Sagano at the Renaissance

Everything that Hanare and Tatsu were in Kuala Lumpur, Sagano at the Marriott's Renaissance (Hotel) was not.  Another Malaysia International Gourmet Festival participant and Japanese restaurant, Sagano was a very affordable option.  It was affordable for a reason, and that reason is that it was little better than average.  Apparently others enjoy it enough, see this blog here - though I stand by my do-not-recommend.

MIGF, or "restaurant week" for a month in KL, allowed the gluttonous to visit some prominent hotels and restaurants to order reasonably priced tasting menus.  My experience was not the best at Sagano.  First, I ordered the tasting menu, and found out it wasn't actually a tasting menu.  Although many menus said "or" along side courses that diners would need to select an option from, this menu made no such indication.  I was then forced to pick one, and of course I opted for Wagyu.  (This would not be a big deal, if it was clear.)

The waitstaff handled it interestingly, the waitress brought out a menu and rather unapologetically made me select one.  They then brought out a magazine to entertain me while waiting on the food.  The hotel felt a little past its prime in terms of decor, and there were very few patrons. The seat springs absolutely assaulted me. It was uncomfortable.  I was a little insulted when the waiter brought out silverware, assuming the white man couldn't use chopsticks. He apologized when I separated the chopsticks, collected his silverware, and scurried off.

With a better lens you'd see the seat is uneven, and not just the stains.

After making an effort to wave down the manager and a quick chat, I confirmed that the waitress either decided unilaterally that I wanted the light menu (although that is not why I ordered), or tried to save the kitchen food by making me chose a dish when it was in fact a tasting menu (aka, charging me full price for half the dinner).  The manager first seemed to indicate that I did have to make the choice, but once I actually pulled out the MIGF literature he apologized and proceeded to update the kitchen I would be having the full tasting menu.  It left me really wondering if everyone was on the same page.  I was lost.

So, this was my first Japanese restaurant visit in awhile, and I had to order sushi (over the top, I know).  I ordered the sushi deluxe, for about 130 Malaysian Ringgit extra (everything is just so cheap in Malaysia).  The price wasn't so bad by Western standards, but is a small fortune in Malaysia.  Unfortunately, it was anything but deluxe. It had regular tuna, flying fish and salmon roe, bass, and all, were - regular.  A piece of salmon was very good, but no different than what I get at home. I stole the shiso leaf from my other dish to add to my sushi to create one of my best sushi bites that evening.  I would never go here and order off the menu at full price if the sushi deluxe is any indication.  Moving on... 

Apps

The appetizers, unagi (eel) sushi and seaweed, deep-fried soft shell crab and sticky ginger soy sauce, and egg tofu and boiled live prawn with bainiku sauce were ok in sum.  The eel was quite good, the sauce with the softshell crab was bland but the crab was good, and the tofu was so-so. 

The best of these bites - Unagi

The salmon "starter" was nice, and I loved the 'char,' but there was just something off-putting about it. It was a medium rare Atlantic salmon with grated yam, hot spicy sauce, and ikura (roe).  It had a flavor that didn't belong, which may have been an enzyme from something with the salmon roe or just not fresh roe.  Alternatively, some other element in it might have not been good.  I couldn't be sure, but it was too bad that a full bite of the dish was less appealing than eating it piecemeal.

The main courses were simmered seabass and wintermellon with garlic crabmeat sauce, griled cod mentai mayonnaise sauce, wagyu striploin and trio of mushrooms with wasabi-teriyaki sauce, and diced chicken rice with herbs.

A winner

Weird mayo and veggies

The seabass was very nice, filled with pleasant subtle flavor.  The melon was a little lost in the dish, but the concept was sound. The cod had a crisp and delicious piece of lotus root and good flavors, but I would have traded the mayo and egg (flying fish roe or something akin to it) for crispy skin!  The wagyu was criminally, CRIMINALLY, overcooked.  It was about three shades above my order, but wagyu is just so juicy and soft that you needn't be too fussy about it.  The final main dish, the chicken dice, was a bit of a mess.  It was average, and lacking clarity, but I am a sucker for shiso and enjoyed the herbs.

Wagyu, overdone and bathed in sauce but still good

Bleh rice dish

The deserts were ok, but really not great. Kuzukiri in sugar syrup and red bean soup sounded good, but the red bean was too watery and the flavor was not developed. The noodles were a little unusual, and not bad.

Overall, the meal and service were average - but not worth the price.  Especially at full price. The flavor combinations, and development, were not expertly crafted.  At the conclusion of the meal, Chef (at the time) Mohd Zamri Abdul Rahman came out to speak with me and my neighbor for a few minutes.  He asked for our opinion, and I tested the water by saying the red bean soup could use a little improvement.  He informed us that it was "just like from Japan" and that they have weird things that wouldn't appeal to everyone's palate (not in those exact words).  I decided to simply thank him and call it good.  Unfortunately, it seems a few years at Hotel Nikko as a sous chef does not turn a Malaysian into a Japanese expert.  I can't say that I am either, but I know I haven't eaten something so bland and unskillfully combined in Japan as the red bean dessert soup.

Sagano

Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel

Level 1, West Wing

Corner of Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Ampang

03-2162-2233

rhi.kulrn.fb@renaissancehotels.com

2 of 5 (on the back of wagyu that you cannot mess up)

Tatsu at the InterContinental

Tatsu was a happy accident.  I stumbled upon it based on the Malaysian International Gourmet Festival (basically an Eat Around Kuala Lumpur event).  InterContinental took over a Hotel Nikko, which you would expect to have good Japanese food.  The hotel was remodeled, and so was Tatsu.  The menu was enough to draw me in:

Apps:

-Japanese Yam and Friend Anchovy Bruschetta

-Tuna and Trifoliate Citrus Leaves with Wasabi Sauce

-Avocado and Sweet Shrimp with Spiced Cod Roe

-Sushi with Eel, Avocado and Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab served with Almond Sauce

Starters:

-Sautéed Tiger Prawns and Eryngii Mushrooms topped with Japanese Soba Sauce

-Foie Gras Steak in Cod Fish Teriyaki

Main:

-Tatsu's Volcanic Stone Grilled Wagyu Beef with Ginger Soyu and Tatsu's Spicey Dip with Green Tea Onigiri

Desserts:

-Dried Fruit Tempura served with Chocolate and Red Bean Fondue

Does that sound good?  Well, it was.  We walked in, were greeted instantly by a number of people in the waitstaff, and the sushi chef behind the bar.  There were not a lot of diners, and the spartan, contemporary simple Asian decor looked even more sparse without patrons.  Word to the wise, omakase must be ordered in advance and is ordered course-by-course.

Our waitress took our order, the front-of-the-house manager poked by here and there to offer an explanation or suggestion, and all around the service was excellent.  We placed a little order of Scallop and Bontio sushi to go along with the tasting menu.  The scallops were fresh, delicate, butter-like and delicious.  The bonito fish came out with a few scallions, and was so fresh it was almost criminal.  I wish I could have eaten a pound of it.

Aside from the extra sushi, the dinner began with a little pickled carrot, and radish.  They were nice, and had a little more taste than an average Korean restaurant.  The Japanese Yam was salty and tasty. Then you ate the tuna, a delectable little bite with a soft soy flavor and touch of seaweed for a little extra taste of the sea.  The sweet shrimp, there was nothing to not like.  It was a nice balance of shrimp, egg, and avocado - and sweet shrimp in general is a treat.  The sushi was amazing, and the addition of the crunch with slivered almonds was a first (surprisingly) for me.  It won't be a last.

The "starters" that following did not disappoint.  The cod was utterly stunning.  The foie gras was every bit as good as you'd hope, and the pairing was made complete by the chef creating a small pocket for it in the cod piece.  The teriyaki was not overdone, so you could still taste the sweetness of the foie gras and cod.  Surprisingly, the "spot" tiger prawn soup was overshadowed by the cod, and was good - but a footnote compared to the other dishes.

Wagyu is synonymous with yum to me.  Sadly, I asked for rare to mid-rare, and the waitress, who cooked the steak on a stone at the table, cooked it to medium.  Not to stereotype, but she was Asian and didn't seem completely comfortable cooking a rare steak (a la many Middle Eastern people who also look at you funny when you make such a request).  Also, many people say that Wagyu is best served at medium because of caramelization of flavor.  Well, how a medium, verging on medium well steak remains like butter, is a happy mystery.  Everyone has heard the mythology surrounding Kobe beef, or Wagyu (simply not from Kobe), but it's remarkable when you eat it, and cool, rare, or mid-well, it remains just as soft, buttery, and delicious.  I just wish that it was grass fed and had that beautiful grass-fed tang.

Cooking it in front of us

Take a look at the formed, crisp rice, also beautiful, herbaceous, delicious.

The dessert was fantastic.  The fruit was tasty, and a great choice in Southeast Asia.  The chocolate, with some red beans, had this flavor that was almost reminiscent of cherry.  It was so delicious, honestly, that the waitress eventually brought out two spoons for my dinner companion and me to eat a few scoops.  We didn't finish off the chocolate, but only by exercising the greatest of self control.

One of the best Japanese meals I have had anywhere, let alone Kuala Lumpur.


Tatsu

InterContinental Kuala Lumpur

165, Jalan Ampang

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

03-2782-6118

tatsu@intercontinental-kl.com.my

4.5 of 5 

Hanare at the Intermark

Located within the same building as the Hilton Doubletree in Kuala Lumpur is the new Japanese restaurant of choice, Hanare.  After my go-to sushi restaurant in KL closed sometime last summer, I found this review by CC Food Travel.  It set my expectations pretty high.  In the end, this restaurant has the distinction of at once giving me the some of the single best bites of sushi and steak I have ever had, and still being disappointing.

So, the Evian bottle is near the smallest I had ever seen, at .33 liter. In other words, my bottled water was disgustingly small, and for another 10 or 20 RMD, you expect a liter bottle.  Boo.

The Appetizer:  The Tofu was exceptionally creamy and the corn had a pleasant miso flavor with excellent char.  The solitary piece of fish was only ok, and remember things are not better just because they have caviar.  I am a sucker for shiso (the green leaf), so overall it was a nice way to start.

2nd Course - Sashimi:  I do believe they provide real wasabi, and the tasty little abalone/clam were nice.   The tuna was very fresh, and buttery.  The katsuo (bonito) had a surprising little taste explosion. Obviously, the real winner was the absolutely delicious little piece of tuna belly they provided, which was one of the best single pieces of sashimi I have eaten.

3rd Course - Crab Soup:  The broth by itself had the flavor of inexpensive, dried squid with a bit of crab sprinkled in (in other words, eh).  The ground prawn ball with ginger, however, was quite remarkable, and when all combined, it was a good few bites.  To really elevate the dish, however, the broth needs improvement.

4th Course - Wagyu on Eggplant:  The dish also seemed to be served with a bit of "oyster sauce" on it. The question that you have to ask yourself is, what is not to like about wagyu beef?  Nothing.  It is tender, melts in your mouth, and once you have a bite you never want to eat anything else.  In sum, however, the course was a little uninspired.

5th Course  - More Wagyu?:  Yes!  It's a little sad when the waiter does not speak much English and he makes no real effort to explain what you are eating.  For a meal that costs somewhere around 50 times the national average, this is disappointing.  So, there was some sort of homemade delicate green chili and oil mixture which, placed carefully atop the wagyu, made for the most delicious beef dish I have ever eaten.  It was nothing short of phenomenal.

6th course - Fried Fish:  Again, the lack of description made for a rather disappointing experience.  The little fried fish with breading, they were probably something in the sardine family, were full of flavor.  I was sad to not be familiar with the other fish, a small, light, sweet white fish carefully pan fried without breading.  It was super tasty.  I think the small piece at the bottom was a cod cheek, based off the flavor and size, but I can't be sure.  The non-breaded small fish, and "cod" were so delicious they stood up to the previous plate of wagyu.

7th Course - Sushi:  This course contained 5 pieces of premium sushi, and clam miso soup.  The miso had a delicate smokey flavor, and was memorable with the small clams, and the tuna belly, cuddlefish, katsuo, yellowtail, and some type of hikari mono - I think sanma were yum morsels.  Pictures are worth a 1,000 words.

8th course - Dessert:  Peaches and ice cream are very good, but peaches are less a novelty to me than they are the Malaysians.

At one point, as I was eating wagyu beef I looked over and became jealous of my neighbors' trio of mushrooms.  It's ok (nom nom nom) I consoled myself on beef so fatty it's probably illegal in many countries (besides India).  It just went to show that the restaurant has more to offer than what I ate.  I was very jealous, however, of CC Travel Food's Omakase experience.  Mine was excellent, but missing some of the more exotic delicacies that were offered to them.  It is my opinion that they outted themselves as food bloggers and got the VIP treatment.

So, all this delicious food discussed, let's have a hard talk for a second.  

The service was so bad!  There were faux pas, such as not brining a spoon with the soup dish, never clearing the towel, me asking for accommodations which were not made.  Lack of descriptions of meals, etc., they tried so hard, but the waitstaff were just not good at all.  For her part, the proprietess realized this and commented privately later that evening that they are struggling with service.  Well, struggle they do.  I hope they get better, because it is a serious miss at such a nice restaurant.

Next time I'll try the Champagne Brunch (reviewed by Eat Your Heart Out) and then my meal won't be distracted by the poor service.

Hanare Japanese Restaurant
Ground Floor, The Intermark,
Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur
03-2164-2133/ 2164-2633
4 of 5