For my birthday celebration last month, I celebrated in Gonbei together with ys and my family. We’ve noticed this restaurant for quite some time, finally we had the chance to try it out.
Gonbei is located at Relish Floor, with an outstanding design of wood and bamboos on the outside.
The entrance to the restaurant.
After talking to the waitress, we learned that this restaurant is owned by YTL Corporation Berhad, the same owner as Starhill Gallery. The interior of this restaurant is superb, everything was perfectly planned and designed. There are 5 different counters in this restaurant, Sake, Robatayaki (炉端焼き), Teppanyaki (鉄板焼き), Sushi (寿司) and Tempura (天ぷら). We managed to capture the photos of some of the counters. Anyway, this is the sake counter where sake (酒) and shochu (焼酎) are available. Gonbei has the largest collection of Japanese sake and shochu in Malaysia.
This is the robatayaki counter where ingredients such as seafood, beef and other vegetables will be grilled in front of the customers. The ingredients will be placed on the ice but because it was quite late when we left the restaurant, the counter was already closed.
This is the teppanyaki counter that most of us would be familiar with.
The tatami (畳) room. Instead of the using woven straw, Gonbei replaced it with fine wood. The design is really traditional and attractive at the same time.
This would be the yakimono (焼き物) room where customers can grill their food on their own.
This was where we sat.
So, let’s begin with our meal. For our sashimi, we decided to have tokujo toro (特上とろ). Priced at RM48 per piece, this premier belly tuna tasted absolutely delicious, one of the best sashimi that we’ve tasted so far. The sashimi was so fresh and so soft, can’t describe how lovely it tasted. This is something that you really can’t miss if you love sashimi!
Here’s our gonbeimaki (権兵衛巻) for RM32. My father decided that we should try out their signature assorted filling. We found this really delicious as combination of the ingredients such as tobiko (とびこ), kanpyo (干瓢), egg and crab sticks was fantastic! Tobiko means flying fish roe while kanpyo is a type of dried gourd usually used in sushi.
Knowing me so well, my parents ordered my all time favourite dish for me – kaki furai (牡蠣フライ). This deep fried oyster costs RM10 per piece. It was served with potato salad and fresh vegetables. This was slightly disappointing because the batter was slightly too thick and the oyster did not taste juicy as we did in Tykoh Inagiku.
We also had gindara teriyaki (銀鱈照焼). Priced at RM32, this sablefish was grilled to perfection and the fish was soft and juicy. The sweet teriyaki sauce gave a stronger taste to the dish. We really enjoyed this dish.
Still not satisfied yet, we had an inaniwa udon (稲庭うどん) for RM20. This udon is slightly different from the usual udon as it is a type of dry udon. It is flatter in size compared to the normal udon. It tasted quite well and a generous serving of mushroom, chicken, leek and wakame (若布) were given. The soup was rather flavourful, overall it was really satisfying.
We also ordered a soba (そば) for RM18. It was rather similar to the udon, quite delicious too.
Instead of serving green tea, they served brown tea. Although it was slightly expensive at RM3, we found the tea more aromatic compared to the normal green tea. Overall it was a very satisfying meal, the environment was excellent and the service was very good as well. For more information about this restaurant, check out this website. It was a very memorable birthday celebration with my loved one and my family.
Restaurant Information
T2, Relish Floor,
Starhill Gallery
181, Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel : 03-27823801
