Robataya Izakaya, Publika, KL

In Japan, izakaya is a type of informal Japanese gastropub where colleagues and friends gather for drinks and food after work. Situated on a bustling row within Publika is Robataya, a restaurant offering the Izakaya dining experience, with a vast menu comprising of sashimi, sushi, tempura as well as seafood and vegetables cooked on the robatayaki.

Start your meal with a sashimi platter; you can never go wrong with fresh, thick slices of raw fish. The Okan Sashimi Moriawase (RM70) that we had came with five types of seafood - salmon, maguro (tuna), hamachi, abura bozu (butterfish) and akaebi (sweet shrimp).

Enjoy one of these otsusume, a selection of small plates designed to complement your sake or beer. One of my favorites was the Ebi Furai (RM28), which features five large, juicy prawns deep fried to crispy perfection.

A must-try is the Saba Ichiya Boshi (RM48), a whole mackarel which is preserved with salt water for 24 hours before hitting a hot grill. We thoroughly enjoyed this moist, fairly fatty fish.Other than saba, there is also salmon ichiyaboshi (RM48) or icefish karaage (RM18), though we found these a little dry compared to the saba.

Another great snack to go with your sake is the Buta khusu yaki (RM19), grilled pork glazed in a salty-sweet sauce. We absolutely loved the tender, melt-in-your-mouth pieces of pork with a lovely smoky flavour.

We usually reserve hotpot for rainy days. The stars were clearly aligned as we set off for our review at Robataya and the heavens opened providing us with the perfect weather to go hand in hand with the newly launched seafood hotpot.

The Tokusen Nabe (RM198) launched mid September 2017, is a Japanese hotpot set which comes with baby lobster, Karatsuki scallop, Gindara kabuto (cod fish head), Age gyoza, Salmon kawa (fried salmon fish skin), pork belly slices, butterfish and asari clams. Diners can choose from 4 types of broth - kyushu paste, kimchi paste, miso paste or chef special paste. We had the miso paste broth, and by the end of our meal, the broth was sweet, thanks to all the seafood in the hotpot. The set also comes with udon or soba, which you can add at the end to the broth.

This set can comfortably feed 3-4 persons, and comes with side dishes such as wakadori karaage (fried chicken), chinmi mori (marinated jellyfish, seaweed and chuka idako) as well as Takoyaki Sarada (octopus balls salad) with a lovely sesame dressing. To end, banana ice cream will be served.

Opening times: Mon-Thu 11.30am - 2.30pm; 6pm - 11pm. Fri 11.30am - 2.30pm; 6pm - 11.30pm. Sat 11.30am - 11.130pm; Sun 11.30am - 11pm.


Location: Robataya Izakaya, D4-G3-09, Solaris Dutamas, No.1 Jalan Dutamas 1, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-6211 2785

Website: https://www.facebook.com/robatayaizakaya




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