Not wanting to let Ah Kit be the only person left among the three of us who has yet to try Sushi Zanmai, we decided to head down to The Garden’s to have sushi for lunch before my 4.30pm bus back to Malacca.

We sat down and ordered our refillable iced green tea. Honestly, they certainly didn’t taste like green tea to me, more like plain water with a little bit of flavouring in it. As for the other picture, its the wooden chopsticks.

We sat next to the conveyor belt, where an endless and unlimited but not free sushi kept passing by, tempting us to take them and put them into our tummy. Funnily, we didn’t take any of them, not even a single plate.

Ah Kit had a difficult time thinking what to order as it was his first time there.

No sushi meal would be complete without unagi. For the three of us, we ordered the large unagi set, which came with eight slices of unagis. Not too sweet or salty, just nice to compliment both tastes. The white rice, after mixing it with the remaining sauce dripping from the unagis, tasted really good and it was emptied in no time.

Ah Yong suggested a cod fish dish which we had no intention of disagreeing with his suggestion. The same sweet sauce as unagi’s, but different texture. Pieces by pieces, we helped ourselves with the cod fish. Not too bad, but it could have been better as cod fish is best eaten steamed to taste the natural sweetness inside the meat. Kind of oily too! Just look at the layer of oil that gave the fish the shinny surface.

Upon seeing soft shell crabs on the menu, Ah Kit wanted to order it. Who were we to say no, right? However, I find it rather salty compared to its counterpart, Pasta Zanmai. Although under the same management company, Pasta Zanmai’s soft shell crabs tasted much better. Moreover, Sushi Zanmai’s didn’t really look like crabs to me, more like spiders.

Wanting to taste their superbly soft and smooth tofu, I ordered a bowl. It definitely didn’t disappoint me. However, I find Pasta Zanmai’s version is better in terms of presentation. Their tofu stood up firmly and didn’t wobble around, unlike Sushi Zanmai’s. On top of that, the outer layer was fried till a very light golden brown colour and has slight crispiness in it where as Sushi Zanmai’s were nothing but just a layer of skin.

Ah Yong wanted to try their sushi and he ordered a plate of assorted sushis. I had the salmon sushi and it tasted just average.

Not wanting to lose out, I ordered a plate of deep fried tuna sushi, which turned out to be really delicious. The fact that I quite like tuna made the sushi twice the deliciousness. Tuna and Japanese rice, wrapped with seaweed and then deep fried. Some mayonnaise to give the extra punch and presentation before serving. Crunchy yet a little juicy at the same time. I could eat two plates all by myself! It was that delicious.

Another sushi filled with soft shell crabs, just for Ah Kit. The soft shell crab in this particular sushi wasn’t crunchy at all and tasted just nice for me.

To end my lunch, I ordered a bowl of black sesame ice cream. Damn nice! Only available at Japanese restaurants, I assume.

The bill came up to just a couple of dollars above RM100. It was definitely lower than we hada expected from the beginning.

Overall, Sushi Zanmai didn’t disappoint me the second time and there’s no reason for me not to go back there again. Judging from Ah Kit’s happy face after we came out from the restaurant, I am pretty sure he would visit it again, with his parents.

Editor’s Note : Overall, Sushi Zanmai did not disappoint me / still pretty good although this particular round was a little off standard compared to my first visit. However, I reckoned that’s because it was a weekday and the sushi had stayed on the conveyor belt just a little bit longer than usual. I recommend their deep fried tuna sushi, unagi bento set and black sesame seed ice cream. The tofu and soft shell crab, somehow, Pasta Zanmai’s tasted better.

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.