Sushiya — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Food is great but would have rated it 5 stars if it weren't for the service.

I made a reservation a week before (for Saturday) I was supposed to come and I didn't think anything was out of place. It was a delayed response but perhaps that could be due the number of customers they had that day.

Anyways, fast forward to the Saturday, I politely asked the service crew if we could wait inside since we were 15 mins too early but it wasn't allowed so we waited outside (which wasn't a problem). Mind you, my reservation was at 11.30am till 12.45pm on Saturday. 11.30am comes and we stepped in and the service crew (I'm guessing she's the manager solely because she's the only crew wearing a different coloured shirt than the rest), led me to the normal dining table instead of the counterseats.

I then asked if we could have the counterseats because the store was literally empty, save for 4~5 other customers who were at the counter. There was a good 8 seats lefts in the counter and I came in a group of 3.

I asked the lady if we could be seated in the counter area but she said: I'm sorry, those seats have been fully reserved.

Okay if it's been reserved, there's nothing I can do but no one told me about special requests to get the counterseats? I don't like making a scene so I just nodded and proceeded to the dining table but I was confused because no one asked me during reservation if I wanted counter seats. Perhaps that's my fault for not knowing and not asking but anyways, we're in hour into our lunch and the seats at the counter were still unoccupied.

We finished our lunch at 12.30pm (15 mins before our slot is up) and the seats were still vacant. Mind you, I had clear, unobstructed view of the counter and I would be able to notice if any customers came in.

The entire time we dined, only 2 other customers were led to the counter; set aside for the existing 4~5 people who were already there. That leaves 5-6 empty seats.

Idk if the customers cancelled their reservation or just didn't show up; maybe that's why we weren't allowed to sit there.

Service during our food was quite poor. We had to ring the staff over a few times to get basic things like cutleries and our beverages refill. It was to a point I had to get the cutleries myself. It was supposed to be a celebration for my parents; a special occasion but the only saving grace of that place was the food.

I won't explain much about the food bc it was simply exceptional. One of the best Japanese sushi places in whole of Malaysia.

It's such a different experience when I went over 2 weeks before (a Sunday). Service was great and there wasn't any issues. Was it a bad day for them idk but the service on Saturday was incredibly frustrating. Come here for the food but don't hold high expectations from the service crew. It's a 50:50 chance you'll get good service. Oh and you still need to pay service tax so... take it...

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HIDDEN

Lol walked to Starbucks few times also never realized this Japanese restaurant beside it. Everything also seems to be speakeasy these days 😜 We were quite lucky to get a seat by the bar without any reservation. But I see people who came after us (and in bigger groups) had to queue for quite some time. It's quite a small restaurant, with social distancing SOP in place, they really can't accommodate that many pax.

I had so much fun sitting by the bar watching the Japanese chef preparing food, esp when he sliced the sashimi. Overall, the service here was efficient and great! Chef even asked us a couple times if the food was good (maybe he got too self conscious with me constantly staring at him slicing sashimi haha). Order was done through an iPad, which serves the purpose of being "contactless".

Food/Price: Salmon sashimi 5pc (MYR 35) - Just look at those thick and fat slices of salmon sashimi!!! ugh I can still imagine it melting in my mouth. Btw not sure if there's stg wrong with me, but I was pretty obsessed with their wasabi. 🤣I think this is a pretty standard price in KL for salmon sashimi. One can argue that Mitasu can give you 10-20x more with the same price hahaha

Ume assorted nigiri (MYR 60) - 8pc for this price I think it's damn worth it!!! Starting from the Left row - red snapper, salmon, squid, maguro (bluefin tuna); Right row - tobiko gunkan, saba fish, ebi, tamago. Out of all, squid is the worst cause it's tasteless (not to say I didn't expect it). Saba fish was surprisingly good (slightly salty), though I had second thoughts about eating saba fish raw. All these while I only ate grilled saba hahaha. Maguro also one of my favs.

Tempura don (MYR 30) - Light and crispy batter & generous amount of tempuras given. The amount of rice probably too much for us.

I enjoyed the food here and will definitely return whenever I'm in the area. But I think I'll try and get a slot for Mitasu before coming back here again just to refresh my memory on the taste/freshness of salmon & tuna sashimi at Mitasu. At this price point, I'd definitely prefer this place over... Rakuzen or...

Summary: Being able to order quality a la carte sushi (that isn't tuna, yellowtail or salmon!) freshly prepared by skilled sushi chefs is so rare in KL, I can almost forgive Sushiya's somewhat steep pricing.

Sushiya is tucked away in Plaza Mont Kiara next to an HSBC, so I was quite surprised to find out it's a serious sushi shop offering a broad range of well prepared fish and skilled sushi chefs (the head chef is Japanese). Naturally it's heavily patronized by Japanese, but many locals as well.

I do find everything expensive - an ala carte order of my favorite kohada (gizzard shad) is 25+ (it does include two pieces), and if you have 3 ala carte orders, you're already over 60rm. To that point, Sushiya offers a good variety of sushi toppings; hirame, kohada, shima aji, saba, all the tuna grades; nothing crazy but everything you'd expect in a basic sushi place in japan, which is more than you can say for mid-range places in KL.

Their set meals are a bit heavy on salmon for me so we didn't have many choices there. We tried their Kiwami sushi set for 180$ and it had 8 pieces of nigiri, three gunkan and some egg. It had the typical akami, chutoro, toro, uni (a bit fish) and ikura which are always great, but I enjoyed the inclusion of hirame and shime saba too. It was pretty darn good, but again not cheap. We added on the engawa (super fat in a good way); a ika-natto gunkan (delicious if you like natto); and a very good ume-shiso maki

A note: it's not fancy sushi - the topping size is pretty hefty and there's little in the way of flourishes or exotic ingredients. I'd rate it like a neighborhood sushi place in Japan; nothing crazy, just good quality sushi.

Quality mid-range sushi in KL is extremely rare, which is why I presume Sushiya gets such high ratings. That said, its only real competitor (Umi Ka Shin in Bukit Damansara) is hardly cheap either, so I guess this is a niche they can exploit. I won't visit often, but Sushiya is tasty and offers a variety you don't see a lot in KL....