Bonbori Japanese Cuisine Restaurant @ Setia Walk

Finally, we have come to another chapter of gastronomical venture of delightful cuisine from the Land of Rising Sun. This round, the feast has brought us to Bonbori Japanese Cuisine Restaurant, which is humbly nestled at the airy and chicly designed shopping mall of Setia Walk.

The restaurant is located at first floor, above Muzeum lounge,facing an open courtyard. The place is well lit, exudes some cosy feel with two private tatami rooms upon your requests.

The restaurant started its operation since March 2013 and has since garnered popularity amongst the local especially around the neighbourhood.  One of its selling point that keep drawing its loyal customers back is due to the ultimate freshness of the seafood, per se, which is highly emphasized by the restaurant manager, Catherine Kuek. All I can say is that the place is superb, having cozy environment, serving good food and thus, a satisfying dining experience is almost guaranteed.

Under the belt of the seasoned Japanese chefs are the many pleasurable moreish food, that are set to amaze you sensuously. We are foremost treated amusingly with the inhouse  Bonbori Fruit Tea, which is really thirst quenching and full of fruity aroma. Not to mention there are adorably colourful bites too!

Soon the big star comes greeting us in a big and vintage boat; Hanami Sashimi Moriawase. This sashimi platter offers you choice of  Salmon, Butterfish, Tuna, Yellow tail, Scallop, Sweet Shrimp, Sword Fish, Octopus, Surf Clam, Salmon Roe and Shrimp Roe. Am actually torn between choices but finally decided to try on the whitish meat instead. True enough, the fish cutlets are skillfully sliced with an ideal thickness and is so fresh, that I didn’t notice any fishy taste at all! Did I tell you that I actually savour that piece of morsel without any wasabi? LOL Smacking good!

Aside from that, the pulpy salmon roe and ebiko are another fun companion to have as well, in complementing the wonderful sashimi spread as a whole. The ala carte is usually served on a plate, unless specially requested beforehand.

While waiting for the next course to arrive, we have Fried Ice Fish as the appetizer. This humble course is really a delightful companion to have. It is light and crispy. Slightly salty and peppery that goes real well as snack, even better when added with some lemon juice. As enjoyable the tang it gives, the lemon juice-sprinkled fried  small fish is best eaten after the citrusy juice is squeezed to prevent it from being too soggy after that.

Next to be served is the Shake Atama Kimchee Soup which is Salmon Fish Head braised in Kim chi soup. One might wonder what is Kimchi doing here. The case is actually the Kimchi used in this broth is being fermented the Japanese way, so it definitely tastes slightly different from the usual Korean’s recipe. The cabbage here is more crisp, less sour and the soup is enriched with some miso paste to help bring up the flavor of the fish head. Sweet, collagenous and nourishing. The soup actually comes tad salty if to be just drunk that way, thus it makes the best accompaniment with a bowl of white rice.

Coming up next to continue mesmerizing our visual as well as taste bud is the Bacon Asparagus Kushiyaki on skewers. It is some sort of kebab dish, where you would find cutlets of meat and greens being driven through using a metal rod to barbeque it. This plate holds such a colourful and joyful sight, seeing varieties of good diet available at one go. The stick consists of diced of onions, tri-colours capsicums, leek and asparagus shoots coiled within a layer of tender bacon. Good thing is that the food is lightly grilled thus not too scorched with a soft glazing on the surface. Veges are crisp and I can still taste the juiciness of asparagus which assures you of the well-retained nutritional values in it. Even if the exterior of the bacon is slightly burnt, I wouldn’t mind for that translates into a smoky, buttery, sweet and salty slice of heaven goodness!  Nyumm…………

Subsequently the arrays of maki finally make their appearance. These selections are said going to be new additions to the existing glorious menu. Amongst them are Ebi Cheese Maki and Special Soft-Shell Crab Maki.

From just the presentation should already garnered us in awe and deserve applause from the gastronome around the submerged square table in the tatami room. The former is said to have a distinguished taste of heavily cheese loaded fare, according to other foodies who able to taste if for the quantity is insufficient to all. The special kick is due to the mentai sauce used, which is orangey in colour and lends some smoothness in the bites. As for the soft shell crab themed maki, the crab is decently generous at its size with each maki roll having a portion of it. Crispy with light chewy texture as well. The orangey mayo sauce used, which looks similar to marinated Pollock roe sauce, is equally nice and pretty much sums up the maki carte.

One of the ubiquitous fare from our Japanese nation is the Katsu Curry Udon. Their curry usually is not that spicy but comes with rich flavours of pleathora of spices. It is creamy at its own, with thoroughly boiled potatoes and carrots to inject some natural sweetness and mushiness in it. When you bite on the crispily breaded fried pork fillet, this sauce helps to moist it up for a better juicy texture. Meat is succulent and crunchy on the outside. As for the udon, it is quite delectable and silky, albeit it’s of thicker stripes.

Ensued shortly is Surume Ikashio, which is the nicely chargrilled squid that is served with a piece of lemon slice. The mollusk actually comes pretty chewy and pleasantly  elastic on its own. With some smokiness from the grilling process, topped off with some squeezed of lemon juice, it makes up a wonderful and delicious side dish.

To officially round up our splendid Japanese feast, we jovially welcomed Nigiri Sushi Platter, that serves varieties of sushi selection, ranging from avocado, prawn, fresh salmon, red tuna (maguro), unagi and many more. The one that I have is unmistakably, the juicy fresh salmon, depicted by its obvious orange and white stripes that signify the level of freshness. Am not one foodie who usually enjoy raw food such as sashimi, but this piece however, beg to say otherwise. I find the raw fishy taste is not that strong (one aspect that gets me intimidated most of the time), and able to truly savour the ‘sweetness’ of the fresh catch as said by most sashimi enthusiast, without adding the wasabi and soya first. Delightful and light is the way to put it and I guess I have had my share of breakthrough this time and hope many more to come in the future.

Ooishi and Arigato gozaimasu!

Cheers for now and Carpe Diem!  ❤ℒℴѵℯ❤

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