Rakuzen Japanese Restaurant

I love Japanese food and it's always my default choice for dinner, if possible. One of my favourite spots is Rakuzen at Subang Jaya which is tucked away in some obscure shophouse. Besides this outlet in Subang Jaya, the same management also runs another Rakuzen in Chulan Square and Zen in Sunway Pyramid. We get pretty decent Japanese restaurants here as we have a large community of Japanese expatriates who are seconded over to work in Japanese companies. In certain areas near their work area and homes, there are Japanese restaurants everywhere. Subang Jaya is one area that has quite a few Japanese outlets as this place is quite near the Japanese factories in Shah Alam.

It took us a while to search for a table that we were satisfied with that gave good lighting; the ones downstairs were too dim but the upstairs tatami rooms were just perfect with their halogen lights. We ordered a Spider Maki that has a deep fried soft shell crab for starters. I notice the sushi counter is always busy with requests (it takes quite a while to get this) as everyone seems to order from it. The last time we were here, we had their famous Dragon roll with prawns and avocado which I thought was so so. This Spider Maki was much nicer and tasted oh so good with the crunchy soft shell crab.



Splashie Boy wanted something light that night as he had a heavy lunch so he opted for Niku Soba noodles. The noodles came with thinly sliced tender beef, mountain vegetables (sansai) and nameko mushrooms in a flavoursome dashi broth. I had a bit of the broth and it was yummy.



I love sashimi and sushi rice where they have mixed rice vinegar into cooked short grain rice. One of all time favourite dishes is the Chirashi Sushi where they have assorted sliced raw fish on top of sushi rice. Rakuzen has this unusual Chirashi called Hokka Chira Don which has slices of raw salmon, salmon roe, cuttlefish on top of sushi rice which has been sprinkled with sliced pickled ginger (gari), sliced omelette and sliced cucumbers. Simply heavenly stuff and so far, this is the only place I know that serves this combination.



Although it was a weekday, the place was packed and the tatami rooms upstairs were full. A well worth trip all the way to that part of town for some yummy Japanese food. Now, I must try and persuade Splashie Boy to try their KL outlet which I reckon is nearer to my place!

Rakuzen Japanese Restaurant
No. 13, Jalan ss 15/5A
47500 Subang Jaya

Tel: 03 - 5880 4717

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.