TENMAYA Japanese Cuisine — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Japanese dining

We can't deny it.. most (if not all) of us like to eat Japanese. Nipponshoku is by far one of the most popular dining options in Malaysia. For me, I remember starting my Japanese food adventure with Sushi King & Genki Sushi back in my college days - and my favouritest would be tuna mayo sushi (don't shoot me..). These places were the cheapest option in the past, as I mana ada $$$ to eat at Kampachi Equatorial Hotel?

As my palate got sophisticated, I started to explore more options - and the then ex-gf who's a fanatic kept on stuffing me with raw fish, something that I detest back then. Nowadays we are spoilt with choices when it comes to eating Japanese food. Almost every nook & corner that we go, we will find one Japanese restaurant.

Tenmaya has been one of my favourite places to go due to their consistency and freshness. The only factor that deters me from coming often is their location.

◾Sashimi Mariowase ◾Grilled Hamachi Collar (amberjack or yellow tail fish) - love the firm, smooth and succulent texture of the collar. ◾Saba Shioyaki - I normally go for the natural way to taste the fish grilled with salt as opposed to the usual teriyaki. ◾Salmon Ikura Cheese Maki - grilled salmon flakes, seared salmon, salmon roe, cucumber and cream cheese.. basically everything salmon squeezed together in the maki. Quite filling with the cream cheese. ◾Shake Ikura Takikomi Gohan - salmon and salmon roe hot pot rice. Now this is something that you don't see anywhere. It's just like out claypot chicken rice but done Japanese way with the salmon flakes and salmon Ikura in top of a bed of rice inside hot pot. Mix everything and eat it... the daughter forbid me to touch the dish because she loved it so much. Managed to steal a spoon and understood why she loved it.

Ahh.. writing this made me missed...

Unfortunately my experience at the service of this restaurant was not good. We ordered a salmon sashimi that came in 4 pieces. Tried 1 piece but the salmon sashimi was frozen on the inside. This was quite gross so we asked for them to change it. Normally, most restaurants would change the whole thing and give back the same serving of 4 pieces of sashimi, but it came back with only 3pieces. I was genuinely perplexed so I asked the staff - an older Chinese lady, whether this was correct and whether the sashimi was in fact changed. The lady took the whole dish away and came back passively aggressively saying, nah the chef give you 5 piece purposely for you.

I am quite perplexed at the attitude of this server. Is it not normal to ask or expect after returning a dish that it would come back again with corrections of the mistake and proper serving size? Anyway I would not recommend going here. My experience was sadly a bad one.

I hope tenmaya will take note and give proper staff training and proper check and balance for quality control of both food and staff.

Sidenote: we also asked where is the miso soup that was supposed to come with the set - this was already at the end of the meal , and another staff gave another passive aggressive response - did you order the set? Yes we ordered the set, the chawanmushi was already served. But the miso wasn't. The server seemed to be holding back his eyeroll.

Overall bad attitude of staff. I mean if you don't wanna be a waiter or server, don't be? If you are one, do it properly? Seems to be a...

My husband and I visited Tenmaya earlier this evening (14/7/2023) and we had such a pleasant experience until our Salmon Ochazuke was served.

1. There was a baby cockroach crawling on the tea pot that the ocha soup was served in.
2. The manager (in pink striped shirt) seemed surprised but NOT apologetic.
3. This is not as important but worth a mention, we did not get any form of discount for this extremely unpleasant & unappetising experience, they simply took the dish back and served us a supposed new one from the kitchen. I was so shocked I did not even get a chance to take a photo. Also the baby cockroach was moving very fast.
4. This is the most significant deal breaker, neither the junior & senior staff members nor the manager herself was even slightly apologetic or offered us any word of apologies on that incident. We spent approximately RM370 there for 2 pax, the very least we deserved was a sincere apology.

Even though the food was excellent and the ambience quiet & cosy, we definitely will not return and I will not recommend this to anyone I...