squeak. speak. roar!

Howsy is leaving us for the land of the free soon! Rikey was a trooper enough to organise a little informal bloggers makan gathering for our sensintrovert to show him …. how much we can all eat. lol.

We checked out this restaurant called Ichiban Boshi (Rikey’s choice!) located at Pavilion, a spanking new mall in the heart of the capital’s Golden Triangle. Less with the words and on with the pictures!

Nat and I were late because I end work late mah.

We found the restaurant!

The exterior.

The interior.

Roasted green tea. Interesting, it become black tea!

Salmon sashimi. They had no gas and we ate all the complimentary sushi. So we ordered something that doesn’t require gas.

My Unagi Kabayaki set. Eeps, pictures are all a tad blur.

It came with salmon.

The Unagi Kabayaki - grilled eel in egg

I think this was deep fried lotus root. I’m not too sure.

Nat’s Chicken Katsu.

Zorro’s Beef Kabayaki. The beef is still raw meant to be cooked on a bed of egg and tofu with a flame at the bottom. It was quite a sight. Five of us ordered it!

My chawan mushi.

My soft shell crab temaki. Yummiest thing ever.

The aftermath.

The damage. Which wasn’t REAL damage actually.

They had a sushi takeaway bar.

Yes, I’d like some please! :)

Thanks for the fun night Rikey, Howsy, Nat, Tony, SK, Zorro and Eli! :)

Pavilion (which is too new to even have a website and they really should just pay me to make one) is fairly high end by my standards but a notch less than Starhill. So it’s more like an uppity One Utama or KLCC. But I love the high ceilings and the wide corridors. My only issue, the escalators are a tad far apart and they are pretty narrow. But really, why shop there when you’ve got Sungai Wang Plaza nearby? I say go to Pavilion for the food!

As for the restaurant, I must say I will definitely go back again (to try the beef!). The price is really affordable. The amount you saw was for 8 people and we all went home stuffed to the brim. The beef may not be Kobe beef but quality is subjective. I was personally impressed by the excellent service. Despite the food taking ages to arrive, the waiters and waitresses were honest and sincerely apologetic. It is a far cry from really terrible restaurants where their staff knows nothing and well, won’t bother waiting the table to avoid any form of eye-contact! Ichiban Boshi’s staff keep us up to date on the gas shortage problem and that they needed time to heat up th oil to cook and even gave us complimentary sushi because of the wait. Our cups were continuously filled, there were no complaints that we were making silly demands and they always kept a smile on their faces.

I approve. Tony noted they were Filipinos. Hats off to the Filipino service industry! Ours have much to learn from them.

Food-wise, it was nothing to shout about but those who ate the beef were really pleased. Nat wasn’t too taken by his chicken. I found my unagi a little bit bland. Perhaps because it was in steamed egg which took away the flavour. Wasabi and soy sauce were fairly good substitutes, I guess. I’m not that fussy. And Rikey was right, the salmon is thick and pretty fresh. The sashimi selection was not bad and again, pricing was really decent, not the kind that would cost you can arm or a leg to eat some strange raw fish.

The interior is spacious and it has got a sushi conveyor belt in the middle. But why eat sushi when you can try their more unique ala carte menu?

I think I wanna round up some friends and go there again. For the affordable food and the awesome service :) And their desserts :)

Ichiban Boshi
168, Jalan Bukit Bintang
Lot 1.14 Pavilion
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2141 6621
Fax: 03-2141 6641
Mon-Fri: 11.30am to 10.00pm
Sat-Sun: 11.00am to 10.00pm
Last order: 9.30pm