Rakuzen Japanese Restaurant, Oasis Square, Ara Damansara

Address:
R-03A, Oasis Square,
Oasis Ara Damansara,
2 Jalan PJU 1A/7A,
47301 Petaling Jaya

Opening Hours:
Daily 11.30am - 3.00pm & 6.00pm - 11.00pm 

Time Visited:
12:45pm.

Attire worn:
Business since I still need to work that day and I've decided against taking leave.

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Gindara Zen (ぎんだら膳) Grilled Silver Cod lunch Set with Hot Green Tea

I was taken by surprise as I sat down that the waiter immediately ask on what would I like to drink before I even get a chance to see what beverage they have to offer. I find that exceedingly odd for them to do so. It's like going to a mamak stall or hawker stall where most Malaysians already know by now what kind of drinks do they serve, the standard usual stuff and where they don't have a menu to show you. But Rakuzen is not your usual local restaurant. It's supposed to be a Japanese fine dining restaurant so I would expect them to give some time to browse through the menu before choosing a drink or at least give some time for the patron to think beforehand on what to order instead of a lightning quick question before I can even sit down. Hence you see my normalcy on ordering green tea to go with my lunch set.

Today was unusually crowded for the outlet. Waves and waves of people throng through the antique looking door unrelentlessly. In fact, there were Japanese people who visited the outlet as well. Mind you, the food at Rakuzen is not cheap and even with a lunch set, it amounts to double, triple or quadruple on what a normal salary man eats at the local Chinese hawker shops. I was pretty amazed the crowd it draws in that day and forgave the busy state the employees helter skelterly move around giving me a hard time flagging them down and getting their attention. Most of the customers that entered through the door were mostly ignored for a good couple of minutes before anyone attends to them to seat them. And by golly, it seems a lot of them had the patience and courtesy to actually wait to be seated while I and a varied few barged in like we own the place and sat ourselves down.

Since I was a lone diner, I chose the bar seats at the sushi bar area where those type of seatings usually bore me since all I can stare at were the chefs in front with their ingredients. The chopsticks were neatly placed in front of the vacant chairs already and where I chose, the menu were there as well. As they brought me my hot cup of green tea, they were accompanied by their customary hand wipe warm towel for you to sanitize your hands before consuming any food.

As I sip my tea, a sense of calmness came over me along with the great feeling of having a good cup of green tea. The taste were right enough for you to sense it instead of the many other establishments that came diluted and not as thick as this place's taste.

The silver cod fish came after a 20 minutes wait and from off the bat, it looked truly delicious. The silver cod glistening against the sunlight that manages to shine through and slivers of it, having different degrees of grilled intensity yet displays it as still a perfectly cooked piece of fish. As I grab hold of the first piece to consume, it exemplifies a well seasoned dish with the salty sauce below enhancing it's flavor. The skin is somewhat crisp but nonetheless, the tastiest part of all. The only thing wrong with it that I have a bone to pick, is literally the bones I had to pick out of it. Although few in numbers, it still annoys me on having the need to get it off myself. This is actually one of the reasons I don't like to eat fish. I'm lazy to pick bones off.

The set in addition to the highlight main, comes with a vegetable dish, sticky rice, miso soup, chawanmushi, a cold appetizer dish and some fruits for dessert.

The miso soup unusually contains some small mushrooms in it which is a nice touch to just the normal seaweed and tofu ones. In addition to that, the chawanmushi had also an ingredient in it which I rarely find in a commercial restaurants chawanmushi, ginkgo nuts. An unexpected but pleasant find in amidst the kamaboko (Japanese Fish Cake) and shiitake mushrooms. This certainly delights me. The rice were fine as well and sticks well where I'm able to handle it with my chopsticks easily.

All in all, a very satisfying meal in which I stayed on for longer periods in order to enjoy my sips of hot green tea.

Total Wallet Damage:
It says RM50 on the menu and RM50 it is, nett. The green tea is a given I guess.

Final Verdict:
7.5/10. Despite it's busy lunch crowd and the shorthanded circumstance on staffing due to a wide area coverage, I still wish the service would be better even from their busy period. But I did manage to experience their good service after the lunch crowd had left and left me to be pampered with scores of Green Tea refill without the need for me to ask.