Piggin' Out: Ri Yakitori, The Gardens

Restaurant: Ri Yakitori
Address: Level 7, The Gardens Hotel (you have to take the lift inside the hotel to get there)
Tel: 03 2268 1188
Other reviews: AWOL, Masak-masak, Cher-ry

When I first heard from my colleague Geraldine that there was a new Japanese restaurant in The Gardens, I was so happy. Finally! A new place to try in my usual weekend hangout. The rest of the restaurants were getting a bit boring and some even dropped in terms of standards. What's more, it's a kushiyaki place.... and my dad LOVES kushiyaki. In fact, all of us love it (right, Shen?). We pigged out a lot when we last visited Japan.... and we declared the best kushiyaki to date was this little roadside stall called Okamoto in Fukuoka.

Anyway, back to this... A quick google led me to boo_licious' blog, masak-masak, which pretty much sealed the deal for me. I'd heard about it on Wednesday. 2 days later, I dragged Rommel and my parents there for dinner.

For starters, they served us cute little portions of potato salad and some rolled up tuna thingy which was really nice. (Okay bad description but I can't remember what it was!)

Then they served us 2 slices of tuna tataki... (all on the house so far, just to start us off while we decided what to order).

The condiments were salt, togarashi and miso.

I'd read about the cold sake and the interesting contraption that it came with. Of course I had to check it out!

Each person gets to choose their own sake cup and this was mine... Pretty innit?

We had the chicken meatballs in soup. Pretty tender meat, rather mild and refreshing soup.

My staple at every Japanese restaurant: the fried chicken or tori karaage. The one here wasn't as crispy, a bit soft and tender. I won't say it's not nice... just different.

The wagyu was not too bad. Not the best grade of wagyu but since it's grilled this way, it's a bit of a waste to use anything better I suppose.

Ri Yakitori specialises in everything chicken. So we ordered the omakase or chef's special of the day. RM58 for 12 sticks I think it was. The staff will ask you beforehand if you eat chicken innards or not so if you don't, not to worry, they've got the usual wings and breast etc..

The shitake mushrooms... I love mushrooms, cooked in any way. Here it's sprinkled with bonito flakes.And the piece de resistance..... foie gras with strawberries! Amazing combination! *swoon*

We'd read that Ri Yakitori's salads were pretty good too so we ordered the daikon salad and the chicken salad. Yum.... I've always liked Japanese-style salads...
The okonomiyaki was so-so only though... I think I make better ones.. (Speaking of which, I haven't made them in a while. And I have yet to try out the takoyaki maker my sis ordered online and got it shipped home! Takoyaki party anyone?)

We also tried the ramen and the zosui for our carbo portions. My picture of the zosui didn't come out nice but here's the ramen... We found the soup really salty and mentioned it to the chef... But we were asked to eat it sort of cold soba-style where you lightly dip the ramen in the soup and slurp it in... Don't leave the ramen in for too long or it'll be too salty. Other than that, it was nice and something different.

We also ordered the braised kampung eggs. Again I found this too salty... Am not sure if I even like this.

For dessert, my dad squeezed a free scoop caramel icecream out of them.... Slightly bitter aftertaste but it was actually a good thing.

We also ordered matcha icecream and goma icecream... both served with azuki beans and mochi, and sprinkled with peanuts and matcha powder.

Will we go back? Yes, I'm looking forward to it already. Too bad this place closes on Sundays cos that's the day I'm usually at Gardens watching a movie (like today we watched Angels and Demons, last week we watch Star Trek and the week before we watched Wolverine.)