Irodori Japanese Restaurant (21 Jul)

This meal was to celebrate our wedding anniversary, 7th year, if you are curious ;p I think we are (or perhaps just me) suckers for japanese food cos we've been dining in japanese restaurants quite frequently. After reading good reviews of this place, we decided to go ahead - S$33++ per pax for buffet dinner, at Riverview Hotel. http://irodorijapaneserestaurant.com/. It was a weekday that we went so it was crowded.

Generally, the quality was quite good, and we were happy to receive a few complimentary dishes hehe... Service was fine since there weren't too many customers. Go in a big group so you could try the huge variety. There was only so much 2 persons could eat ;)

Menu which has lots of items

Udon (very small one-person portion). The noodle is not the usual fat and round type but rather, it's flat, so it doesn't taste as "springy" as any udon should be, I feel.

Grilled pregnant fishes - very yummy actually

Teriyaki mushrooms. The sauce was too salty.

Kimchi with errmm... can't remember if it's chicken or pork strips.. good starter!

Inside of restaurant

Tempura prawns - crispy!

Teriyaki chicken, I think ;p

Unagi handroll on the left and spider handroll on the right. I like the spider one ;)

Fried chicken.. what do you call it?

金针菇 wrapped with pork slice, I think.

Soup in a pot - sorry forgot its name hahaha!

We love this best! Grilled chicken wings!

This was served complimentary as appetiser, but frankly I don't remember what it was. Think it's fried salmon ball.

Grilled fish - forgot what fish hahaha!

Variety of sashimi - yellowtail, salmon and swordfish. There are others but we chose these.

These were complimentary starters too! Grilled king prawns with mayonnaise and fish roe. Think anything grilled with mayonnaise taste good hhaha!

Were these complimentary too?? Hahaha!! Don't remember what roll they are ;p

Ok, this was complimentary - the first dish that came when we sat down. Think the green piece thinggi is tofu.. topped with fish roe and condiments

Kuala Lumpur (4-7 Jul)

No special mention from this trip to KL, of which the main purpose was to "attack" the Malaysia Mega Sale. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I didn't buy anything.. yup, nothing at all... so disappointed... Not that the sale was not good, but I did not manage to buy things I had in mind to get.. like, I wasn't looking for shoes nor t-shirts so the shoes/t-shirts sale wasn't a big draw.. BUT I was glad I bought something in Singapore, just the day before the trip hahah!! So, that was the only consolation... hehe.. ;p

Lunch at The Chicken Rice Shop at Times Square.

This was the "Family Feast" set which costRM$38 if I'm not wrong. Nothing fantastic lah..

The next highlight of the trip was our Jap buffet dinner at Gonbei, at the Starhill Gallery. RM95+ per pax for dinner from 6-10pm. The items were authentic jap dishes, and the raw items like sashimi and oysters were very fresh and yummy! Basically there are 4 stations you can order your food from: sashimi station, teppanyaki station, tempura station and grill station. You can go to each station and pick any items you want to be cooked and they will be served to you. Free flow of green tea, ice lemon tea and can't remember which is the other drink. Generall Gonbei offers great variety, so it's good value for money ;)

We were there at 6pm cos we were hungry!! The meal before was just brunch at our hotel (Impiana KLCC http://kualalumpurhotels.impiana.com/) mah... We were the first and only customers from 6-8pm and so it kinda felt strange that the staff/ chef had nothing much to do hahahah!! At first, we thought perhaps the place wasn't popular or over-priced. But more and more people started streaming in after 8pm... In fact, before we visited the restaurant, we read reviews of people spending more than RM500 for their ala-carte dishes! We found out from one of the waitresses who told us that the buffet promo started only 3 weeks prior to our visit. Frankly, if not for the buffet, I don't think I'd patronise ;p !!

The sashimi bar

Anti-clockwise starting from bottom left: Unagi sashimi, octopus, sakae sashimi, kajiki sashimi (which was lightly cooked and we love the sweetness!!), maguro sashimi

More sakae and kajiki sashimi, and raw oysters!
The grill and dessert station
Soft shell crab and tempura
The teppanyaki station
Teppanyaki prawns and beef

Grilled chicken wings, cod fish and unagi. The chicken wings were very well grilled! Very crispy!

Since I didn't manage to do shopping, I had a wonderful spa session in the hotel we stayed in. Swasana Spa http://kualalumpurhotels.impiana.com/spa.php was offering 50% off its 2hr spa packages. I chose the Asmara Dana package which included full body scrub, rose petal milk bath followed by full body massage. BLISS! How much? After 50% discount, the SGD equivalent was S$85 ;)

Our return coach - Grassland which has a ticketing booth right opposite the Times Square. We bought tickets for its Royal VIP Coach at RM55/ pax (which otherwise will cost RM70 for Sundays). It was a double-decker, with entertainment system.