Kita No Zen, Hokkaido Ichiba, The Gardens, Kuala Lumpur

The last couple of times I wanted to try the Japanese food at Hokkaido Ichiba, I was put off by the long queues formed outside the outlet on weekends. We tried our luck again on a weekday and thankfully, although the restaurant was quite busy, there was no queue to get in.

Hokkaido Ichiba is made up of Kita No Zen and Hokkaido Ice-Cream. You can order both food and ice-cream when dining at the Kita No Zen section but you can only order ice-cream from the Hokkaido Ice-Cream section. From where we were seated, we had a good view of the open kitchen.

A lot of wood used in the restaurant decor

Complimentary hot green tea

I found it mind-boggling and a bit overwhelming that Hokkaido Ichiba does not only have 1 menu, but 4 menus (a la carte, set lunch, seasonal, Hokkaido ice-cream).. thus it took us a while before we could decide what we wanted to eat. In the end, we went for the set lunches since they were pretty good value for money, with prices ranging from RM22 to RM65.

I went for the Sakura Chirashidon Zen set (RM30); the set came with an appetizer, a bowl of sushi rice topped with assorted seafood, chawanmushi (steamed egg custard), miso soup, pickles and fresh fruits. I was pretty impressed with the set as the chirashidon came laden with fresh seafood. In the bowl, there were salmon sashimi, maguro (tuna), kanpachi (amberjack), kaori-halo kani (crabmeat), scallop, pickled ginger, prawns and tamago (omelette). The appetizer was pretty interesting; cold squid tentacles topped with Japanese mayo and seaweed. I also enjoyed the chawanmushi as it was very smooth.

Chirashidon


Cold appetizer

Steaming hot chawanmushi

Hubby had the Sashimi to Tempura Zen set (RM38). This came with an appetizer, tempura, a sashimi platter, miso soup, chawanmushi, pickles and rice. I tried the tempura as Hubby offered me a whole prawn, and it was very good. The batter was light and not oily. His appetizer differed from mine, braised beef which we found to be very flavoursome. There were 3 types of sashimi served with this set; salmon, tuna, and kanpachi.

Appetizer

Tempura

Sashimi platter

One of the reasons I wanted to dine here was to try their Hokkaido ice-cream. Unfortunately, we were too stuffed by the end of the meal so decided to forego the ice-cream, maybe another day. We had the intention of dining here again on the second day of CNY when we were in The Gardens, however the restaurant was closed. Oh well, something to look forward to in the future.

Verdict: Overall, we found the set lunches very good value for money; generous portions and the sashimi was very fresh.

Service: Good.

Price: Reasonable. Total bill was RM78.90. Prices for set dinner approximately 15% more expensive than set lunch. Green tea is complimentary.

Location: Kita No Zen, Hokkaido Ichiba, T-201, 3rd Floor, The Gardens Mall, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-2283 1060

Note: The Gardens Club card holders are entitled to a complimentary scoop of Hokkaido melon ice-cream with a minimum dine in spend of RM30.