It seems I'm in some "alcohol luck" recently, must be due to my friends who likes to drink surrounding me and spreading to me their "alcoholic aura". lololol. But I'm glad to be around them as doing things that I don't usually do end up I discover Foodink and also being invited to good places, like Izakaya Kushi Raku!
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| There goes my virgin visit to an Izakaya, lucky you Kushi Raku! haha |
Since it's my first visit to an Izakaya, I always imagine how Izakaya would feel like, based on reference from Japanese manga and animation... And I would say Kushi Raku is pretty close to how it would felt to be in an authentic Izakaya. The decoration, the atmosphere, is pretty Japanese with some modern touch here and there, even their furnitures are custom-made to fit in the Izakaya theme and ambience.
Izakaya, means Japanese bar in Japanese, which white collar workers in Japan would pay a visit after office hours to have drink and wind down the stressful working feeling for the day before they head home. Usually one or two drinks accompany with some skewers as snacks to spice up the taste and probably, blunt life of a workaholic.
Although I'm no white collar worker, but I'm definitely looking forward into trying the chicken, beef and pork skewers serve by Kushi Raku. But first, we were being serve with two types of appetizers while waiting for chef to grill our chicken skewers.
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| Front- Snail Meat, RM9 Back - Skate Fin - RM10 |
Snail meat tastes a bit exotic, but they aren't actually "snail" snail, more like those you saw served in Chinese restaurants. It is serve as cold dish, perfect for pairing with your cup of sake. Skate Fin, which commonly known as sting ray, are dried, salted and grilled then sliced into slices before serve. I really love the skate fin I keep munching on them non-stop!
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| Kim, our chef of the day Preparing our skewers, ご苦労様でした！ |
It's so hard to be Izakaya chef as trying to grill that amount of skewers at once is such a huge challenge! Each has to barbecue to perfection, not too raw not too well-done, Kim did such a great job on that day, serving us fine skewers that I'm still craving for them now! Let me show you some of the skewers that we had that day:
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| Chicken wing (salted) - RM7/stick |
I didn't know that except barbecue chicken wings ala Chinese style, Japanese chicken wings skewers can be this tasty too! Salt on the chicken skin made the skin texture crunchy after grilled then soft and tender chicken meat on the inside, it is one skewer that you should never miss if you like to eat chicken wings.
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| Pork belly special - RM7/stick |
OHMYGOD this gotta be my favourite skewers on the menu we got served that day! Its crunchy and caramelised skin layer got me eating them non-stop! Fresh pork belly grilled to perfection, from crunchy outter to soft inner, each bite is another satisfaction added to my taste bud sensation. Yums yums! I couldn't help but order this skewer again after I finish my portion. That shows how much love I have for this Pork belly special skewer! Hahaha!
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| Thigh meat wasabi mayo - RM5/stick |
For the wasabi lovers, this tender thigh meat wasabi mayo is definitely your cup of tea! Each boneless thigh meat covered with load of wasabi mayo on top. Although it is not as choking as fresh wasabi, but still it's challenging for me to eat it without feeling all teary eyes. Hahahaha but I love to challenge my taste buds, and definitely a fun dish to try!
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| Cherry Tomato - RM4/stick |
Soft and juicy cherry tomato, but wait, it is salted on the outside and grilled for short amount of time, each piece of cherry tomato is so juicy and soft it melts inside your mouth! Freda love this cherry tomato so much you can hear her squeak when she saw the dish being serve hahaha. It kinda amazed me that beside meat, vegetables and fruits can be grill and serve like this, paired with sake that we're drinking, it freshen up our taste buds after few consumptions of meat skewers!
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| Beef rib eye miso - RM11/stick |
Tender rib eye glazed with miso sauce on the outside then grilled to medium well, this beef rib eye miso are customers' favourite. You can taste the freshness of succulent beef as well as the Japanese miso sauce that were absorb in it. To discover such Japanese flavour skewers at a local Izakaya make me feel I'm closer to Japan. lol.
Hahaha~ Did I mention to you that skewers aren't main course? I was shocked too because I felt pretty full just by eating those skewers and yet here are some of the main course waiting for us:
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| Squid stuffed rice - RM27 |
First time in my life ate such fried rice stuffed into the squid's body and grill'em together. The fresh, unique squid taste were absorb into the fried rice that were stuffed into it, then it were sliced into ring size, which looked like sushi rolls. The chewy, aromatic grill squid fried rice ring is very special, totally fit all the criteria needed for the perfect "seafood fried rice" lol.
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| Yaki Onigiri Salmon - RM7 |
Another favourite dish of mine! It's my first time to eat a crunchy onigiri as it was glazed and grilled after stuffed in the salmon bits. Topped with seaweed and furikake (Japanese dry seasoning), this onigiri is superb delicious from outside to the inside. Not to mention it is quite big in size, immediately I felt like I couldn't eat no more at that time. lol. Okay it was a lie. I could eat another yaki onigiri!
It was a fun food review session, especially with my girl Freda, both of us eat and drink and took lots of silly photos with our food, Kushi Raku definitely is a fun place to chill out at! We hang out at Kushi Raku until 11pm that night! Crazy bunch!!! Felt hungry during dinner time and ordered this specialty of the day which wasn't list in their menu:
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| Salmon Mentaiyaki - RM25 |
Kushi Raku serve udon, sob, Japanese curry rice, tempura, skewers as well as some signature appetizers. Also they have some seasonal special (like the salmon mentaiyaki above) which you have to check with the chef. They only offer fresh seashells and seafood which are in season, to ensure that their customer enjoy fresh seafood and good drinks for a happy, fun time at Kushi Raku.
Really fun time I had with Freda:
Good food, awesome ambience and a cup of good sake, we're both happy girl enjoying the weekend! Aside of sake, Kushi Raku too serve signature drinks such as Sparkling Sake and Kirin Ichiban which you can hardly get at any bars around. Their sake range really shocked me, you can check it out with the owner when you visit, I'm sure the owner will be gladly explain the sakes they have in store for you.
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| KAMPAI!!! |
For more information:
Izakaya Kushi Raku
Address: 28, Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 2, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, 60000, KL.
Phone no.: 03-28569200
Business hours:
Monday - Friday 12p.m. - 1a.m.
Saturday 4p.m. - 1a.m.
Closed on Sunday
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