sends down my throat, the combination of crab meat with these short grains just make everything feeling fluffy in the mouth, I did not expect that.

Thanks for reading this far, we will return for more where they can reconsider their pricing...

Ambience: The place really does look photogenic and insta worthy. But it is busy and crowded, felt like having meal in hawker center (noisy environment) however, which made the queue for a table quite a while. Wait over 20mins on Sunday afternoon around 3pm.

Service: The staff were friendly enough guide us to our table. Hope this cafe consider serving plain water to seated customers as it really won’t cost much and essential, instead of have to purchase bottled water (I’m not sure if they are stingy or can’t afford to serve plain water)

Food: Now this is the disappointing bit. Frankly speaking, the food was really underwhelming, some of the food is really not acceptable for the price that you are paying for. I’ll give 2 examples:-

1. The watermelon cake that we got doesn’t have any refreshing taste at all, which just sweet taste form the cream. For something that you are paying a similar price to other cake house the difference could not be clearer.
2. We ordered the buttery asari, clams used is fresh, but the broth just taste like sugar syrup, too much sugar added into the soup (not sweetness from ingredients). Tiger olio, quite good just the prawn used not that fresh. Pistachio brownie, just one word to describe it “Sweet”, not good for diabetes. Genmaicha cheesecake, this is good, full of genmaicha aroma and blended well with cheese. Dirty matcha latte, too much of sugar added. Lemon espresso, doesn’t have lemon taste at all.

Price: Now you might be thinking that the comments I had for the food and drink might be too harsh, but this was made in consideration of the price that you had to pay for them too. For example, for the tiny piece of watermelon cake costs RM17. You are essentially paying a premium cafe food pricing that you can really feel had a lack of attention given to the details and quality.

Conclusion: The 2 stars I gave here are for the ambience and attitude of the staff. However, I would not consider returning if there are no significant improvements done to the food and drink. Because of for what you are paying there are much more better...