Oh-My-kase in Kuala Lumpur
I am currently recovering from a food coma. A very pleasant food coma caused by overindulging in a delicious Japanese meal that one could only dream of (and will dream of over and over again). And folks, I am not in Japan, San Francisco or New York!
I am in Kuala Lumpur, a city which I expected to be full of Malay, Thai, Indian and Chinese cuisines — not sushi. Clearly, I was misinformed. We have encountered sushi conveyer-belt restaurants in every mall, Japanese izakayas, ramen shops and also Omakase restaurants all around.
Today, we decided to try one of the fancy Omakase restaurants — Manten Omakase. We picked this particular restaurant because I have a broken ankle and Manten happens to be conveniently located on the rooftop floor of our apartment complex. Having a rooftop location in the city center of Kuala Lumpur, the restaurant sports beautiful views of uniquely designed skyscrapers all around — including of the Petronas Towers. The decor inside stands up to the beauty of the outside with tall ceilings decorated as a creamy large cave cavern, along with marble countertops. Large windows bring in lots of natural light.
Rooftops of our buildings as seen from Petronas Towers. We were on the right.
We chose the shortest of the Omakase menus as we were pressed for time and a bit weary of the $80/person price tag following our long stint in Thailand (aka the land of a feasts for 3 for under $20). As we entered the restaurant, we saw we were the only customers at the time. All attention was on us, and the feast — made by our chef KC — began.
We started with a small amuse bouche — seaweed salad, ripe tomatoes and yuzu jelly on top. Sadly Misha had to eat mine due to the citrus allergies, but he seemed to enjoy it!
On to the warm starter: perfectly stewed (and 1-hour massaged) octopus and torched cod fish sperm sacs. If you are re-reading the above, no need… you read it right. These little white membrane looking things were an amazing rich buttery texture and the octopus practically dissolved and melted on our tongues.
This was followed by an interlude of grilled mackerel nigiri
And succeeded by a plate of luxurious sashimi — young mackerel, fatty tuna toro, and fresh springy scallop (luckily I got Misha’ s scallops too — I love them)
The meal then descended to a comforting warm bowl of chawanmushi with crab, salmon roe, puffer fish skin and truffle oil.
As we dug into the creamy egg custard with our wooden spoons, we also chatted up KC, who has been working with Japanese food for more than 10 years. He has never been outside Malaysia, but trained here with a Japanese chef. His dream is to go to Tokyo or New York and experience Omakase there. This is a story that echoes throughout our travels. There is the wine expert in Slovenia who wishes one day to visit famous wine regions, the apartment manager in Tashkent who applies for a green card every year (5 now) and does not give up, and the tour guide in Cambodia who dreams of visiting his friend in New Jersey but can’t get a visa.
When we speak with locals, we get a sense of their view of ourselves — slightly alien people who have this amazing privilege of running all around the world without a steady job and spending money on tours, omakases and the like. The privilege theme sits heavy sometimes… how to be worthy of it, how to take advantage of it without taking advantage of others, how to appreciate it to its fullest…
And as I pondered this, staring at the KL skyline, KC deftly took us back to the world of his expertise - back to the symphony of the nigiri course
Giant clam, fresh amaebi, flounder — fresh and grilled fin, charred toro, grilled anagi eel, rice with caviar and uni and more (because we could not stop and ordered more!). Each was a burst of flavor, texture, and temperature.
Shell of the giant clam
And before we knew it, the meal was coming to its conclusion with a bowl of fish-based miso soup
followed by a dessert straight out of a fancy Parisian chateaux — creamy creme brulee with a perfectly chilled coffee sorbet, and a crispy ginger cookie
Once the lunch was done, I just wished we could do it all over again. The Manten Omakase experience, from the food to the service, was on par with the fanciest set menu experiences we’ve had — and we’ve had quite a few.
We definitely recommend a visit here if you are ever in Kuala Lumpur!