Dinner at Nihon Kai (13/09)

My parents and I had dinner at Nihon Kai, a japanese restaurant that we frequent to. The food so far had not been disappointing and so was the price. To us, it wasn't as expensive as many people would assume it would be. And though it was not centrally located in a busy place, you would be surprised to find people already sitting down for dinner at 6pm or even earlier! We also noticed many people making reservations beforehand (alot of tables were placed with the reserved sign and it is not to say that FFK..they actually DO turn up).

On Saturday, someone booked one of the private dinning rooms for a family dinner. For appetizers, we saw the waiters bringing in TWO HUGE plates of GIANT LOBSTERS on dried ice! My dad explained that this was a popular (and expensive) delicacy eaten raw. I don't know whether it was eaten raw.. maybe it was cooked but eaten cold. I need to research on that lobster dish. I couldn't get a pic of that lobster but the presentation was so grand and the dried ice made it look mysterious. We overheard everyone in that room going 'Waaaahhh....'
"Yea, they may go Waaaaaahh.. when the bill comes, they will also go Waaaaaaahhh..." joked my Dad. -sweat-. Yeap, I would not be surprised at all. Its lobster after all. He explained that one plate can cost from Rm100 onwards depending on the lobster.

'Waaaaaaaaaahhhhh......'

Still, the set dinner WE ordered was as yummy and at least the bill did not make us go 'Waaaaaaahhhh..'

This was MY set dinner. And being as blur, I forgot the Japanese name of this dish. Sigh. -Sweat-

It was basically baby asparagus wrapped in beef + Sashimi (the bowl on next to the main dish).
Set dinners usually includes rice (-gasp- i ate rice AGAIN!!), the main dishes such as the sashimi and the beef with asparagus, the mini appetizer, a small dish with pickled veggies for digestion, Miso Soup, and Chawanmushi.

My dad and I ordered the same thing (hmph, that copy cat :-p). Mum, on the other hand ordered a different set dinner which was a stew with deep fried pork meat and veggies. Again, I forgot what it was called. And, I could not take a pic of it as they imediately dug in and destroyed the set's presentation. Sigh. -sweat-

The beef and asparagus dish was good. The beef was tender and the asparagus was not too young, or old. It was just nice and thank God it did not taste bitter. However, the only flaw was that the veggies used to bed the Sashimi was quite bitter. Apart from that, the combination of the beef dish along with the Sashimi gave some 'life' to the fishy taste we get from the Sashimi. That is if you eat the Sashimi and the beef TOGETHER la. What I also did was I dipped the beef asparagus in wasabi and soy sauce..just like how we eat Sashimi. It gave the asparagus some kick though the taste became too saucy. I guess it was a good decision to combine the Sashimi and the beef dish as a set because for one, it brought two 'opposites' together. One was placid to the tongue as it had no seasoning whatsoever (the Sashimi) and the other was very well seasoned.

Ah! We also ordered a side dish (again, i can't remember the name) which was deep fried soft shell crabs, tempura style. It was good too!! Because that came first before the set dinners, we poked and mauled the crabs with our chopsticks thereby rendering the dish in a not-so-photogenic condition. Oh dear.. -sweat-

Btw, Nihon Kai is situated around the Old Klang Road area. It is located behind Michelin which is after BHP Petrol station. Hence, you need to turn right as if turning into Michelin.

The dinner was filling yet I did not feel bloated at all. In fact, in most of our visits to Nihon Kai, our tummies usually felt 'just nice' after eating. We also did not feel thirsty proving that they do not exceed on the Msg content...

except for the Miso Soup that is. :-p