Kingu Kongu — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

So what is Kingu Kongu? They are an Izakaya. They are a Yakitori. They are Japanese. But they are semi-Korean but you can also find sambal petai rolls. Confused yet? They are everything mentioned and a little more. There are very few Muslim friendly Japanese fusion izakaya/Yakitori and they saw a market and capitalized on it. The ambience is similar to Yamatetsu at OKR with Japanese paraphernalia and tunes on the waves.

On the table are Beef Tataki (RM38), Salmon Truffle Bomb (RM28), California Maki (RM28), Squid Teriyaki (RM26), Korean Spicy Fried Chicken (RM24) and Bara Chirasi Don (RM25). We gots lots to get through.

The beef Tataki is really teppanyaki styled stir fried beef. The taste is good and the cut used is most probably Angus. I think the price affected the value a little but this is a good starter. The salmon Truffle Bomb is a cold dish with salmon sashimi sitting on top of mash. I think the bomb tag slightly changes your expectations. I expected explosion of flavour and it's good/tasty but muted. Perhaps to explode, there needs to be contrasting flavors, the only contrast with salmon bomb is the texture. I removed the word truffle because honestly you can't taste or smell it.

The California Maki is a very vanilla dish to order, the crispiness is not there anymore and I'm assuming that the fried ingredient was prepped beforehand. Nothing wrong just that it loses its ommph. The Korean chicken should be the dish that is tagged bomb. The flavours for this is strong and I'm guessing one would hesitate ordering this in a Japanese inspired restaurant but you should.

The squid is tender and if you love squid then this is your jam. The dish comes with a mentaiko dip and Thai infused dip. Go for mentaiko. The Bara Chirasi is ok, sweet sauce infused rice but the cubes a little small. The sweet is ok and I understand why as well.

They are located at the tail of what used to be a clubbing street. Parking is hard and expect it to be harder once the festive season is over. Reservation is a must. Ventilation needs to be better, if you sit at the main restaurant, you will smell of food. My overall experience is good, some hiccups with nervous servers but expect them to ride the trend for now.

Tip: The drinks are pricey, Ocha is RM5.

NOTE This is not a paid post; the written content is based on author's personal opinion and preference.

For more food reviews, look for me at IG...

Had Gyoza in Cheese, Salmon Truffle Bomb, Tuna Tataki and Sashimi Ceviche and my most favourite of all is Sashimi Ceviche. It’s salmon, tuna, hamachi in spicy lime sauce, cheese with honey lemon mayo and crackers. The spicy lime sauce is so delicious and complement the salmon, tuna and hamachi well. Put it on top of the cracker and eat it with cheese with honey lemon mayo it’s blended so well together. I guess it’s not talked about much in the review because it doesn’t look appealing, picture wise.

The salmon truffle bomb with mashed potato filling for us was okay but a bit of a let down because the mashed potato is not mashed and there’s few big chunks present and it’s cold. Were expecting creamy smooth garlicky mashed potato. The garlic aiolli sauce kinda save this dish to make it less jelak and there’s crispy red garnish which we couldn’t quite figured what, that’s really nice too to counter the bland taste of the chunky mashed potato.

Tuna tataki - the tuna is fresh and love the texture as it kinda resembles a bit of a meat texture. And of course the aiolli sauce is delicious to dip with tuna.

Gyoza in cheese is delicious but nothing memorable. Would be super if the cheese fully melted and has gooey texture to make it easier to coat the gyoza with the cheese. The gyoza is fat with generous filling which I noticed straightaway after biting into it which is kinda nice feeling.

Oh and love love the Super Gulp soda, it’s sugar less, so it tastes light to accompany the rest of the heavy meal just like green tea. I ordered watermelon pineapple as that’s the only flavour available and loving it so much.

The meal arrived quickly, it’s online ordering system, make sure to check your order if it came too late because we didn’t confirm our order despite checking with the staff whether our order have been accepted and the staff said yes. Even if they checked and it’s in their system, you need to confirm from your end.

You can reserve your table via google on kingu kongu business profile.

Just take LRT and stop at Dang Wangi station, it’s only 6mins walk from the station. Save you the hassle from traffic jam and finding...

Kingu Kongu is by far still one of my favorite halal Japanese restaurants to go to, although it's very far and in a very obscure area of town.

The aesthetic of the restaurant itself is on-point and just being in there feels like another world. The wooden furniture and architecture certainly feels homey, and the decor is pretty much what cements the izakaya feel.

I ordered 3 different menu items: Karaage Curry Rice, Yakitori skewers, and Gyoza with shoyu and cheese.

The curry rice was exceptional, for once the curry isn't sweet and mild but rather has a light kick to it. The karaage was cooked to perfection, and the crunch was super satisfying and the chicken was certainly fresh. I really loved that they added fukujinzuke, something that most if not almost all Japanese restaurants don't do enough of. The curry is a 10/10 for me simply because the portion although quite large always leaves me craving for more.

Moving on, the Yakitori was really rich and juicy, nothing more needs to be said except that it is definitely my go-to food there. When I think of Yakitori I think of Kingu Kongu, it's affordable and superbly satisfying to boot. 9.8/10 Yakitori would always order more.

Next up, the Gyoza. I ordered it because I was very intrigued by its description and wanted to give it a try. I'm not a big fan of it because it's too salty for my taste, Cheese on hotplate with shoyu makes it very salty, and when it cools down the texture is quite weird. 6/10 because the Gyoza on its own is actually good.

All in all, as a halal Japanese restaurant I did not have much expectations for it. But Kingu Kongu not only exceeded my expectations, it also made it into my top list of go-to Japanese spots around...