The Lunch:
My mum loves Jap food so while we were (window) shopping at Pavilion, we decided to pop into Ichiban Boshi to try it out as the chef making soba at the front of the restaurant caught our eye:
Overall, the restaurant was comfortable - bright cheerful design, with many booth seats around the well stocked kaiten belt:
We didn't feel like picking off the revolving belt that day so we went for the ala carte menu instead. After some deliberation, we started off with a serving of Deep Fried Salmon Skin (RM 4++):
If I could describe this in a word, it would be: Chewy.
Haha.
Mmmm,.. but seriously it wasn't very good. No fishy taste (which is a plus) but it wasn't very crispy, with some of the thick slices of skin being downright chewy.
Moving on to the mains, my mum had the Unagi Yanagawa (RM 15.90++) and I had the Hiyashi Chuka Soba (RM 14.90++):
The Unagi, cooked with Egg had a great texture and taste - smooth and savoury - but I found the accompanying sauce a little too salty for me.
(Probably it would have tasted much nicer with rice)
The main selling point of this Japanese restaurant is their freshly made buckwheat soba noodles so I had to try it out.... They have several variation: dry/ soup/ hot/ cold but I had decided to test out the cold version that day.
I really liked this dish - cold soba noodles, served with slices of duck, crabstick, egg and vegetables topped with a savoury sauce. It's not like it was fantastic.... just a simple dish that is nice to have when you feel like having something uncomplicated.
(I think they said it was supposed to be a bit spicy but I didn't feel anything)
Lastly, we had the Tempura Ice Cream (RM 6.90++):
I found that the vanilla ice cream and the tangy berry sauce balanced the crispiness and slight starchiness of the tempura batter very well. Still, it just tasted ok.
(Very decent price though!)
Overall, I wasn't really impressed with most of the dishes we tried there.... but the prices were reasonable for a Jap place and I did like the freshly made soba so I'll probably venture back some time to try out more variations of it.
:)
So it's: Good variety Japanese sushi/ rolls (on Kaiten belt) and freshly made soba at reasonable prices, friendly service BUT only tasted ok.
Restaurant Review
Summary Sheet:
Ichiban Boshi @ Pavilion Shopping Centre, KL
(near food court area)
Taste: 5.5
Ambience : 6
Service : 7
Price** : RM 35/++ per person
Parking: OK
** Approximation - 3 course meal, excluding drinks
Telephone No.: 03-2141 6621
Opening Hours: 11.30am till 10pm
NO PORK SERVED
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TAGS: Food, Blog, Weblog, Malaysia, Restaurant Review, Pavilion Shopping Center, Ichiban Boshi, Japanese, Shopping Centre, Fresh Buckwheat Soba, KL, Kuala Lumpur
Posts
I love ichiban boshi actually. My office is just besides Pavillion :) I love the part is the noodles originally made :)
ReplyDeletetry kampachi for their soba..damn good..although i cant compare with this one..
ReplyDeleteto charlene:
ReplyDeleteLucky you!
The rest of the food wasn't so nice but I would probably frequent it for the soba too if only I were a little nearer....
:)
to "joe" who is constantly craving:
Mmmm.
Ok ok. You try out Ichiban Boshi soba and I go try the one at Kampachi then we compare notes lah.
:)
have yet to get to pavilion and already so many food to try out in my list from there!
ReplyDeleteto rokh:
ReplyDeleteHaha...
Well, sounds like you will have an interesting, very filling and potentially expensive day out when you do visit Pavilion then....
(You can try to fit in 4 places with breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner while you're shopping)
:)
DO YOU KNOW SO MANY SHOPS HAVE CLOSED DOWN ALLREADY IN PAVILION DUE TO HIGH RENTALS AND NO BUSSINESS AND 40 TENANTS ARE TAKING PAVILION TO COURT CAUSE OF LACK OF INTEREST FROM MANAGEMENT,I GUESS EMPTY PROMISES WERE MADE BY MANAGEMENT, GREAT MALL OR GREAT FALL,IS IT GOING TO BE ANOTHER LOT 10????????
ReplyDeleteto anonymous:
ReplyDeleteNO I DIDN'T KNOW THAT BUT WOW YOU SEEM REALLY EXCITED ABOUT IT OH I HOPE YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THE TENANTS.
Sorry, sorry - what do I know? Maybe your Caps Lock is stuck or something like that.
ANyway, that's sad news! I suppose with so many shopping centres opening at almost the same time (Gardens, Pavilion and to a certain extent, Pyramid's new wing), it's not a huge surprise though...