Motormouth From Ipoh – A Malaysian Food Blog

Continuation from Bangkok – S2S Boutique Resort Bangkok …..

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. CONTINUE READING THE REST OF THIS ENTRY »

Akamomiji has piqued my interest since its renovation period sometime during the Chinese New Year. Located in Medan Ipoh Bistari (yup, don’t you get that sense of deja vu ….), this latest addition to Ipoh’s line up of Japanese restaurants opened few days ago to much fanfare, almost fully booked every evening, and prior reservation seems to be the norm, lest you decide to casually waltz in and capitalize on the furore/chaos that is surrounding almost all newly-opened outlets. Josephine Cafe and David’s Diner come to mind, naturally.

A break from the Melaka post, and rewind back to a week ago …. the dawn of a new bullish year. I said BULL-ISH, according to the lunar calendar. Not Bullsh*t. Though given the current economic downward spiral trend, the latter may suit our prospects for the coming 365 days more ….

So, how was YOUR new year celebration? Mine = Ruckus. Should’ve known better than to spend it around the Golden Triangle area in KL. The seas of revellers flooded the streets around the city(which fortunately, were closed for the celebration since evening. If not? Refer Xmas Gurney Drive pandemonium).

Since early evening, Astro started the ball rolling by staging a show outside of Sg Wang Plaza, with mostly local and some international Chinese artistes performing. Over at Pavilion, booming loud music was emanating from some boombox around the giant Xmas tree at the entrance. Xmas was … in fact, a week’s old story though.

But really, it was cool to see Malaysians from every race and background, as well as generation, celebrating amidst the turbulent times, for one night only ….. albeit the un-ruliness. But hey, all in the name of fun, no?

On the 1st day of 2009, I was still reeling from the previous night’s experience, walked miles after miles of unnecessary pilgrimage with thousands of others, as I chose to take the train, seeing that most roads were closed off to traffic.

However, on the day after, things started to pick up, as influenced by the many rave reviews of Tenji’s buffet promotion, we crawled, traversed and scrambled our way to Mont Kiara. (Side note : Do ask or search for directions beforehand, if you’re not familiar with the way. Mont Kiara can be seen from the highway, but took us a few extra rounds to find our way there from town. It’s in fact, rather near to Hartamas).