Menya Hanabi 麺屋はなび Arkadia — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Went to this place earlier but the wait was a little long so skipped.

Came back another day, and decided to wait this time around to see what the fuzz was all about.

Verdict: Orgasm in your mouth especially for all those Mazesoba virgins out there. At least that was me hehe. Now why? When you first walk into the shop, that whiff of smells coming from the open kitchen builds up your anticipation on how good the food will be, and this can be smelled with our face mask on.

I opted for the second Mazesoba dish(can't remember full name) as I wanted to taste how the entire dish comes together without having other additional ingredients disrupting the flavor. When the dish arrived, you will be greeted with an array of the freshes ingredients, while still having the noodles and sauce hidden from sight. Mix it up and get ready for a perfect balance of flavours to unfold in your mouth. The shop actually pairs the dish with their home made vinegar, and visually looks like vinegar, kombu seaweed and chilli. I must say this addition further elavates the dish to another level. If you are a big eater, I would recommend ending the dish as suggested by the shop with a scoop of white rice. This opens up a new dimension of flavours when the sauce and ingredients are paired with different carbs.

To summarize, for all you Japanese food/ramen lovers out there, this place is a must try and it is well...

Every now and then, you come across a new dish that simply blows you away. This is one of those times when I randomly stepped into this establishment not expecting much. I've never heard of mazesoba before let alone Menya Hanabi. At first glance, I thought this was a bibimbap joint but when I noticed that it was Japanese, I decided to give it ago.

Of course, I had to try their signature dish, the mazesoba. The dish was incredibly flavorful and all the ingredients complimented each other. We've all experienced eating dry noodle with mince meat and at the end we get a lot of extra meat with no noodles left because of the crumbly nature of the meat. They solved that by topping off your bowl with a scoop of rice at the end. Genius!

We ordered some karaage as a side dish but the mazesoba alone was already very filling so I wouldn't recommend side dishes unless you are very hungry. The karaage tasted authentic but it was nothing special.

I gave this review 4/5 stars because I felt that they put too much ajinomoto into the dish.

I will definitely...

From the outside, this restaurant looks unassuming. When you go inside, it still looks underwhelming - the decor bare and simple while the tables and chairs look like they've been grabbed from a Go Noodles outlet. When it comes to the noodles, specifically, the mazesoba which is basically like a dry pan mee with mix of ingredients + what looks like a semi raw egg on the top - once you mix them all up and add a dash of vinegar, your taste buds are transported to another parallel soba universe! Sure, the Nagoya Mazesoba at RM24 a pop, is pretty steep but the combo flavours are harmonized to make you want more. In fact, invariably, you will run out of soba but still have leftovers the awesome sauce which you just motion to the waiter and they will bring your bowl back into the kitchen to give you a small scoop of rice - on da house! Nothing goes...