Sushi Zanmai, The Gardens
Do you know its an achievement to get Carol Tee a.k.a Ellone to treat me (or you) to a decent meal? It took me some betting, persuading, teasing and of course, cheating to get my free meal. However, it was almost more than a year later when she finally treated me.
Sushi Zanmai, highly recommended by Ellone for its relatively cheap sushis and bento sets in her post. Since she would be footing the bill, I went easy on her and suggested this restaurant instead of our pre-agreed Star Hill’s Jogoya.
It’s located somewhere in The Gardens. Yes, it was my first visit to The Gardens, a brief one albeit. I remembered I walked across Little Penang Cafe, the long hallway, upped the escalator and turned right, passing by an Indian restaurant called Cinnamon or something like that. Heh!
Conveyor belt, checked! Chefs making sushi right in front of you, checked! The waiters / waitresses say something in Japanese (Welcome!) whenever a customer walks in, checked! Wasabi, checked! Unagi, checked! Refillable green tea, checked!
Refillable green tea. A little bland though.
My tuna sushi. Well, tasted normal but it was fresh. Too bad they don’t serve my favourite egg mayonnaise sushi. I also took the shrimp sushi because it looked really tempting and delicious. My intuition was right as it was really tasted.
In the middle of the rolled fragrant rice, there’s fresh and juicy prawn in the middle. On the outer layer of the sushi, there’s tiny shredded pieces of unknown stuffs. I suspect that it could be the same ingredient used in the curry chicken rice bibimbab in Sushi Groove.
Carol had noodles with chicken chop and some greens. I don’t know how it tasted, but it ain’t looked appetizing to me.
Carol’s boy friend ordered I-don’t-know-what but it looked colourful.
We shared a plate of salmon sashimi and guo za. The salmon slices were thick, freshed and absolutely delicious after dipping it slightly with the wasabi and soy sauce. The guo za weren’t impressive if you asked me. There were no sliced ginger and vinegar to go along with it. Maybe they did give vinegar, but it probably tasted like soy sauce and I couldn’t differentiate it. The skin was a little too thick to my liking and the fillings weren’t juicy / tasted dry. It was nicely pan fried though.
It won’t be a complete and fulfilling sushi session if there’s no unagi. For that, I ordered their unagi set. For RM25+, I got myself a lot of unagis which made me really happy and grinned from ear to ear. There’s nine pieces of them, nine! Nine!
Unlike most Japanese restaurant, their unagis weren’t as sweet as others, in fact, I tasted a little saltiness in it. Saltiness would go well with white rice compared to sweetness and Sunshi Zanmai’s unagi just hit the right spot.
I wanted to order another set but I would feel bad because Carol would be footing the bill. Too bad I couldn’t do macro and this was the best I could do with my lens. Just look at the white succulent meat coated with thick sweet sauce. Heavenly!
The bill came to RM100+, if I remember correctly. Cheap, but the problem is whether I am willing to drive to Mid Valley after enduring the traffic jam and trouble of finding a parking space. The trouble of switching LRT and KTM stations isn’t very appealing either. I would really love to go back there, but the trouble is how to get there with ease and in peace.
Related posts:
Tags: Carol Tee, Ellone, Sushi, Sushi Zanmai, The Gardens, Unagi
May 22nd, 2008 07:01
damn, u’ve got a chiobu with u, n u’ve got teh unagi. damn!
May 22nd, 2008 09:08
gyoza?
May 22nd, 2008 09:24
O.O
breakfast time and im reading this post of urs..
May 22nd, 2008 09:39
Hahah we’re having the same taste here! Sashimi and unagi, yeah!! :D
May 22nd, 2008 09:43
The Unagis looks great! (From here) Doesn’t seems to be too oily… So does the wanton..
Don’t see much variety of photos eh? Balik2 the same thing… :D
May 22nd, 2008 09:45
I like Zanmai as well. Never been to The Gardens Zanmai; usually go to the one in Sunway Pyramid. Zanmai is also opening in 1U soon
May 22nd, 2008 10:51
I could drive you there anytime, but sometimes I would accidentally terforgot to bring my wallet nowadays. Must be aging mia problem !! * lari
May 22nd, 2008 11:07
Going to Mid Valley and finding a parking lot is like playing Warcraft game. You need to have good strategy. Seriously!!
Sashimi for teh win!!
May 22nd, 2008 14:05
Take KTM from seremban, straight reach MV..where got susah wor…..with kids tagging along, i also can make it…u cannot ar??
May 22nd, 2008 14:19
Eh? Such a coincidence wor, Jason. We just posted this on our blog yesterday! Haha. Love the food there! :p
May 22nd, 2008 14:58
oh yes , the food section is coming back ! yee - Ha !
May 22nd, 2008 15:12
Gosh. It’s been a while since I last ate Japanese food. T_T
May 22nd, 2008 17:10
The guo za was okay wert.. I didn’t like the filling la, cause not sweet, not salty. Very the bland. But it definitely wasn’t dry, when I had it. And I thought to myself upon seeing the shrimp sushi, “What’s that? Shell ah?” And I kept entertaining my thoughts by producing more thoughts on why would they use shell to cover the rice. *stewpid*
May 22nd, 2008 18:03
WHY PUT SUCH AN UGLY pic of me….
Remove remove, so sensored it with some petak suan liao.
My ramien very nice d ler, you should ask me then i let u taste ma.
Jien’s one is some dunno what fried chicken rice or something. The chicken taste quite the same with the ramien chicken.
Next time i cum back i belanja you 3 sets ok ?
And dun forget the JOGOYA you promised. Hmpffffffffff~
And hor, i took one year coz i hardly see you ok. I got belanja u steamboat also end of last year but you dun wan to blog it out…HERKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK………….
May 22nd, 2008 19:50
Sean : She’s taken. Unagi rawks though.
Decypher : Its that the correct spelling? I have no idea though.
Joshuaongys : I hope you will have a delicious lunch later.
CLF : *high 5*
Shinky : Not much variety of photos? What do you mean? Composition? Angle? Or do you mean I kept eating the same food?
Tien Soon : 1U? Now, that’s is really convinient.
Kai Hong : You can leave your wallet at home, as long as you bring that credit card. :P
Chong : I took KTM that day. Hehe. I shall never drive to Mid Valley if I can.
Jesslyn : Haha. I usually stay in Serdang. And its not that convinient to board a KTM from that area. LRT would be easier, then I would need to switch train.
Twosuperheroes : Haha. Yeah, I read about that.
Joetribe : I don’t have much food entries to write. Any suggestions for me?
SilverIsle : You can make your own sushi, if you have the determinatino.
Deng : I didn’t like the filling as well and the skin. Hehe. Dry as in the filling didn’t have the juice / soup like how a wantan should have. Haha. Its a kind of fish apparently, 柴鱼, if not mistaken. However, it sure ain’t prawns’ shell.
Carol : Hehe. I got an even uglier one and you should be grateful that I didn’t put that picture.
You say one hor, 3 sets. Yes, Jogoya, I shall remember that.
What steamboat? I don’t remember. :P
May 22nd, 2008 20:20
Those red and black containers on the conveyor belt had ginger slices you know..
Yes, Green Tea = saturated.
Guo Za = So SMOOTH it’ll slip off your chopstick if you aren’t careful.. it’s the oil la.
My mum says there’s one branch in OneU wor. You can go there with Jamie ah.
May 22nd, 2008 21:55
Have to read until last paragraph baru know it’s in MV. Haha…
I think I’ll it out when I go for Eason’s concert.
May 23rd, 2008 00:21
The best japanese food i found was in starhill.. =)
May 23rd, 2008 01:00
Hwey : Yes, I know and I don’t eat them. Haha. Oily meh? It wasn’t that oily when I had mine. Yes, thats what my other readers said too. That should be really convenient then.
Bryan : The Gardens = Mid Valley loh.
Wannabe Economist : And the name is?
May 23rd, 2008 02:19
I want to eat Sushi Zanmai with Ellone too!
May 23rd, 2008 10:56
Seems really cheap wo, must go and try this out. BUt really, been a long time since I visited Mid valley, really hate the jam and lack of parking there. I suppose it’s a tad better now with extra parking at the Gardens.
May 23rd, 2008 14:25
Okler… i know i will be the next person to get this… hehe…. Don’t need to cheat me to get ur meal ok. Will buy you one when we meet. Will try to meet u k…
May 23rd, 2008 15:57
It’s Joyoga or something, I forgot, I’ve been there only once.
May 23rd, 2008 20:08
Wah… the photos are very professionally taken. Make me ‘lau nuah’ leh.
May 23rd, 2008 23:30
Unagi freak.
May 23rd, 2008 23:38
Neo : Ask her out then. :P
Sue : Yes, pretty cheap, I would say. Haha. Even with that extra parking space, I doubt it would be easy to find a parking still. Moreover, the parking price ain’t cheap also.
May Gin : Haha. :P I won’t cheat you, I will just ask you to treat me. :P
Wannabe Economist : Oh, I been there as well and as for the best, I doubt.
Che-Cheh : Thanks! :D Hehe, feel like having sushis for dinner?
Robin : Yes, I am.
May 24th, 2008 10:26
Btw the Unagi and salmon slice here looks really nice =)
May 26th, 2008 13:18
Nice photos and nice blog design you have here. Japanese food is nice, but must be fresh.
May 26th, 2008 23:05
salmon!!!!!! omgawwwwdddddd!!!!
May 27th, 2008 09:58
they have it now in one-u too! lets go lets go!
May 28th, 2008 07:44
Been a while I didn’t go Sushi Zanmai already. But there’s still a lot of other eateries that I’ve yet to try. Sigh.
May 28th, 2008 11:48
Wannabe Economist : Thank you. :)
BlogMalaysia : Thanks. Yeap, they were fresh.
Mailmelar : Hehe. Come to think of it, we never have sushi together. :D
Xin : Hehe. Yeah, easy for me. :D Can, when you free? LOL.
Simon : It would probably take years for you to try all the eatery in KL, that also provided there are no new eatery spruting out.