Sleepy Hao, Akiraceo Jian and I headed to town for a more decent (Anything better than Sushi King or maybe Sibaraku is considered decent.) Japanese food. Actually, I have nothing to blog anymore, so I dragged these two scapegoats along so that I have more pictures to be used in my post.

I read about this particular restaurant from Yung.’s blog and decided to give it a try. Who knows, I might have another place to have my all time favourite unagis whenever I feel like I want to.

Wa Zen 和膳 Japanese Restaurant, located not too far from Portuguese Hotel, operates quietly in Melaka Raya. It’s relatively easy to find and parking is ample. However, do take note the lane opposite the shop is drawn with yellow lines, so, try not to park there during the day time.

There aren’t many tables in the restaurants. A glance at it, there could be less than 10 tables, with separated cubicles on the left and a private room at the back. Warm lighting and fully air conditioned.

My complain is that, they actually allow their patrons to smoke inside the air conditioned restaurants. Not very wise, I would say. Ample space between each tables and still comfortable to sit in. I think the restaurant is quite popular in town, as we had to wait for a short while before being seated as all tables were occupied. There were a lot of Japanese customers having dinner there too, to my surprise.

Then, I noticed this cat again. Its in every Japanese restaurant, I believe. I seen it here, Sibaraku and also Sushi King. Meow~

Upon seated, hot towels are served to all patrons. However, with three photographers around, hot towels ended up being cold by the time we use it. As usual, pre-packed wooden chopsticks and chilled green tea.

While waiting for our food to arrive, I played with the stuffs available on the table. The Japanese soy sauce, chilies flakes and tooth picks.

For starters, Hao and I had the fresh salmon handroll and soft shell crabs handroll. Taste wise, it was edible but definitely lost out in terms of taste. The seaweed used to wrap around the ingredients were not easy to tear off, making it quite a little troublesome to eat and with all the egg roes falling off. I wonder the seaweed got “stiffed” because of our photo taking time. The waiter did remind us to eat them quickly.

We ordered the sets, which come with a bowl of white rice, salads, steamed eggs, two slices of watermelons and whatever you ordered main dish. It was really disappointing to see a small pool of water after I finished the bowl of salads, which could only mean they didn’t drain the lettuce properly before serving. The steamed egg contained too much water and has lost its texture. A failed cawanmushi.

Hao ordered tori rose katsu set (deep fried pork chop) while Jian ordered teriyaki chicken rice set. I don’t know how it tasted, so let it be.

As for me, definitely and nothing else but unagis. Yummy! I was telling May Gin this early evening that I was having cravings for unagis.

The unagis were much drier compare to many other unagis that I have tried in other Japanese restaurants. However, the taste was there albeit not that strong. The delicate white meat was cooked to perfection, retaining its firm texture and yet soft and smooth enough to glide down my throat. Again, some sweet sauce onto the white rice would be nice, for its too dry, the whole set that is.

In Malacca, there are only a few Japanese restaurants, with Sushi King dominating the market. However, with Wa Zen around, the locals have another options. I would definitely come back again, especially when I feel like having a more proper Japanese food rather than the sucky but still edible Sushi King. There’s another Japanese restaurant that is about to open soon in Dataran Pahlawan, but that will be another post.

Wa Zen Japanese Restaurant
38, Jalan Melaka Raya 15,
Taman Melaka Raya, 75000 Melaka.

06-2823882

Warning : Shit loads of photos. I mean, really lots of them.

I think I am the last blogger to blog about Star Hill Gallery’s Jogoya since the restaurant made its debut at KL many months ago and discovered by Wingz. Despite the many reviews from many food bloggers, a few of my makan kakis said the other wise. Nee even double confirmed it after she did her food review there.

However, Sook Ying wanted to try the restaurant so badly that she pestered me a few times even a month before she came back to Malaysia. I promised her to give her something for her birthday and also to thank her for the gifts and mails she sent to me when she was in US, I decided to make another trip to KL to hang out and have lunch at Jogoya with her and her best friend, Hui Xin.

It wasn’t that difficult to locate the restaurant, which is at the Relish Floor (Fifth, I think.) of Star Hill Gallery. However, before we even managed to step our foot inside the restaurant, we were required to pay first. Yes, pay first, eat later. The price was RM78 for the lunch session, not inclusive of tax and 10% service charge. The price is different for each session, lunch, late lunch, dinner and supper, with the most expensive session is the dinner at RM88 per pax.

Ambiance is nice and the whole restaurant is very spacious and huge. They opted for the open kitchen concept and you can see the chefs in action, from the first step like preparing the ingredients up till the dish is ready to be served. Basically, you just have to take what you want to eat and that’s it. For those that need to be cooked, place your Jogoya clip into the bowl and wait for the dish to be brought to your table once it is done. Seriously, I really love the sight of the white mist flowing out from the blower and with ice at the bottom. Damn wicked, especially with a black background. Damn mysterious looking.

There are many sections in the restaurants, mainly the Japan’s, India’s, Taiwan’s, BBQ’s, drinks, pastries, desserts, clay pots, teppanyaki and many more. You will be greeted with lots and lots and lots and lots of food. So much that you wonder whether you can finish eating them in 1 session. Here are some pictures and sights that will greet you as you walk around the restaurant.

Let’s take a break before we proceed by posting up some self cam-whoring pictures, mainly yours truly, Sook Ying and Hui Xin. It was my first time meeting Hui Xin and third or forth time for Sook Ying. Both of them have been best friends since their secondary school time and are bloggers too. As for other information, next time lah! Both are already taken, what’s the point, right?

There are just too many food that we tried and ate. Some of them tasted really good like the curry powder crabs, most of them tasted average and some of them tasted really bad.

Sashimi.

Sushi or whatever-you-call-hand-rolled sushi.

A plate of various varieties of Japanese food.

BBQ eel. This thing is awesome. Crispy on the outside and slime-y on the inside. I had one stick only though as it gets disgusting if you have more than two sticks.

BBQ corn and prawns.

Assorted BBQ chickens, fish and chicken balls.

Satay

Dim sum. Don’t bother trying, you can get better ones outside or any coffee shops.

Over cooked teppanyaki beef.

Stir fried golden needle mushroom. Damn oily and not really nice.

Deep fried mantis prawn.

Seafood clay pot with tom yam sauce.

Fresh oyster with lemon / lime. I didn’t try the fresh oysters because I never like the taste of raw seafood, fearing that I might puke everything out after that. I wanted to try it after I finished my meal but I got chickened.

Bamboo oyster(?).

Mussels.

Cheese baked escargots (Thanks, PurpleRose.).

Tempura prawns and fish with tartar sauce and chili sauce.

Fresh prawns with pineapples.

Sweet and sour plum crabs. Not nice, too sweet.

Curry powder crabs. They were really nice and I ordered like 6 or 7 pieces of crabs. However, it is a little salty for Sook Ying.

Some tomato sauce based prawns.

Pan fried cod fish.

Chocolate and coffee ice cream.

Herbal pudding and marshmallows.

Honey dew bun. Yucks! I always hate artificial honey dew flavouring.

Chocolate mousse / cake.

Mango pudding. Very hard and tasteless.

Green tea smoothie. It is very green tea-ish (Duh!), very cooling and nice but not after I finished one whole glass of it due to Sook Ying’s greediness.

I drank nothing but the Thailand’s coconuts. I think I myself had 7 or 8 of them. Outside is selling at RM3.50 to RM4.50 for one and I don’t order unless I am feeling rich. At Jogoya, it’s free flow!

We entered the restaurant at 12.30PM and only left the restaurant at about 4PM. That’s a full 3 hours 30 minutes buffet session! Even those who entered together with us or after us had already left the restaurant and yet we were still there munching our food away. It has been a long long long time since I ate this much of food. I can’t even remember the last time I went to a buffet, minus those lousy steamboat buffet sessions in Malacca.

Overall, it’s still a nice experience to dine in there, but with the hefty price tag of almost RM90 / RM100 per head, I would definitely think twice before I step into the restaurant for the second time. The food is rather slightly above average but nothing to shout about still. There are lots of varieties of food for you to choose from but you tend to go back for the same thing again after some time. Nonetheless, it’s quite enjoyable to dine in Jogoya but to go back there again in a short time, I don’t think so.

Now, some cam-whoring pictures! Heh!

And that was my first Jogoya outing.

Jogoya
T3, Relish Floor,
Starhill Gallery,
Kuala Lumpur.

Tel No: 03 - 2142 1268

P/S : Read Sook Ying’s and Hui Xin’s post on our Jogoya outing.