Sushi Oribe — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Went there for dinner with my family for my father's birthday, we went with the 4 pax Oribe dinner omakase set.

Food quality: the appetisers (shredded pear coated with white sesame sauce, sashimi platter, and tofu with black sesame sauce) were okay, not mind blowing or extra special. However, I have to emphasise the rest are top notch and of the freshest quality. The sushi are nicely made with great flavour profile and the stew fish is exceptional (the best meal of the night ). They also specially made a plate of dessert for birthday guest, so that's a very nice gesture for my dad. I will give the food experience 3 stars.

Ambience: just average, it doenst look or feel fancy, it looks like a normal Japanese restaurant with basic setting nestled in a corner of a service apartment. Overall not much of an effort, so no star. (also traffic to that restaurant took 1 hour from suria KLCC entrance, we were stuck in a gridlock in rain in car for 1 hour despite being a Wednesday and we left home earlier than usual, not the restaurant fault, but do expect to brace for heavy traffic)

Service: very very normal, not up to par for the restaurant setting. Some staff members have communication issue that don't understand plain English. We were asking (a suspectedly new staff) what drink is complementary for the omakase set, and to our surprise, we were told that all drinks were on the house except for green tea. We were extremely confused and luckily we didn't go ahead with ordering all the sake and expensive wine. Upon checking with a more senior staff, it was indeed otherwise, the tea is free not the rest. On top of that, we can't secure a counter seat as it was supposedly fully booked (despite the counter was empty with 2 customers that night from 8 onwards), so food was served to our table in a corner semi private room, for the first few dishes, no one cared to explain to us what we were eating and only after we requested for some basic ingredient introduction, just then a senior staff came over to explain what's served. So with such experience it's hard to say that the service was good. Hence, no star.

Lastly, if I am going for an omakase experience again, I will only opt for the counter experience, if it's sitting at a far corner, it really doesn't give us the whole complete experience. Again, not the restaurant fault, just something I should have researched better. As Omakase means ' I leave it up to you' and since I have given the chef to choose the food they are serving, I would expect that they take the effort to explain and present what's served. Not just served us a plate and expect us knowing what it is. Also it would really help if the reservation system can open up counter seating reservation not just a reservation for dine in.

Overall, the food quality is good and deserving the praise. That aside, I am really not impressed. Personally, when customer pays for a meal of RM500++ per head, we would expect at least the flow of the dining experience is smooth and taken cared of. The whole experience was awkward at best and I don't think I will revisit again with the experience regardless of how great the food tasted, because the whole experience is...

rm350++ Oribe Dinner Course.

APPETIZER - Cold seasonal veggie (horenso?) + yuba skin topped with crab meat in sesame dressing. was ok. had better.

SASHIMI - Botan ebi, Otoro, Saba the Botan shrimp is so freaking fresh its almost swimming. i even sucked out all the juices and coral from its head in the most inelegant manner. sorry for being crude. Otoro was on another level...beautifully marbled, really buttery smooth, melt in yr mouth and not grainy. Saba was the most sophosticated one. it's pickled with vinegar+salt with a light hand. also fine knifework scoring the skin so that when you dip the fish in shoyu it'll seep deeper into the fish without me having to dunk the whole thing into the sauce. The fresh seaweed, shredded myoga & radish decoration were delicious too. not the run of the mill sad soggy forgotten stuff you see in some restaurants.

2 SIDE DISHES - Deepfried Hotaru ika (4pcs firefly squid) & Aji Nanbanzuke (deepfried horse mackerel marinated in a vinegary sauce) At this moment i was wishing i had ordered a bottle of sake (dassai 39%) or a glass of Suntory to go with these 2 side dishes. Hotaru ika was addictive. 4pcs was definately not enough. Crunch squish crunch squish crunch squish...yum. more please! Loved the Aji too. the vinegar base sauce was not too tangy like some...it masked the fishiness of the Aji & brought out its fresh sweet taste, neither overpowering each other.

CHAWAN MUSHI the colour is way more golden compared to most japanese restaurants (more yolk?) yet it doesn't taste too eggy the way Senya's CM is. consistency is so smooth, just like taufoo-fa...no air bubbles, and the little bit of dashi on top.... 👌

GRILLED - Karei & Gindara excellent. no words. eat the karei (flounder) first... its the more delicate tasting one. then the cod...i got the part near belly... high pitch girl scream I'd die happy now if it's my time.

STEAMED - Tai seabream Collar sigh...here comes the letdown. it was a bit overcooked. the thin part of the collar was a tad dried out. still acceptable, but just a letdown after the built up anticipation from so many good dishes. the best part of this dish was the clean tasting broth. sluuuurrrrpppp!

SUSHI 7PCS - Suzuki / Kanpachi / Hotate Aburi / Tai / Aji / Otoro / Uni best of the lot was the Uni, Otoro & Aji. The rest was quite normal in comparison. there was a nice sear and charring on the Tai making it pleasantly chewy/smoky. oh yeah, the pickled ginger that comes with the sushi deserves a mention too. damn, that marination broke down this fibrous root and left it slightly sweet, crunchy and few minutes later, fire in my throat. the pleasant kind of fire. never thought I'd gush so much about ginger.

MISO SOUP with enoki, nameko and some meshlike seaweed- but why so tasteless? :-(

DESSERT - vanilla ice cream. tasted like hokkaido milk ice cream i had (at another place). dessert is like an afterthought. the only place where i had omakase which the dessert really impresses me was at Xenri Hapseng branch. that's...

Absolutely delicious meal and the best omakase I have had so far in the KL area. I must say the quality of their ingredients and preparation method is top class and their main chef, Mr Nao lives up to his reputation of being an incredibly talented sushi chef. The reason for this low rating is due to how poorly me and my significant other was treated during the course of the meal. We were initially welcomed with a warm smile and greeting at the beginning and we arrived on time as per our reservation at 6.00pm. We were treated with a great amount of entertainment and fully enjoyed our course meal as we began to indulge in the delicacies served personally by the chef. It was during the middle of the course of the meal that the tension began to feel raised as the eyes of a Japanese couple was focused on to us. I personally did not notice it as I was enjoying the food whereas my significant other was paying close attention to the conversation between Mr Nao and the couple. To put it simply, Mr Nao was downright complaining to the customers that we were enjoying his delicacies 'very slowly' and he was 'pressuring' us to consume the food faster as there were another line of guests awaiting to be served as well. To be fair, he was right as we were technically making his other customers unhappy. What caused me to feel offended was that

He did not personally say it to my me and my significant other to dine at a quicker pace but decided to complain to his fellow Japanese customers

The floor staff/ chef did not inform me of any prescribed time limit to dine on the counter. I did not think of that initially as throughout all my previous omakase experiences, I was not ridiculed for taking too long to eat nor reprimanded for such an action and all of the chefs were Japanese as well. I would have increased the pace if I was informed beforehand but unfortunately the chef decided to rant in Japanese not knowing that my significant other was fluent in the language.

The floor staff were standing behind the whole second half of the course meal awaiting to clear our plates due to our 'slow' pace. How could somebody enjoy a meal knowing that there are people behind them, staring at their every bite.

This goes to show that Mr Nao may appear to be very welcoming and open but his actions that night showed me that he was a skilled yet judgemental person who wears a mask, hiding his true intent. He may not have been in a good mood that night but his actions were definitely unwarranted and he should reflect on his actions. This applies to the floor staff as well. Unfortunately, this will be my first and last time dining at this establishment which serves an excellent meal.

TLDR (Too long, didn't read) Food is a 5/5 but service was 0/5 just that Google reviews did not allow me...