Japanese Food @ Edo Ichi Japanese Restaurant, Solaris Dutamas, Kuala Lumpur

edo ichi pizza with its unique rice pizza base

I'm a little (okay maybe a lot) addicted to Japanese food that I can often eat it on a daily basis. Reading a friend's facebook updates (they're currently in Tokyo/Kyoto enjoying all the wonderful eats there) on a daily basis got me craving for some Nippon lovin', so here's a double dosage today - a blog post on Edo Ichi, a new place in Solaris Dutamas and a Flickr update to the Nihonkai photo set. For serious Japanese food lovers, there's also my Flickr collection on Japanese food.

one piece is never enough

Japanese food seems to be a perennial favourite of KL-lites, whether it is mom-or-pop joints, Chinese oriented home style eateries, ramen or even udon noodles cafes, chain places with sushi conveyor belts, fusion styled places with lashings of mayonnaise and cheese, izakaya joints for the sake and yakitori lover, and of course classic Japanese which focuses on freshest ever seafood flown in from Tokyo every Tuesdays and Fridays.

intersection of pizza base, sake bottles reserved for regulars, green tea for us instead

I'm not too sure which category Edo Ichi falls in but one thing is definite, the food is utterly delicious here. Edo Ichi is a pretty well known name around the Mont Kiara area, as the Chinese family owns the infamous condominium cafes in Mont Kiara Pines and Vista Kiara. These cafes serve value-for-money eats that won't break your pocket. This more upscale place is supposedly owned by one of the family members.

steamed sake clams

One obvious place they have modeled themselves after is Rakuzen, as the menu is almost identical in looks and design with the Rakuzen ones. Maybe that's the standard design template for all Japanese restaurants - super gorgeous pictures of food that entice you to order everything on the menu.

chilled spinach topped with sesame sauce

Our two visits here especially the last one, left us suitably impressed with this place to guarantee us revisiting it again. Since I was still feeling my way around for the first visit, we had some hits and misses. I wanted a lighter tasting meal hence it was a repertoire of classic dishes. To kick off the meal, it was horenso goma ee, chilled spinach topped with sesame sauce (RM9). While it was cool and refreshing, I felt the sauce was a little too watery and didn't have much of a sesame taste. Probably this came from a bottle versus being the sesame seeds being grinded freshly to form the sauce. Instead I was more impressed with the asari sakamushi (RM18) - stemmed short neck clams with Japanese wine that produced a slurp-licious sweet broth.

Edo ichi menu, una cheese roll and shake tataki roll

I've always been partial towards onigiri aka rice balls especially after I drooled over Oishinbo's descriptions hence I was pretty excited to see they served a variety of them here. However, the mentaiko and grilled onigiri  was dissapointing since the rice didn't taste hot and starchy. Splashie Boy's comfort food is often beef noodles like the niku soba (RM25) - buckwheat noodles served with wafer thin beef slices with a broth made from konbu seaweed.

slightly burnt edges makes the niku amiyaki simply divine

Our second visit saw us hitting a home run with everything we ordered. I enjoyed the gyuniku amiyaki (RM18) tremendously as the grilled beef slices came with caramelised bits on its side (gorgeous) and a smoky taste. The amiyaki sweet sauce complemented it beautifully when it was hot (it got a bit sweet when it turned cold). We also found out you could mix two makis together (a half and half) so you get to taste more choices. The waitress recommended us the una cheese roll (RM28) and the shake tataki roll (RM28), their specialties. I enjoyed them both even though it did come with cheese and mayonnaise, probably because just a dash is added to the whole ensemble. What I also liked was how they seem to make the makis a little smaller with less rice, making it dainty and enough to fit into the mouth at one bite (the real way to eat a maki) so I don't make be look like a social moron.

For the ultimate, I fell in love with the edo ichi pizza (RM30) that came with eel and salmon toppings. The special pizza has an interesting base - sushi rice compressed together, dusted with panko breadcrumbs and deep fried till crisp. It has a slightly soft texture with a crunch from the deep fried breadcrumbs. Just given a lick of mayonnaise, the pizza was topped with salmon and unagi slices, and a sprinkle of ebiko. Yummy till the last piece which I slowly savoured.


Like an addict, the cravings started to hit when I was editing these pictures and I reckon I'll need to revisit again to satisfy my Japanese fix here as there ain't such a thing called Japanese food rehab.

Edo Ichi Japanese Restaurant
A4-G-1
Solaris Dutamas
Kuala Lumpur


Tel: 03-6205 5228


(Pork Free. Open from 11.30am to 3pm for lunch and 6pm to 10pm for dinner. The flickr set is here.)


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.



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