Juu NaNa Sakaba Section 17 PJ - Japanese Style Yakitori Bar - Beer Promotion

Japanese Cuisine: Yakitori is one of my other favorite Japanese foods, and we recently discovered a lovely place to get our fix of this kushiyaki dish with a cold icy drink or beer.

We ventured into the quiet Section 17 Petaling Jaya neighborhood and discovered the Juu Nana Sakaba, which is located at 14, Jalan 17/54, Seksyen 17, 46400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. As the name suggests, Juu Nana is 17 in Japanese and Sakaba is a bar, so it literally means "17 Bar."

Juu NaNa Sakaba Section 17 -PJ - Japanese Style Yakitori Bar 

ECO WINE KUCHAI LAMA - WINE PAIRING MENU

Kuchai Lama Food: There are many pubs in and around Kuchai Lama Entrepreneur Park neighbourhood but one that stands out with its wine offering is ECO WINE which is located at 12A, Jalan 10, 116B, Jalan Kuchai Maju 11, Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park 58200 Kuala Lumpur - Tel: 012-323 3018.

ECO WINE started as a wholesaler and retailer of fine from both the Old World and New World wine 5 years ago. It has a collection of some of the premium wine selection from these countries. Recently, they have started its kitchen which offers its' customer a range of wine pairing starters dishes. 

ECO WINE KUCHAI LAMA - WINE PAIRING MENU

Izakaya Kushi Raku Japanese Restaurant @TTDI Kuala Lumpur -Japanese Bar and Yakitori Review

I really enjoyed Izakaya style dining especially its skewers (Yakitori ) offering. Recently +BestRestaurant ToEat was invited to Izakaya Kushi Raku Japanese Restaurant located at 28, Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 2 Taman Tun Dr Ismail TTDI 60000 Kuala Lumpur to taste out these special offering.

Izakaya Kushi Raku Japanese Restaurant has opened for business less than one year ago with a theme of Japanese grilled bar concept.

The interior is a modern and fun setup with a lots of Japanese inspired peripheral. Sake bottles can be seen adorned on top of the rack. Even the furniture which is custom made to foster the ambience of a casual dining.

Izakaya Kushi Raku offers chicken, beef and pork skewers. There are also vegetables and seafood skewers too. Izakaya Kushi Raku now have some very special signature dishes for customer to enjoy it with a cold sake or a cold beer.

Our food review started with 2 appetizers; the first of which is the Skate Fish (Eihire) – RM10. For those that are not familiar with what a skate fish is; it is actually a Stingray fish (Ikan Pari). The fish meat are cut and grilled. It has a sweet salty taste. Nice to eat with the some sake.

Next is the Snail Meat (Chuaka Sazae Niku) – RM9. I love the chewy and bouncy texture of this snail meat. The sauce was just right and was served chilled.

For the skewers (yakitori) we started with the Chicken Wing Salt (Teba Shio) – RM7 per skewer. The chicken wing are slightly seasoned with table salt and put to the griller. During the grilling process the chef, sprinkle some sake to add in the wine flavour to the chicken wings. Loves the crisp, and sake taste in the chicken wing.

Next on is the Chicken Thigh meat with Wasabi Mayo (Momo Wasabi Mayone-zu) – RM5 per skewer. As with the chicken wings this thigh meat is also seasoned with salt and during the grilling process, the special wasabi mayo sauce are applied on the meat. This ensures the flavours are locked into the meat when you bite into it.

After which we had the Beef Ribeye with Miso Sauce (Gyumiso) – RM11 per skewer. This is another sauce enhance grilling. This time, the chef uses the miso sauce. I like it as the miso sauce was not too overwhelming, as if he has applied too much of the miso, it will be salty and would not have tasted the flavour of the beef meat. Love the medium done texture which leave the meat still tender and juicy.

The second last skewers is the Pork Belly Special (Bara Yaku to Age) – RM7 per skewer. For this skewers, the chef uses the teriyaki sauce to apply to the skewers. It has a sweet and salty taste and with the use of pork belly meat (oil mix with the sauce); gives a nice texture and taste to this slight crunch skewers.

The last skewer is the Cherry Tomato (Cheri Tomato) – RM4 per skewer. Lightly seasoned with salt and sent to the griller.

For the main course we had the Squid Stuffed Rice (Ikasaki Raisu Zume) – RM27. Using seaweed, sesame seed, bonito flakes and mix with Japanese Grain rice; it is then stuffed into the squid before being grilled. Using Teriyaki sauce to spread on the squid while grilling; the chewy texture squid gives you a sweet taste.

The final dish is the Grilled Riceball with Salmon (Salmon Yakionigiri) – RM7. The Salmon meat are moulded into the rice and then send to the griller. Before serving, it is topped with seaweed. I am really not a fan of grilled rice as I find the rice to be a little hard and have a slight crunch; but for those that loves this kind of texture, they will probably find it tasty.

Whether to hang out with friends or to have some good food while enjoying a nice beer or just plainly stayed chill for the evening, Izakaya Kushi Raku is definitely a nice pick. 

Thai Syok Thai Restaurant Yakitori Sunway Mentari - A simple restaurant that serves real authentic Thai Food

If you are on a budget and loves to taste Authentic Thai Cuisine, then this review will be of great interest to you. Best Restaurant To Eat was invited to try out the newly open Thai Syok Thai Food Restaurant located at 15, Jalan PJS 8/18, Dataran Mentari, Sunway Mentari, Bandar Sunway, Selangor.

The decor and setup at Thai Syok Thai Restaurant Yakitori is a no frill, simple setup; on entry to the restaurant you will be greeted and welcomed by 2 special Thai figurine.

The chef in Thai Syok are all Thai's, so our expectation are sky high on the quality and taste of the food served from the restaurant.

Our review started with the Papaya Salad (RM10.50). This salad has a spicy and sourish taste. With the combination of toasted peanuts, shredded raw papaya, it was a nice appetizer to kick off our food review.

This is then followed by the Seafood Tom Yum Kung (Medium) RM24.30. It is loaded with a combination of seafood like prawns, squids, mussel, mushroom and more. But, what is more important was the potent concoction of this Tom Yum; which has a distinctive strong taste; of which you could easily get choked. The chef uses a special in-house made Tom Yum paste with the right amount of bunga kantan and lemongrass. The soup was very addictive as we can't stop slurping it spoonful after spoonful.

For the mains, we had another Chef specialty dish which is the Fried Tom Yum Fish. At Thai Syok, you can choose the type of fish that you like i,e Grouper, Tilapia or Barramundi; for us it was the Red Tilapia (prices for the fish is based on type of fish and weight). Fried to a bright yellow crunchy crisp and then topped with the appetizing special Tom Yum sauce laden with generous amount of cut Bunga Kantan; the entire dish was very aromatic and fragrantful. This is another dish that goes pretty well with the white rice. We finish this dish right to the last drop of sauce.

At this Thai Syok outlet, the owner is introducing some special skewers or Thai yakitori to its menu.  We had the Yakitori Combo (RM24.00) and only available for dinner. The main difference between the Thai and the Japanese Yakitori will be the Japanese usually does not premarinate its meat before being grilled, while its Thai counterpart will be marinated in special sauces. This makes the flavours of the marinate penetrate to the meat. In our combo set we had a skewer of pork neck, pork belly, pandan leaf chicken, basil minced meat with lemongrass, king prawns on tom yum paste and chicken wings.

The next dish is the Deep Fried Pork Knuckle (RM58.20). According to the owner, the pork knuckle are first pre cooked in a special broth, both to soften the texture and immerse it with the fragrant aroma of the broth. Before serving, it is then fried to a crisp; so that you can really taste the crackling skin while enjoying the juicy sweet flavour of the meat. Another dish that gets our thumbs up.

After that we had the soon to be released BBQ Lamb Chop. The pre marinated lamb chop are then grilled to the right charred while the meat still retains its juiciness and succulence. 

For vegetables, we had the Wok Fried Asparagus with Shrimps (RM24.30). We love the crunchy texture of the young asparagus and was a nice vegetable to accompany our other dishes. 

For desserts, we can't leave without trying out my favourite Thai Mango With Sweet Glutinous Rice. This dessert must be eaten fairly quickly as the glutinous rice tends to dry up quite fast; thereby having a hard texture toward the end. It was nicely decorated with the mango surrounding the Glutinous rice and the coconut sauce.

and the second dessert was the Ice Blended Red Rubies With Jack Fruit and Coconut Syrup to close off our dinner. The difference with the ice blended compare with the crush ice version, is that it is much finer, blended well with the coconut syrup and smoother to drink. We like this too.

As most people will know that Dataran Sunway Mentari is famous for steamboat, but you will never expect such good quality and reasonably price Thai Food from this area and certainly Thai Syok Thai Restaurant Yakitori  have proven their capability to dish out such a cuisine.

Set Lunch @Ri Yakitori St Giles The Gardens Hotel Mid Valley - Special Kozara Ryori Lunch Set Review

Dining the Kozara Japanese style is a form of art and passion where dishes are served in small portion with a combination of different taste to savour your taste buds. With that +BestRestaurant ToEat was invited to Ri Yakitori located at 7th Floor St Giles The Gardens Hotel Mid Valley to savour the latest Kozara Ryori Lunch set.

The lunch set is an array of 7 core dishes which includes an appetizer, salad, mains, rice set and dessert. Kozara which literally means small plates dish in Japanese will set the theme for this lunch review. All the dishes are served in small portions to enable one to savour all the different taste from each of these serving.

We started off our Kozara Lunch with an appetizer which is a Trio Japanese Platter; which has 3 dishes; the first of which is the Sakura Ebi Dashimaki, Chinese Cabbage With Chicken Roll and Tomato Mozzarella. The Sakura Ebi Dashimaki is a soft texture Japanese omelette, followed by the special chicken rolled in Chinese cabbage while the third has some European influence from the combination of cube mozzarella cheese with a cherry tomato on a skewer. 

Next, is a marriage of a western salad with fresh sashimi, The sashimi will be a chef selection of either 2 fresh fish/seafood combination of maguro (tuna), salmon and tako (octopus). It is topped with a special mayo sauce with ebiko bedded on fresh green salad.

The next is the Chawanmushi and Rice Set. The chef uses mushroom and crabstick as the main ingredient for his Chawanmushi while the steam white Japanese rice is topped with Edamame and Pickles. The soup that was served to us was the Osumashi soup.

This is then followed by the artistically decorated Braised Radish with Saba Fish. We love the radish that was pre-cooked and then added in with the specially prepared dashi broth and served with a fried Saba fish to give us a crunchy texture which is topped with a layer of chef prepared sauce. 

The main dish is the Chicken Sautéed which is served with a combination of chicken winglet, thigh and breast served with broccoli and cauliflower. The breast meat was surprisingly not too tough which we found out that it was pre-steam with leek and sake before being pan-fried. The end result is that, you would be able to taste the sake, in the tender breast meat.

There are 3 in-housemade dipping sauces to accompany the Sauteed Chicken which is the Shibazuke (sweet), Yakiniku (sour) and sesame salt (saltish). 

Finally the the desert we had was another trio delights which is the matcha mochi with honey, followed by the moist chocolate mousse, and the sourish fruit compote of strawberry, kiwi and orange juice. 

We were really delighted with this light Japanese cuisine which is priced at a special introductory price of RM 78 nett per set for a limited time. This promotional set lunch is available on every Friday from 12noon - 2pm, from 16 Oct 2015 onwards.

Ri Yakitori Bar is opens from Monday – Saturday at 5.00 pm till 1.00 am and closed on Sundays. The menu is available for orders up to 11.00 pm daily. Read more about our earlier Yakitori Review at RiYakitori Bar. To make a reservation or for further inquiries, please call Ri-Yakitori Bar at 03 2268 1188 (ext. 6323) or log-on to: www.StGiles.com

Shinjiro Izakaya Yakitori Restaurant @Tropicana City Mall Petaling Jaya

All over Japan there are many Izakaya which are Japanese informal drinking establishment that serves snack type food to accompany the drinks. Izakaya are casual places for after-work jamming. +BestRestaurant ToEat was invited to one of these new establishment which is Shinjiro Izakaya Yakitori Restaurant located at Lot G-06, Ground Floor, Tropicana City Mall, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

The decor of Shinjiro is brightly lit with Japanese motif and Hokusai design all over the restaurant. It gives you a sense of vibrancy and charm of a Japanese inspired Izakaya just like those that are commonly found in Japan.

Shinjiro offers not only a wide varieties of Japanese BBQ snack food in particular the yakitori but also a marriage of some of the western fusion dishes like pasta and salad with a Japanese twist.

We started our review with 2 salad, the first of which is the Mixed Seaweed with Baby Shrimp. Laden at the bottom are leafy salad with cherries tomatoes and are topped with 3 varieties of seaweed that has a different texture. With a vinaigrette type dressing and the extra fried shrimp added to it, it gives you a crunchy, crispy feel to the salad.

The second salad has more Japanese influence in it; which is the Salmon Avocado - Using fresh Salmon with fresh rocket salad, asparagus, red dates and feta cheese topped with a special avocado sauce; it was a real experience to our tastebud which has many different texture in one salad dish.

This is then followed by a Shrimp Bisque soup, the soup based has a strong shrimp taste and added with a white cream makes it a creamy affair. It would have been ideal if a piece of toasted bread/ baguette was to accompany this soup.

After that, we had a special Japanese soup which is the Bincho Rice with Seaweed and Tofu soup. The Bincho rice are first grill and laid into the soup; this gives the soup,  a smoky taste which are then paired with the seaweed and tofu.

At Shinjiro, you can have your choice yakitori with 7 different sauces i.e. the popular Shio (Sea Salt and Pepper), Sweet & Sour, Chilli, Garlic Chili, Salsa, Teriyaki and Sesame Pistachio.

We then started off with our first Yakitori which is the Chicken Wings with Shio sauce. The Chicken wings was grilled to a crackling crisp to the skin; The skills of the chef is sprinkling the right amount of sea salt is very important as this will determine the final result of the yakitori.

Next, is the sweet potato yakitori which was BBQ with a butter spread.

Followed by the Squid Yakitori with a special Pesto sauce. The thick squid meat was very firm and have a nice texture which are nicely matched with the sauce.

After that we had the Minced Beef Ball with Teriyaki sauce, the beef meat was still succulent and the sweet Teriyaki was of the right balance in terms of sweetness level.

The next yakitori will be a challenge to many as not many people know how to enjoy this delicacy which is the Beef Lung on a Salsa sauce based. The lungs meat were very chewy and the slightly sourish taste of the salsa kills off the slight gamey taste of the lungs.

The next one is the Sirloin meat with Shio sauce, we love the texture and the perfectly grill time of meat which was medium done; the meat still retains the juiciness flavour.

After that we had the Fillet with Asparagus; we love the different texture of the asparagus which was rolled in the fillet meat.

The last yakitori we had is the Fillet with Enoki. Like the earlier one that we had with asparagus, the enoki has a more watery soft texture which makes the fillet texture a little softer and juicier.

Besides Yakitori, Shinjiro also serves some rice(don) dishes, the first of which was the Salmon Sashimi With Ebiko. This is quite similar in taste like eating a sushi but in a bowl. Fresh salmon sashimi are used with Ebiko at the side, while the shredded seaweed are intertwined with the ebiko; giving you a special bite to each spoonful.

The next rice dish is the Shinjiro Fried Rice. Ingredient such as cube capsicum, celery and carrot are used to fried the rice, with a topping of thinly sliced fried lotus root and a poached eggs. Mixed them all; and your taste buds will be bursting with a different flavour and taste all in one.

We also had the opportunity to taste the fusion fettuccine pasta with Seared Salmon. The pasta is cooked with an in-house made special beef sauce.

and the other which is topped with Crispy Chicken,

Another fusion dish is the Oven Baked Oysters with generous portion of cheese and added with ebiko, it gives a real nice texture and taste; when eaten as the ebiko start to burst with every bite of the cheese infused oyster.

The next dish is another special creation at Shinjiro which is the mix Tempura. Instead of the normal tempura flour that are used, the chef have added chopped beancurd skin to the outer layer of the batter. This gives a different texture and taste to this fusion tempura dish. It is served with a special peanut sauce.

The final fusion dish we tried is the Reverse Seafood Roll With Baked Miso.

For desserts we had the Mochi, a combination of the different mochi which has its taste ranging from sesame, strawberry and so forth with sprinkles of freshly cut fruits that is laden in between each of the mochi.

The final dessert is the Nutty Chocolate fingers. We love the rich chocolate cake which has a bed of nut at the bottom and some fresh fruits at the side to gives you a refreshing taste to the cakes.

At the end of the review, Shinjiro will definitely be a nice place for a casual meetup with friends and associates as you will be able to dine slowly with small orders of snack sharing dishes as you drink and chat along the night away.