Sake & Yakitori @ Ri-Yakitori, Gardens Hotel, Mid Valley City, Petaling Jaya

let us kick off dinner with some ice cold sake served in pretty glass cups

As you know, I never say no to Japanese food, hence when I heard wind of this brand new outlet in Gardens Hotel, it was the perfect place for a girls night out. Located on the seventh floor of the hotel, this place has minimal furnishings. You choose to sit at the bar counter where you can see the chef behind the grill or at the tables. The place reminds me of Sage probably because Sage's assistant manager, Jason and one of its waiters have been posted here. If you're lucky, you may also catch Sage's genius chef, Takashi having a late supper here as it seems the Japanese chef is a good buddy of his. (Seems Cilantro is earmarked to open end of this year, so it will be interesting to watch where Takashi goes.)


grill master gets to work with omakase skewers

One of the sake specialties here is grilled fugu fin with sake - one cup for a whopping RM38, if I am not mistaken. Since it would be a very long night, we settled for a 300ml portion of Kamotsuru Nama Sake (RM64) instead. It came in an interesting contraption to keep it icy cold, which you could press to dispense it out yourself. Even the glasses they gave us for the sake were uber pretty and delicate. The scary thing about sake is you tend to kick it back quickly and it slowly hits you at the end.


kampung chicken egg and chicken porridge was superb too

The menu is relatively small focusing on the chicken skewers - all different parts including the very sinful chicken tail and skin plus the trachea. There's also wagyu beef, beef tongue, foie gras that comes with strawberries, maitake mushrooms, prawns and etc. We were recommended the omakase skewers (you choose either 5 or 12 for RM58), where the chef decides to give you what is good that day. Hence we got a nice variety of chicken skin, chicken tail, chicken wing, chicken thigh, wagyu beef, chicken with leek, minced chicken, jumbo prawns, eggplant and shitake mushrooms. They only use free range chicken here, so expect the meat to be completely different from those antibiotic stuff we regularly eat. Here chicken is sweeter with a firmer texture. The tail was very sinful, all melt in the mouth fat when you bit into it. I loved the wagyu beef cubes that came with a piece of sinful fat. Everything is grilled to perfection here so no tough and chewy parts. Definitely a lot of time was spent cutting, cleaning and choosing the parts to ensure the skewers were delish stuff.

Aside from skewers, we had a refreshing daikon salad (RM12) with mizuna leaves, bonito flakes, grated radish, nori flakes and cherry tomatoes. The kampung chicken egg (RM9) was delish as the yolk is soft and slightly creamy. I wonder how they marinate it as the egg is still quite white but one bite of it yields a distinct soy sauce taste. Addictively good stuff. We also had the chicken congee or porridge (RM12), a comforting bowl of chicken soup with rice and the unusual tororo konbu, a kind of kelp that look like shreds but melts in the soup to add a silkiness you will get addicted to. To end, it was a very creamy home made white sesame and matcha ice cream (RM7 each) with freshly made mochi and red bean paste.

Great place to kick back as it opens only at night and till very late. Last orders are at 11.30pm, so it makes a good place for me to grab food if I wish. Do give it a try and experience something different. For more pictures in full size, see my Flickr set.

Ri-Yakitori Bar
7th Floor
Gardens Hotel
Mid Valley City
Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2268 1188

(Pork free. Open from 5pm to 1am. Closed on Sundays.)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. This review is time sensitive; changes may occur to the place later on that can affect this opinion. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from this place for writing the review.

Tagged with: Japanese Food + Gardens Hotel

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