For the longest time, I keep hearing raving great reviews of Kirishima Japanese Restaurant over at Cititel Penang but never did get a chance to try it out. Until recently. Well, we could hardly stay out of Japanese food anyway so it is a matter of time before we tried it out!
So, let’s take a look:
Ambiance is nice enough. Very Japanese and very comfortable. Now, on to the food…
Chawanmunshi has to be one of Mr Picky’s favourite Japanese food so we had to order one for him and surprisingly, Kirishima has a list of different flavoured chawanmunshi. Talk about dressing up your steamed egg! We ordered the one with Salmon roe and though I am not one to go for fish roes much, this is really good.
Yummy, soft shell crabs in a roll….
Okay, so I had to order something different and decided to try the cold green tea noodles. And it is really, really cold. Brrrr….Much as I am used to food hot from the stove, this is a refreshing cool change. And it goes very well with the sauce although for the life of me, I don’t even know how I am supposed to eat it with the raw bird egg so I gave the egg a miss. Heck I don’t even know how I am supposed to eat the noodles. Do I dip it in the sauce? Pour the sauce over it? How? I dipped it in the sauce anyway and it tasted good enough. Strangely cold but it’s okay.
We ordered one of the large sets of stone-grilled chicken with loads of other side dishes. I have to say, the chicken has been marinated to within an inch of its skin so it is full of flavours and worth burning your lips on…err..that is if you forgot that it’s burning hot and gobble a piece without testing it…From icy cold to burning hot, this meal is getting interesting.
Yes, despite the huge big set, we ordered more food. Don’t you dare judge me. I can’t go to a Japanese restaurant with soft shell crabs staring at me from the menu daring me to order them and then NOT order them, can I? I mean, you can’t expect me to survive only on icy cold green noodles, right? I know these soft shell crabs look disturbingly like deep fried tarantulas but heck, they are damn good and I’d swallow every single bite even if these are really tarantulas in which they are not, of course. This is a Japanese restaurant, not Fear Factor.
These are actually upon Mr Picky’s insistent request that he wants ‘balls’ so he gets ‘balls’. Oh, they are chicken meatballs on a stick and also marinated to within an inch of their..err…balls…heheh…So, naturally, they are full of flavours and very, very tasty.
I swear, this is the last thing we ordered. I was tempted about ordering some macha ice cream for dessert but these chewy octopus made me change my mind. Yes, these are octopus tempura. Mr Picky had wanted octopus and we forgot to check whether this dish is baby octopus or big, huge chewy, rubbery octopus and so we got the latter. Naturally, Mr Picky refused to even touch it. He wanted baby octopus with the tiny tentacles (simply because it looks like aliens and he so want to eat aliens…boys..) not this chewy, rubbery thing coated in deep fried flour. Needless to say, we regretted ordering this but choke it down we must since we will be paying for it!
Verdict: We went with not so high expectations thinking all those hype about this place are just that – hype. However, I am quite pleasantly surprised that the food is quite good (except for the chewy rubbery octopus). The menu has a wide selection too.
Rating: 7/10
Price: $$$$
Kirishima Japanese Restaurant
Ground Floor
Cititel Penang
Penang Road
Tel: 04- 3701188
Opening hours: 11am – 2.30pm, 6pm – 10.30pm.
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oooo yes this place is divine! food’s good (even though its pricey). haven’t gone to this place in a while though. need to get re-acquainted.
cold noodles… not really my favourite. but the bf loves it. :p
i just recently had a lesson on how to eat it – you toss in the spring onions, fried bits of tempura (at least thats what i think they are) and the raw egg into the sauce. mix it all up and dip the cold noodles in them before you eat.
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Real nice spread of food…they look inviting. Need to visit this place again to try out the few items that you had
Kirishima is a true blue Penang icon! Absolutely wonderful food, love the menu revamp a couple of years ago. Only thing is, it’s a bit rough on the wallet, so not really an everyday affair…
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