There are so many Japanese Restaurants around in KL/PJ & I am very sure if I were to ask around, many could recommend many good ones around too. So, which are the really good ones? How to determine whether is it good or not?
Well, its really up to you as taste is something very subjective. To me, this Japanese Restaurant which I came across is consider good. Allow me to share how good it is & why you should give it a shot.

So, here I proudly present you – Umai-ya Japanese Restaurant, which is located in Damansara Uptown (As well as Damansara Perdana).

They’ve got very comfortable seating areas, which provide a certain extend of Japanese feel.

Apart from that, you can also dine in their private rooms, so that you can do whatever you like, not being disturb by others, or to disturb others. You get what I mean, right? *Grin..

I am always fascinated by the Sushi bar, not because I love raw stuffs, but because of the color combination of different raw fishes, as well as the nicely blended green vegetables, as part of the decoration.

You can also witness the ‘Sushi Sifus’, working real hard, till they sweat all over. Hmm.. Additional ingredient to Sushi huh..

I also like Japanese Restaurant with those Japanese decoration all over, with Japanese magazines on the book racks. (Even though I don’t know how to read, speak or write in Japanese)

Best still if they’ve got Japanese hot girls waiters/waitresses serving us, speaking in semi-Japanese, semi-English, introducing & recommending stuffs that we’ve never tried before.

I’ve got this coupon from a friend of mine. The other time when I had it over there, we used the coupon with a mininum order of RM 300 & get RM 150 discount off the total food bill. I mean, with this concept, it really encourage their customers to visit them frequently. After my dinner here, I walked around the area & noticed that there are about two other Japanese Restaurants. When I looked into the Restaurants, I noticed they’ve got zero customers or very little customers. So, I would say, Umai-ya’s coupon concept is reasonably successful. In fact, the 2 pages full of coupons only cost around RM 20 – 30 ringgit. ( I can’t remember the exact price, but its definitely not more or less than the amount I quoted here)

Since I’ve got a mininum order or RM100, I try to make up the figure to around RM100. So, both me & my girl friend ordered Bento sets each. Mine, as you can see from the picture is Tempura set. (RM 23. Nothing to shout about, the quality fulfilled my expectations, which is very simple – The Tempura must be crispy. Sushi King has got a very lousy Tempura, I’ve tried it in a few of their branches & the experiences were the same.)

Here’s what my girlfriend ordered – Sizzling Seafood Bento Set. (RM 32) This is quite good, they’ve got oysters, fishes, prawns & cuttle fishes. The sauce is reasonably sweet, sour & spicy. I supposed its the mixture of mayonaise + chilly, a lot of chilly. The combination is quite good, this is something worth a try. You should order it.

With the two Bento sets we ordered, we are entitled to order a California Roll each, it only cost us RM 1 each. (Only when you order Bentos you get this price) I have to say, their California Roll was superb. It may look simple but they’ve added sufficient Japanese Mayonaise, as well as some Tempura flakes within the rice. Not to forget their seaweed was very crispy. So, when you add some Wasabi, you will get an explosion within your mouth. As you bite, you feel the burst & as you bite more, the explosion become more intense. Gosh! It was awesome!

I love Tempuras & almost everytime I visit a Japanese Restaurant, I order Tempura sets. I’ve decided to change my mind to try out other stuffs after a friend told me,”What? You go into Japanese Restaurants & only order Tempura?!” (This friend of mine is at least 20 plus years older than me & had eaten really good food around Malaysia, he encouraged me to try out authentic Japanese Food.) True enough, there are more than meet the eyes, especially when they’ve got a Japanese Chef (Or Japanese trained chef) & till now I’ve tried stuffs like raw Sea Urchin, Tuna, Octopus, even Japanese mushrooms & etc. (I am waiting to try out Fish Sperm Soup) However, I still love to order Tempura & this is Unagi Tempura. (RM 19) As it already have sweet sauce, I don’t dip it into the Tempura sauce they served along with my Tempura sets. This dish is quite good & my girl friend enjoyed this a lot. She said,”The next time I come, I will order Unagi Tempura and a bowl of rice & I will be happy with it.”

The last item that I ordered was Dragon Maki. (RM 24) Its the combination of Unagi + Tempura + Cucumber + Seaweed & Japanese rice. Its quite good, especially when eat it with Wasabi.

So, when I added up all the food I oredered, (RM 23 + 32 + 2 + 19 + 24) my total bill came to RM 100 in exact. Fantastic huh?! I was quite surprised too. It was really a fun & enjoyable experience. As for the coupons, you can’t purchase it over their restaurant. You will have to wait till those sales dudes approach you. They are everywhere & they could be anywhere, & I wish you the best to come across them where ever you are.

Their business hours start from 11:30am till 2:30pm during lunch & 6:30pm – 10:30pm for dinner.

For more information, you can also visit http://www.umai-ya.com

Last but not least, the map. Cheers!

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Tags: bento, halal, sushi, tempura, unagi, wasabi

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 11:42 am and is filed under Japanese, Restaurant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.