TOUAN Yakitori & Robata @ The Table, Isetan The Japan Store KL

TOUAN Yakitori & Robata is the latest addition to the list of Japanese owned restaurants at The Table, Isetan The Japan Store in Kuala Lumpur. Touan specializes in yakitori and robata but they also offers other Japanese food such as sashimi, sushi, bento and etc.

We were invited for a sneak preview before the opening and below are just some of the many Japanese food Touan has to offer here.

Touan is an open-concept restaurant and you can actually see your meals being prepared right in front of you. All the slicing, dicing, cooking, grilling and etc are all done behind the counter in a partly enclosed glass covered area. It can be quite intimidating to work in front of your customers but Touan’s cooks did not show any sign of stress at all.

Our dinner started off with an appetizer consisting of tamagoya (egg roll), teriyaki chicken and edamame. I’m pretty amazed how such a common and normal food can be plated in such elegant way. Everything tastes better when it looks good.

I’ve always loved Saba mackerel fish. So everytime I see this fish on the menu, I would most certainly order it. This dish is Touan’s grilled Scallop with butter and soy sauce, grilled Sanma (Salmon) fish and grilled Saba Mackerel fish. If you look at the scallop, it seems like there are 2 pieces of scallop, but actually, the scallop was cut into half before it was grilled. Both the fish are good but I prefer the skin to be more crispy.

If you look at the Touan’s menu below, the Assorted 3 types with 3 pieces each of each type of sashimi are priced at RM65.00. Again, what we had here was just a preview and we had the opportunity to try 5 different sashimi.

We had the tuna, salmon, kanpachi, octopus and scallop. The taste for each and every piece of sashimi are distinct and unique in their own way. They were fresh and quite reasonably priced.

Next, we had the yakitori consisting of chicken thigh, liver and wings. They were lightly seasoned with salt and seasoned just right. I don’t normally take chicken liver as it can be quite tough after it is cooked. Here, the texture of the chicken liver was quite soft – almost butter-like. An assorted of 5 types of yakitori is priced at RM30.00.

As for sushi, we had the chance to try the tuna, salmon and kanpachi sushi. Not every Japanese restaurant does this – the whole piece of fish covers the rice. Underneath each piece of sashimi there is a dollop of wasabi, so don’t be surprised when you get the heat from the sashimi.