Butaya Izakaya 豚家居酒屋 Japanese Izakaya Restaurant At Sri Hartamas

Little Bites Ignite The Senses
At
Butaya Izakaya 豚家居酒屋

Butaya Izakaya 豚家居酒屋 Japanese Restaurant At Sri Hartamas 

Izakaya (Japanese Watering Hole) and yakitori (grilled skewered food) are comforting terms for the Japanese. At the end of the day - no matter how long it has been - these delights can work their magic to help exhausted salarymen de-stress and refuel.

One good place to check out is the newly opened 1-month-old gastropub called  Butaya Izakaya 豚家居酒屋, located at Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur. Opened in June last month, Butaya Izakaya focuses on Japanese Yakitori, complete with a wide variety of Japanese cuisines such as sashimi, Age (deep fried), Don (rice dishes), Ramen/Soba noodles, Tempura and side dishes.

Wakon Japanese Restaurant ~ For The Authentic Izakaya Experience @Uptown Damansara Utama Petaling Jaya

WAKON JAPANESE RESTAURANT

Japanese After-Work Culture Hits Town

With Time For Good Food

Wakon Japanese Restaurant, a new izakaya Japanese restaurant hits town 2 years ago. Ensconced in Damansara Utama or more commonly known as Damansara Uptown - one of Petaling Jaya's all embracing food hubs such as Village Park, Fat Spoon, WonderMilk, Umai-Ya, Lameeya and much more.

While most Japanese restaurants in Klang Valley are backed by international chains and large corporations, it is refreshing and pleasant surprise to find one run by individual. Sundy Chim, a Hong Kong chef whose love for authentic Japanese cuisine; has brought him to open up his F&B business in Malaysia, a country he was rather fond of with the laid back and relaxed nature. 

Just like the Japanese spirit, Wakon Japanese Restaurant is about having the innovative spirit while keeping the Japanese tradition. Stepping into the restaurant, you’ll be greeted by a simple and comfortable Japanese Izakaya-style interior. There is also a private room for small gathering or get-together function that seats around 20 paxs.

Wakon being an izakaya restaurant, focuses on Japansese grills called yakitori that appeals young crowds where they can relax and chilled over small bites with alcohol drinks, to savour some good food and a heck of a good time!

Choose from their simple menu comprising of grilled dishes such as Pork Neck Skewers, BBQ Squid, BBQ Chicken Wings and many more. On top of these, Wakon offers ala carte menu such as rice options, ramen and their signature such as Black Truffle Mixed with Udon.

On weekdays, izakaya restaurants in Japan are almost a must-go after-work hangout for office workers. So for Malaysians, Mr Sundy foreseen the same trend thus prompting him to set up his favouirte type of restaurant here, to charm the pants off the locals with his selections of authentic dishes and sake to go along with the good food.

To ensure their customer have the best experience, Wakon is determine in serving quality dishes. Since it’s an Izakaya restaurant, you can expect to savour some sake over your meal at Wakon.

Crab Roe Salada
RM13.90

Our meal started off with this light and refreshing Crab Roe Salada, a fresh mix of thinly sliced zucchini with julienned crab surimi tossed in Japanese dressing. Creamy yet light enough to kick-start our palate for the next dish.

 Wasabi Gyoza

RM14.90

If the salad starter does not excite your tastebuds, do try out their Hokkaido Style Wasabi Gyoza, well-flavoured with wasabi pan-fried gyoza should do the trick. Something different from the usual ones as these are served with fragrant but not so pungent wasabi sauce as topping.

BBQ Pork Belly
RM 6.90

Grilled meat on skewers are always my favourite food items to eat at any Japanese restaurant besides the sashimi. Wakon's sizzling delights of BBQ Pork Belly - truly Wakon's triumphant warrior: a skewer of pork belly ~ perfectly grilled to juicy and succulent texture, not dry yet so tasty - simple and unpretendious. Recommended for its deliciousness to the max!

I believe the skills lies in the experienced chef to patiently grilled the pork belly with the right timing and perfection. Waiting time can be a little longer, so be more patient as good food needs diners' patience. It may takes you 3 minutes to consume the whole skewer that took 20 minutes to cook.

Waiting for your food to be cooked is one of the more trying experiences in life. It truly tests your patience. So, remember to take your time to savour the pork belly slowly as you you slowly melt into a blissful post-grilled pork coma!

MUST TRY

BBQ Pork Neck Meat 

RM 7.90

Another winning dish to try is Wakon's BBQ Pork Neck Meat. This is equally delicious with charred bits and smokey flavour to melt your hearts too. Pork neck is quite different from the other cuts of pork. It has a very enjoyable crunchy, springy texture and is marbled with fat throughout, so the grilling makes it tastier... Yummy! 

BBQ Squid 

RM 18.90

Tantalising epicurean dish for seafood lovers is the BBQ Squid. Well-seasoned thick Japanese squid grilled to perfection. served in chunky slices with topped with ebiko or fish roe and chillie flakes. While the grilled squid is good on it own, but it's made tastier with the extra toppings for added taste.

Mentaiko Chicken Wings

RM 12.90 per Set of 2 pcs

Mentaiko Stuffed Chicken Wings (Mentaiko Teba) would be a real treat to those who enjoys mentaiko alot. Well, for some,  mentaiko is not just an ingredient, it is a love affair. This Japanese delicacies; salted cod roe have so many fans eating it in so many different ways. 

Eating the Mentaiko Teba at Wakon will get you a fish roe cholesterol overdose, hahaha! Every bite of the grilled chicken wings practically comes with a burst of the saltish and tangy of sea flavour mentaiko, generously stuffed into the wings. 

Take note, this dish is only for those serious mentaiko lovers!  

BBQ Brinjal

RM 9.90

If the dainty items have not filled your tummy, there are a number of noodles options that will do the job. Following are some of the few udon dishes I have sampled that is worth checking out.

Black Truffle Mixed Handmade Udon

RM 46.90

One of Wakon's best-seller and highly recommended must eat is their Black Truffle Mixed Handmade Udon. A combination of mentaiko and black truffle with slurpy udon makes it a tasty presentation of udon in its simplest form.

Wonderfully rich, the truffle paste infuse the rather bland-tasting udon with the distinct flavour of truffles. The mentaiko on the other hand, complement the udon as well... transforming it into a very addictive dish.

 Tonkatsu Udon

RM 8.50

Tomato Udon

RM 8.50

Apart from the grilled items, diners can choose to have some udon in soup to fill up the stomach. According to Sundy, the Japanese usually enjoy their light bites of yakitori with drinks to be followed by having some udon or rice to fill up their tummy.

Take your pick from  Tonkatsu Udon or Tomato Udon. For me, I prefer the rich creamy pork broth to the sourish tomato-based broth. Both coming in small serving, just enough to fill your stomach after your gastronomic treats of the mouth-watering variety of skewered meat.

Currently, Wakon has an ongoing PROMOTION as follows:

1. Purchase RM50 above, get any non-alcohol drink for free.

2. Purchase RM100 and above, get a bottle of 300ml Sake for free.

Wakon Japanese Restaurant

No.75 Ground Floor
Jalan SS 21/1A

Damansara Utama

47400 Petaling Jaya

Tel: 03 - 7733 5996

Business Hours: 
Mon-Sun 12.00pm – 3.00pm
 6.00pm – 11.30pm (10.45pm Last Call)  

FaceBook: Wakon Japanese

FOOD INK: www.foodink.com.my/listing/wakon-japanese-restaurant

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Thai Syok ~ Thai Restaurant Yakitori Sunway Mentari Authentic Thai Food @Dataran Mentari Bandar Sunway Petaling Jaya

Thai Syok 

 Thai Restaurant Yakitori 

Capturing The Essense Of Thai Cuisine

If you are on a budget and loves to taste Authentic Thai Cuisine, then this review will be of great interest to you. We were 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.

Frontage Of Thai Syok 

(Picture Credits  To BestRestaurantToEAT)

Simple No Frill Decor

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.

 Plethora Of  Authentic Thai Cuisines

Exceptionally Fragrant Thai Rice

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

 Papaya Salad 

RM 10.50

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

 Seafood Tom Yum Kung (Medium) 

RM 24.30

This is then followed by the Seafood Tom Yum Kung (Medium). 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.

Fried Tom Yum Fish

(Seasonal Pricing)

For the mains, we had another Chef speciality dish which is the Fried Tom Yum Fish. At Thai Syok, you can choose the type of fish that you like is Grouper, Tilapia or Barramundi; for us, it was the Red Tilapia (prices for the fish is based on the type of fish and weight). 

Fried to a bright yellow crunchy crisp and then topped with the appetizing special Tom Yum sauce laden with a generous amount of cut ginger flower or bunga kantan; the entire dish was very aromatic and delightfully fragrant. This is another dish that goes pretty well with the white rice. We finish this dish right to the last drop of sauce.

 Yakitori Combo 

RM 24

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 marinate its meat before being grilled, while its Thai counterpart will be marinated in special sauces.

This makes the flavours of the marinade 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.

 Deep-Fried Pork Knuckle 

RM 58.20

The next dish is the Deep Fried Pork Knuckle. 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.

 BBQ Lamb Chop

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. 

Wok Fried Asparagus with Shrimps 

RM 24.30

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

Thai Mango With Sweet Glutinous Rice

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.

 Ice Blended Red Rubies With Jack Fruit and Coconut Syrup

And the second dessert was the Ice Blended Red Rubies With Jack Fruit and Coconut Syrup to complete 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.

Note: This post is written by Uncle Hong, my foodie hubby cum food enthusiast on my behalf. 

Pictures are taken by Yours Truly. Xoxo!

Thai Syok Thai Food Restaurant

~ Sunway Outlet ~

No. 15 Jalan PJS 8/18

Dataran Mentari

  Bandar Sunway

46150 Petaling Jaya

Tel: 03 - 5612 5916 

Whats App： 016 - 222 1957

~ Setia Alam Outlet ~

No. 7-1-2 Jalan Setia Prima H U13/H

Sek 13 Setia Alam

 40170 Shah Alam

Tel: 03 - 3359 6283

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/thaisyok 

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