Rakuzen Japanese Restaurant @ Publika

This chain of Japanese restaurant need no extra introduction as I believe they have already made themselves a name in the food business. There are so many outlets now in The Klang Valley which means they are doing something really right in order to be so big.

Today I will bring you to Rakuzen situated at Publika Solaris Dutamas. This outlet is located at level G2 which is NOT situated in the shopping mall. It's location is actually adjacent to the mall which can be easily found. Otherwise it would be wise to ask for directions to make things easier.

Frontage - Entrance

Personally I quite fancy this outlet at Publika as the whole concept of the restaurant is so cool. As usual you will be greeted with by the staff of the restaurant, in Japanese of course which is a norm for Japanese restaurant because it is their nature and culture in both welcoming and 'sayonara' to their guests.

Chef at work

Once you entered the restaurant you will be greeted with some Japanese chef hard at work in their own comfort cooking zone where one can chose to be seated at the 'bar' area surrounding the cooking area. This area is specially designed for their sushi preparations, I reckon.

The whole area is decorated in natural wood material in light oak colour which is very cool, relaxing and comfortable.

Take a short walk to the right side will bring you to the rest of the dining area with both open seating and private dining in a private room. We were brought to an open dining area by a charming lady staff who was both professional and pleasant. She then laid some Rakuzen's menu on the table for our perusal. We decided to take some time with the ordering as we wanted to explore the place and at the same time take some snapshots of it for sharing.

Without fail we had to start off with 'Ikura Chawamushi' This dish is a steamed egg custard which are usually prepared and steamed in a 'tea bowl' which consists of an egg mixture flavored with soy sauce, dashi and mirin with numerous ingredients such as shiitake mushroom, kamaboko, lily root and shrimp. Come to think of it this dish is the Japanese version on the Chinese 'steam egg'.

Ikura Chawamushi @ RM20.00++

The texture of the custard is just so-so. Not as smooth and silky as I would expected but for the price this 'Chawamushi' scores a high as it was very delicious indeed.

And without fail a bowl of 'Chawamushi' must go with a 'Temaki' and this time we ordered 'Unakyu Temaki'.

Unakyu Temaki @ RM10.00++

Temaki (手巻, "hand roll") is a large cone-shaped piece of nori on the outside and the ingredients spilling out the wide end and is eaten with fingers because it is too awkward to pick it up with chopsticks.  For optimal taste and texture, temaki must be eaten quickly after being made because the nori cone soon absorbs moisture from the filling and loses its crispness, making it somewhat difficult to bite through.
This is one delicious temaki and can never get enough of it.

For the mains we had 'Sukiyaki Zen' which is my all time favourite. Sukiyaki is a very traditional Japanese dish which is more popular with the older generation as to compared to gen Y. Sukiyaki is a soup based dish served in a hot pot.

It consists of meat (usually thinly sliced beef) which is slowly cooked or simmered at the table, alongside vegetables and other ingredients, in a shallow iron pot in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar and mirin. Before being eaten, the ingredients are usually dipped in a small bowl of raw, beaten egg.

Sukiyaki Zen @ RM33.00++

This dish is not to be missed. Everything about this dish is so good but the only thing that I was unhappy with was the 'beef' slices was cooked in the soup based hot pot. I would rather prefer to cook the beef slice myself by dipping the meat onto the hot soup whereby I can control how cook or how raw I want the meat to be.

S. Ebi Tamago Toji @ RM13.00++

Tamago Toji is actually scrambled egg noodle soup based. This is a very simple dish to prepare and a very healthy dish enjoyed by most Japanese.

Tomago means egg and Toji refers to preparing a dish mixed with egg. Simple as it is but big in taste.

Saba Zen @ RM38.00++

Saba Zen is a fish dish made of mackerel fish was well marinated and grilled to perfection. The meat was tender yet juicy every bite of it is like 'made in heaven'. A fish dish is never easy to cook as it can either be overcooked which will make the meat too lean and dry or it can still have the 'fishy' smell on it which makes it dreadful to be eaten. A 'pat at the back' to the chef for a job well done.

Spider Maki @ RM22.00++

To wrap things up we had a plate of delicious 'spider maki'.

Spider roll is a type of maki sushi which includes breaded or battered deep-fried soft shell crab and other ingredients such as cucumber, avocado, daikon sprouts or lettuce and spicy mayonnaise rolled inside nori and sushi rice.

Another knock out dish as it is so juicy, delicious, everything seems to be right. I could still remember how good this maki was until I had to close both my eye while taking a bite at it. I reckon this is one of the best ways to enjoy it.

Conclusion : As good as it was. My first experience with Rakuzen was some 3-4 years ago and the quality of their dishes was the same as before which is incredible. A job well done by the restaurant chain in keeping the quality of it's food at it's best level. I would recommend this place to others and Rakuzen will continue to have me as one of their guests for a long time.
A 4/5.

Cheers!

Rakuzen
No. 5, Level G2
Publika Solaris Dutamas
1, Jalan Dutamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel : 03 6411 0822.

Note : The above review was purely based on my personal opinion.