Fuji Japanese Restaurant @ Bangkok, Thailand

Continuation from Bangkok - S2S Boutique Resort Bangkok .....

Spacious, modern and pleasant decor - Sip on your hot cup of ocha, and ends your meal with some fresh-cut fruits.

Since I started a post on Japanese food in Ipoh, might as well continue the saga. And this time around, I'd like bring to your attention, Bangkok's (or Thailand's) equivalent to our very own Sushi King, a Japanese restaurant (without the kaiten belt) serving reasonably-priced, yet delicious Japanese cuisine.

Shoes off, hair down, and relish those precious dining moments ......

With 40 outlets in Thailand alone, and still counting, this charming, modern and affordable restaurant chain serves up an amazing array of Japanese food, from the ubiquitous sushi and sashimi, to various competently-priced bento sets (from a lowly 120baht/RM12 to 260baht/RM26 each), as well as other cooked items.

Fuji Special Bento Set with Sashimi @ 260baht/RM26 - Drooling yet?

Fuji outlets are commonly located in shopping centres, hence you'll basically run into one sooner or later, if your main aim is to shop til you drop, in Bangkok.

We had our meals in Fuji twice throughout our stay, given the extremely attractive prices, food choices and strategic location. Nothing beats sitting down on those plush cushions after a tiring day of walking around, with the shoes finally off your feet, and subsequently indulging in a most droolworthy Japanese meal.

Zaru Soba - with the eeeevil cholesterol-laden quail egg!

For a sampler set (in case you're indecisive, or plain wanna wallop on everything in sight - trust me, the menu may take some time to browse through), go for the Fuji Bento Special, either served with Tempura or Sashimi. The set also comes with miso soup, and chawan mushi (steamed egg with mushrooms, crabsticks, and shrimps), as well as a free drink of coffee or tea! Well worth the price paid (260baht/RM26), as the set can even be shared if you're not famished from all the shopping.

The cold soba noodles (strands of buckwheat noodles) came in a most simple presentation, garnished with shredded seaweed, and served with the soba tsuyu sauce on the side, with optional chopped scallions, and a raw quail egg for added protein. Swirl a few strands of them in the sauce, and savour the cold, slithery noodles in one gulp. A most suitable dish for the summer, this one.

Kuro Buta Set (200baht/RM20)

The tender, almost melt-in-mouth texture of the kurobuta pork grilled then served with a most basic gravy (ala brown sauce) had us singing praises. A prized species of the pig, also known as black hog, the meat has the right amount of fat, and lean meat, and requires almost no chewing. The set came with the usual sides, being a mixed salad, miso soup, rice, desserts and a drink.

Tonkatsu Set (120baht/RM12) - Deep fried cutlets of pork


The caffeine we all needed in the form of Japanese milk coffee, mixed tempura (so-so), mixed salad which came with most sets, and the set I forgot the name. It was chicken cutlets in sauce, served underneath the egg omelette.

Another winner in a pork dish, grilled with sesame seed, chopped scallions, and vegetables on the side

Okonomiyaki - Japanese pancake/pizza - SERIOUSLY good stuff!

But one of the dish that captivated us the most, ordered on both occasions, was the Okonomiyaki or Japanese style pizza. Topped with an egg with runny yolk, we polished this pancake off in record time. The okonomiyaki sauce was sweet, savoury and tangy at the same time.

Grilled squid/Ika, and Mussels with chopped garlic and scallions

10 pieces of mussels for a mere 110baht/RM11. Though small in size, but rather sweet in flavour, and paired off perfectly with abundance of chopped garlic, and scallions. At the side was the sauces for the mussels, but we did not really dip them in the sauce, for they're rather flavourful in nature.

Grilled Beef Cubes Set (sorry, name was made up, as no receipt was issued) - A most lovely, tender and delightful dish

Usually tenderloin beef served at most restaurants retail for at least RM20+, or many folds more. But at Fuji's, a whole set with 2 mussels (cooked in same way as the previous Garlic Mussels), grilled greens, dipping sauces (the creamy mayo was spot-on!) rice and miso soup, as well as a glass of Thai milk tea or coffee, was shockingly priced at about 180baht/RM18 (I think). A steal, given the juicy cubes of beef was not of the most stingy portion.

Apologies for the lack in details of the dishes, given the fact that I did not jot them down from the menu in time. Yeah, rookie mistake I know, but I'm a mere mortal. Pardon moi? ;)

Location : Fuji Japanese Restaurants in most major shopping complexes in Bangkok. Here's their site, but mostly in Thai language.

Here's Food4Thot's erm, thought on the place and Jason's glowing review last year.

A Lai I Japanese Restaurant @ Ipoh - Let the Saga Begins ...

Kizuna One (or Kizuna1 ... or 1Kizuna, depends on how patriotic you are. Okay, bad joke, I know) recently opened its doors to the Japanese food lovers in Ipoh, right smack in the posh-est location of all, at the newly refurbished and reopened Royal Golf Club on Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah.

Of course, me being a mere peasant, with no skills whatsoever in handling (more like, manhandling!) a golf club, can only drool at the sizzling hot, newest Japanese restaurant in town.

Seriously .... I'm not crossing my fingers in anticipation. After a few bad reviews from all quarters, I'll be glad to practise a wait-and-see approach, much like I'm salivating at the thought of a spanking new (back then, not now) Korean BBQ Buffet restaurant named Riche Montana in Ipoh Garden South, only to walk in and preview their selections one evening, and walked out with tails between my legs. Wrong metaphor? Whatever.

A little disturbing concept they have is that you'll be charged RM5/pax more if you're seated downstairs, nearer to the buffet spread, while the upstair's crowd get RM5/pax shaven off their respective bill, as they've to carry their food up the stairs repeatedly. Hmm, they could've reached a compromise kind of situation, whereby they can serve the food on both floors, and charge a reasonable amount. For your information, RM29.90+ for the convenient crowd, and RM24.90+ for the slightly more active (and maybe kiamsap?) people.

Been in the business for a good 3 years now - A Lai I Japanese Restaurant has constantly missed my radar, although occupying a rather strategic spot.

But this post ain't about Korean food, but instead dedicated to some of Ipoh's Japanese restaurants. Though to no one's surprise, you can literally count all of them with two hands. (Sushi King NOT included, of course).

At the same row as Sushi East (another Japanese restaurant at Bandar Medan Ipoh Baru, though I do not favour the Japanese cuisine served there; being anything but authentic), A Lai I has operated for a good 3 years, and the head chef (he's the ONLY chef, as I recalled from our conversation) Mr Lai, was in fact from the now defunct Moritomo Japanese restaurant in Jusco Kinta City.

But wait, didn't all the chef, cooks and workers from Moritomo jumped ship to Kizuna when Moritomo closed down? Truth is, no. MOST of the workers from Moritomo started the Kizuna flagship, but not ALL. If any of you can recall, in my post on Akamomiji, I mentioned about the management of Kizuna had again, jumped the bandwagon and opened the former. Which, in reality, is partly true. Kizuna has 3 owners, or managers. One of them quitted and started Akamomiji. While another has recently opened Kizuna One at the Golf Club.

Confusing, convulated stories? Yeah, almost like a tussle-for-power type of TVB drama. Only with less bickering and bitching around. (I think). Let's move on to the FOOD now, shall we?

Comforting, relaxing ambience with satisfactory level of service.

Mr Lai Yip Meng is young, vibrant, and adventurous. Constantly seeking change, and some radical ones at that, he controls the business, and the kitchen in any ways he deemed fit. Which is a plus, given the vast experience he had, and a tendency to stray off the beaten path.

The extensive menu at A Lai I was impressive, covering various specialties not commonly available in other run-of-the-mill Japanese eateries here in Ipoh, for example the Dobin Mushi (soup in tea pot, Japanese style).

Kaisen Seafood Teppanyaki @ RM25

One of their main selling point happened to be the Teppanyaki, or grilled meats and seafood on iron plates. The Seafood teppanyaki platter consists of prawns, squids, scallops, salmon, and vegetables. The accompanying sauce may be a little salty, when this dish is eaten alone without white rice. Generally tasty, with fresh seafood being cooked to perfection; ensuring the right texture, and sweet flavours of the seafood coming through. Other than seafood, you can opt for beef, or chicken to be cooked the same way.

Tempura Moriawase @ RM16

The mixed tempura appeared a little lacklustre, amidst the yellowish lighting and all. Which explains the less than stellar quality of the pictures, sorry.

The batter-fried prawns and mixed vegetables were of nothing particularly spectacular, but still decent enough to warrant an order, IF you're a fan of tempura. But I'd certainly prefer more grated radish (daikon) to be served with the tempura.

Hiyashi Chuka Ramen @ RM12.80 and Complimentary Sushi Rolls

The Japanese cold noodles, Hiyashi Chuka Ramen came in a far from dainty portion. With lots of fritters on top for that extra crunch, the combination of cold noodles and assorted vegetables in tare sauce (water, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and sesame seeds) is a refreshing and light dish, perfect to be slurped on hot, humid days.

And the friendly chap was kind enough to present us with a plate of sushi rolls, consisting of crabsticks, cucumber, carrot and egg, wrapped with a very thin layer of crepe and garnished with roes, and served with mayonaise and shoyu. Since this was on the house, I've no idea what's the name of the rolls, sorry.

Other items I've been eyeing were stir-fried mushrooms with butter, and beef with butter sauce. The sashimi and sushi selection was impressive as well, as was the other cooked items such as teppanyaki, and mixed bento sets.

Location : A Lai I Japanese Restaurant @ 34, Jalan Medan Ipoh 4, Bandar Medan Ipoh Baru, 31400 Ipoh, Perak.

Tel No : 605-545 0412.

Closed on Mondays. Opens for lunch and dinner.

(P/S : Initially planned for a combined write up on A Lai I and a few other Japanese restaurants, but I guess I rambled on for too long .... I'll save them for the next posts.)

(P/S again : Wondering what the name A Lai I means? Initially, it's supposed to be Arai Japanese Restaurant. Made more sense right? But Mr Lai claimed that the name Arai had people mispronounced the name continuously, calling it Alai, Alai ....... =P)