Great Japanese Dinner at Zipangu, Shangri-la KL

My sister has decided to give me a treat last weekend, and she brought me to Zipangu at Shangri-la Kuala Lumpur for a Japanese feast.

She chose this venue because she is the Shangri-la's Prestige Platinum cardholder, which entitles her for 50% discounts on the bill (before tax). She highly recommended Zipangu's foie gras, and has been mentioning it many times. This is the first time I try that out.

These are the things that we ordered...

First, it is the not-to-be-missed sashimi. As both of us like only Salmon, she ordered Salmon Belly (Sashimi Harasu). Salmon Belly is more tender and juicy. It basically melts in your toungue, and it is a lot sweeter than other parts.

RM65
Then, the rice came. We ordered Rice in Green Tea and Salmon Mustard Onigiri (Rice Ball). We are very Asian, must eat rice. LOL!

Tea-Rice: RM16, Rice-Ball: RM10
To eat the tea-rice, we must pour the tea into the rice, mix well before eating.

The above were for sharing, and while we were eating our rice, the highlight of the night arrived - Unagi Foie Tohga (eel and foie gras). There are 3 items in the bowl. The one on the top is foie gras (i.e. goose liver). Underneath it is a slice of eel, and at the bottom is a piece of winter melon.

RM35
We had one bowl each, and they gave me a very generous size of foie gras. It gave me a very satisfying bite. The foie gras was fried outside, and then braised (or steamed?) till cooked inside, and the juices from the foie gras and unagi were absorbed fully by the winter melon. So, every single pieces of items were delicious, and one can accidentally swallow your own toungue!

The last dish came, and it was called Mentaiko Gratin. It is basically mixed seafood pieces, baked in cheese sauce. A dish quite westernized. Though this is also a nice dish, I think it is overly priced, and nothing so special about it that you cannot skip. Hmm, perhaps we were already full that time?

RM80
We ended our dinner with glutinous rice skin rolled in ice-cream for each of us. I forgot to take down the photo, but this is really GOOD! The ice-cream that we ordered was black sesame ice-cream, instead of the green-tea ice-cream that I usually would order. The rice skin was very fresh and thin, when it wraps the ice-cream, it blends in very well with it... Yummy... The dessert costs RM15 per bowl.

With the above, the total was over RM300+, but since my sister is a Prestige Platinum cardholder, she only paid RM155.83 for the above (2 Unagi Foie Tohga, 2 Daifuku Goma, all others 1 each).

How to become a Prestige Platinum member? First year subscription fee is RM499, and subsequent years is RM488. First year you get only 1 card, but subsequent years you get 2 cards. One card entitles 2 persons dining, so if you have more than 2, you'll need more cards (that's why the second years onwards more worthy). If you always go for fine dining, this is definitely a good offer. It is not only limited to the Japanese restaurants, it is to be used in all the restaurants in Shangri-la.

For enquiry on card or make reservations, dial: +60 3 2032 2388

Fuji restaurant, Bangkok

When I was in Bangkok, my best friend took me to this place in Tesco -- Fuji Japanese restaurant. It is a chain, and my friend said the price is very reasonable.

I was very hungry the time when we had our dinner. It was way passed my usual dinner time, due to time difference and shopping done. :P

In the beginning I still able to take photo, but when my main course came, I've just forgot about it. LOL!

Here is fry asperagus. Very fresh and juicy. I like it with a little bit of chilli.

Egg sushi and seaweed:


Here is the mushroom salad. I don't quite like it, coz there is too much of glass noodle.


This is the usual egg pouch sushi (dunno the name). It is quite different from what I had in the past, coz the rice inside is not just plain rice. It has a mix of some pickles and finely chopped mushroom.


The rest, I forgot to take photo. They are: unagi teriyaki, salmon sashimi and garlic rice.

I dislike the unagi teriyaki, couldn't finish either. I might be prejudice on the dish, coz I dislike anything to do with teriyaki anyway. Another reason I dislike this is, it has a lot of bones, all over the piece of the fish. Every single bite I am stuck with bones which I couldn't swallow. I am just not good at unagi - also not my favourite fish. I ordered this out of no choice, they have sold out gindara shioyaki. :(

Anyway, they didn't give me the itemised receipt, so I don't know the cost of each item. In total, we spent RM 138 for the whole bill! It wasn't cheap at all, for the type of things we ordered.

Compared to the fine dining Jap restaurant in Jakarta, Nadaman in Shangri-La, this is definitely not worthy at all. Imagine, the meals I had on the second day was less than RM50 (as it turned out in my credit card bill). If we ordered 2 sets, it would still come out less than RM100, in oppose to RM138 for what we had here in Fuji... Interesting to know why she thinks it is cheap, must check with her again.

Nadaman restaurant, Shangri-la Jakarta

This is the first time I stayed in Shangri-la hotel in Jakarta. They have a very nice Japanese restaurant, with very good food and services. I liked it so much that I revisited the second day – both for lunch as my meeting ended too late.

First Day
I always like to eat gindara shioyaki (grilled cod fish), but not every place serves it. Teriyaki is more common than shioyaki, but I dislike teriyaki sauce.

The Gindara Shioyaki set includes 3 servings of sashimi. As I was recovering from food poisoning, I requested to change that to tempura.

The appetizer is very good. A small portion of chopped toufu covered in some fish flakes. I like the fish flakes, yummy!

They served the tempura first. Ordinary, but fresh.

This is the salad, which has the jellyfish on top, quite different.

And here is the gindara shioyaki. Some simple cooking, just rub some salt on the fish and shallow fry it. Really don’t understand why some restaurants don’t serve this!

Here is the hot ocha, which they serve in individual pot! A luxury, I’d say.

Finally, fruits to end the meal.

Total Cost: IDR 242,000 (RM 84)

Second Day
As I was in a hurry, I ordered from the quick lunch set menu -- mini donburi set. Donburi is usually served in a large bowl, with a lot of rice at the bottom and covered with your choice of topping. Usually chicken, beef, egg, or veggie.

This mini donburi set is very cute. It comes in 3 small bowls, each containing rice about the amount of 2-3 sushi. One topped with salmon sashimi, one with unagi teriyaki, and the last one with prawn tempura. They are really delicious, and I guess their sauce is nice, which makes them different.


It is served with 3 other items, 2 from the pic above – salad (similar to the previous lunch) and agedashi toufu. And here is a bowl of chawan mushi (steamed egg) too.


This time, I ordered cold ocha (green tea), hoping it is not served in pot as it is too much. Well, they still served it in a JAR. LOL!


The dessert that came with this is green tea ice-cream. Very nice, not those type that is too sweet without any ocha fragrant/taste.

Total Cost: IDR 155,955 (RM 54)