Ryu's Traditional Japanese Cuisine 柳 @ Capitol Piazza

This year, decided to celebrate Wendy's birthday at Ryu's. We like to try new places, especially for occassions like birthdays. Hmm, however, we have yet to break the tradition of our limited meet-up of twice a year. Once for hers and once for my birthday.

Though Ryu's address is at Capitol Piazza, the restaurant is actually at the theatre side. Lots of dining and drinking places there. Naughty Nuri seemed pretty popular at the moment, judging by the its patrons.

restaurant

Quite liked that Capitol has free wifi for patrons to use. Thumbs up! Ryu's menu is available online, so it was quite easy to pick the food choices.

Arrived at the restaurant at the appointed hour, and while waiting for the birthday girl, I have started with a glass of beer. They serve Kirin here. Hmm, I think the beer head was too much in that glass of beer...
An おしぼり (warm towel) is brought out once you have placed your order.

view from our table

なまビル @$8++ (small)

Unfortunately, the tsukune (minced chicken skewer) took a long time to arrive, so didn't manage to have it as a snack with the beer.

Ordered a tendon as our main course, and supplemented by two ala-carte meats; pork and chicken. Was pleasantly surprised to be served with a bowl of cold soup. Amuse bouche? ありがと!

cold soup - complimentary

The soup was pleasantly smooth, and of mild clean flavours. Think this was the pumpkin soup, judging by its golden colour. The minced chicken skewer (つくね) was quite dense, and quite unlike the versions that I had tried elsewhere.

tsukune (つくね) @$5++ per stick

Tendon Set 天丼 @$25++

The Tendon Set was quite a big bowl and its tempura items had two prawns, sea eels (anago), pumpkin, brinjal and sweet potato. Served with pickles and a tiny teacup bowl of miso soup. We were too engrossed in our conversation, and hence, did not eat the tempura immediately after it was served. No, not because of picture taking, okay.

Grilled Chicken Marinated in Miso Sauce @$12++

Boiled Radish with Miso sauce and stewed Iberian Pork @$17++

Was most impressed by the portion of the stewed Iberian pork. Actually, I had mistakenly thought that the pork would be of slices instead of two huge chunks of pork ribs. The pork was well stewed and could be easily tore off by the chopsticks. The radish was so good as it had soaked in all the sauces. Liked the greens in the dish. Overall, a good dish to have with rice.

Wendy thinks that the miso was missing from the chicken. Might be true as there wasn't any apparent taste of it, and also unlike the pork dish where we could see a dollop of miso sitting atop of the radish.

Time flies when you are with friends, and before we knew it. It was time for desserts.

desserts

On the overall, it was a nice experience at Ryu's. One need not spend a fortune (if you don't want to) here as there are ala-carte dishes and sets that are of reasonable prices.

Happy Birthday, Wendy! May all your wishes, come true (soon!).

P. Bistro @ Owen Road

A place that is about 10 minutes away by cab from the office. Visited recently and they had updated their menu. Read more about first visit here before the change in menu. No worries, as items such as truffle fries, chili crab pasta were all retained.

The seating in P. Bistro is really limited. At one glance, it possibly could seat just about 14 pax. Menu items include pasta, meat and burgers. Most items seemed to be either deep fried or spicy. Was having sore throat, so decided to get the roast chicken.

The place do not serve complimentary water, so the next best option would be bottled water @$1 each, or go for coffee. Saw that they have kumquat tea, and thought that as an item seldom seen in cafes, so got myself one of those. Hot please, for the throat needed a whole lot of soothing.

The wait for food, was about half-hour that day. Hopefully, this is not the norm. Thankfully, the food was worthed the wait. Am loving the kumquat tea as well. Was pleasantly surprised to see that it came in a pot!

Kumquat tea @$4

My colleagues ordered chili crab pasta, salted egg yolk pasta and har cheong gai burger. Thought that the pasta portions were slightly smaller when compared to the burger or to roast chicken.

Salted Egg Yolk Pasta @$13

Gai Burger @$12

The Gai Burger looked slightly bigger than the one I had at Grub. Plenty of vegetables in there too. Served with shoestring fries.

Roast Chicken @$13

I think the Roast Chicken might be a misnomer. Perhaps, more apt to call it chicken chop? Anyways, the portion was good and lovely mushroom sauce where one could see those mushrooms. Yums. Served with small side of salad and shoestring fries.

This place serves up reasonably priced food that tasted good.

P. Bistro

Location: 42 Owen Rd, 218941
Contact: 6392 2333
Website: http://p-bistro.com/
Business Hours:
11am to 10pm

Vietnam Kitchen @ Cheras Leisure Mall Malaysia

Dad wanted to lunch at Wong Kok Cafe but it was packed on a Saturday. Hence, decided on Vietnam Kitchen since it was less crowded. Moreover, parents and sis have yet to try Vietnamese cuisine. Service was courteous and friendly. We were ushered in quickly to our table.

Value sets are available and prices ranges from RM34.90++ (for 2 pax) to about RM86.80++ (for 4 to 5 pax). We decided to go ala-carte, and ordered three appetisers and two mains to share amongst 5 pax.

menu - set meal and ala-carte dishes

Dad ordered  a crepe pork roll, which was basically a minced pork chee cheong fun topped with mushrooms. It also had two slices of what tasted like chicken ham. Quite nice actually.

crepe pork roll @RM10.50++

Mom and sis shared a plate of chicken chop rice. The rice set came with a bowl of meatball soup that was a little bit sourish to whet the appetite. The rice was topped with a sunny side up, served with pickles and a slice of pate. The chicken chop was of a good portion. There were also some shreds of stuffs which I thought was beancurd but was rather odd tasting.

Chicken Chop Rice @RM17.90++

Bro, of course, had a bowl of vermicelli to himself. A man needs to eat like a man.  The bowl of noodles was quite huge and its of a dry version. Plenty of beansprouts, served with some fresh greens and pickles. The thin fried springroll has some minced pork in it. Served with a small bowl of tangy sauce.

Springroll with Lemon Pork Vermicelli @RM15.80++

The appetiser that we got was a lapcheong springroll.

(lapcheong) sausage turnips rice springroll @RM8.35++

Actually, it was my first time seeing the lapcheong roll and chee cheong fun in an original Vietnamese menu. Nevertheless, both tasted quite good.

For me, I went for the traditional prawn springrolls, with a glass of orange juice since my choice of drink; soda chanh, wasn't available. Hmm, the drink cost as much as my food! The orange juice was nicely sweet and has a sour plum in it. Yums. The springroll was healthy and packed with lots of vegetables. Served with a hoisin peanut dip.

Prawn Roll @RM8.35++ and orange juice @RM8.35++

Sis ordered a teapot of Atiso tea (Trà atiso) for RM6.25++. It was kind of unique as this was the first time we've tasted artichoke tea. Quite mild and light. The small pot contained two teabags and request for hot water refill was acceeded to without a fuss, though they had to boil some water first. Haha!

We spent about RM20 per pax. Service was friendly and food was served within reasonable time. If you are at Cheras Leisure Mall on a weekend and in the mood for some Vietnamese cuisine, then I would recommend to drop by Vietnam Kitchen.