Koyaku Japanese Dining & Grill @Taman Desa

Just landed from Malapascua Island and got a quick catch up with my old buddy, Ann Jee. We have known each other for more than 10 years but surprisingly we never had Japanese cuisine together yet. Since I got to know there is a new opening Japanese restaurant in the neighborhood, without any prior research, I introduced Ann Jee to this restaurant which is known as Koyaku Japanese Dining & Grill.
This is their second branch in Taman Desa where the main branch is at Shah Alam. They opened 2 restaurants within a year which is pretty quick for a Japanese restaurant.
I think the owner is a big fan of Astro Boy. It was first known as Mighty Atom in Japan in 1959 before being recognized as Astro Boy in overseas. It was started from a manga before becoming the first popular animated Japanese television series that embodied the aesthetic that later became familiar worldwide as anime. If you do not know about Astro Boy, it is about a story of an android was created by a professor to replaced his son who died in an accident. Due to Astro Boy is a robot and will never grow old, the professor sold it to a cruel circus owner to perform in his circus ring. After that a head Ministry of Science discovered him and bought him over to guide him to become a guardian to fight crime, injustice and evil.
A lot of creativity in their internal design is done to decorate this whole restaurant. A lot of empty boxes like this has been used to decorate the wall of the restaurant.
Unagi Temaki - After one minute when I took my own sweet time on this temaki roll, all of the sudden, the temaki bend down! Oh my god! I never had such an experience before in a Japanese restaurant. This shows how stale the seaweed wrap is. It is very hard to find a restaurant that serves fresh and crispy seaweed wrap. Awful!
Since they do emphasize the word "grill" in their restaurant name, I believe it is one of their signature. So I tried Salmon belly and tako. The salmon has a little fishy taste in it but it is still acceptable. While nothing particularly special about the Tako.
As for their chicken thigh, it is still acceptable but nothing really exciting about the taste. Seems like a mediocre skill of grilling which can be done at home.
Reversed Volcano Spider Maki - The appearance looks pretty attractive and as for the taste is pretty good too. It would be better if the soft shell crab is made more crispy. One thing bizarre happened when I was asking the manager who was taking our order that why it is called "reversed". I got an answer which she said that, "I am not sure. I am new to this menu." Wow, this is not really a good answer especially from the manager! In the end, she managed to found out the idea behind the word "reversed" was the rice is wrapping the seaweed. If it is not reversed, it will be the seaweed wrapping the rice.
Mini Chawanmushi in egg shell - Basically, the most basic thing for a Japanese restaurant that has to make good food is making a chawanmushi. If a Japanese restaurant, can't even make the simple chawanmushi, I believe that restaurant will not last even a year. As for their chawanmushi, they barely got a pass. The uni, fish roe and black caviar bring fishy taste in the chawanmushi. I am not sure why but luckily Ann Jee tried the one with prawns which was perfectly fine.
Dobin Mushi - Something which is worth to compliment about this restaurant at last. Their Dobin Mushi was really sweet and full of seafood richness in it. This was the best dishes for that night. However, please do drink it while it is still hot. Once it turned cold, you can taste the unpleasant saltiness in it as if there is a lot of MSG in it.
Red Bean Rice Cake - Rice cake which has been slightly grilled and put into the red bean soup. Plain and not really special enough to give any compliment out of it.
Oh dear! I felt so sorry for my old buddy for bringing her to a not so great Japanese restaurant. I think I should do more survey before bringing my friends to sacrifice their appetite for something I am unsure of their quality.
Ambiance: 4/5
Service: 2/5
Food Serving Speed: Very Fast
Will I Revisit?: No

Koyaku Japanese Dining & Grill
Lot G8 & G9, Ground Floor, 
Podium Block, Faber Tower, 
Jalan Desa Bahagia, Taman Desa, 
58100, Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Tel: 03-7984 4688
Business Hours: 11.00am - 11.00pm (daily)

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