I've been to the newly-opened Sushi Tei 5 times last month and I must say it is the best Japanese restaurant in KK although to be honest, I've not been to any of the Sushi Kings yet. The restaurant is very pleasant, with a light wood-accented interior and a view of the sea which made me felt that I was in Singapore rather than small city KK. The sushi train is in the center of the room and the banquette seats, which are cosy and private, are set around the periphery of the restaurant.
Karaage chicken, yummy.
Yakitori, RM9/USD3, disappointing because the chicken was overcooked and tough. This will be the last time I order grilled meat in a non-kushiyaki restaurant.
Soft-shell crab rolls, RM8/USD2.60.
Unagi (eel) rolls, RM8/USD2.60.
Fried udon. I didn't like this because I had better (in Genoa, Italy, of all places). I didn't like the canned tuna and the taste of what I think was ponzu sauce instead of regular light soy sauce.
Cod with cod roe, RM26.90/USD8.80. This was very expensive by any standard because it was a tiny, real tiny piece. But it was VERY good--soft, moist and tasty. Still, I wouldn't order this again unless E who paid for this lunch does it again.
Garlic fried rice, RM8/USD2.60. All the Japanese restaurants get this dish right, don't they.
Chocolate-coated strawberry ice cream, gorgeous because the strawberry flavor (real, no coloring too) was so good but they were the size of choc truffles and cost RM11/USD3.60 for 6.
The reasons why this restaurant has taken the town (the queue is long especially for dinner) and my kids, who have been there 10 times in one month, by storm are because the variety is wide (especially the sushi of course), the quality is above all the other Japanese restaurants in town (udon noodles are not dried packets noodles, rice is short-grain, plates are ceramics not plastic) and the yearly membership (get it before they close it) gives you 10 % discount on all meals (20% discount five days before and after your birthday) and coupons worth RM180 for the membership fee of RM99. Btw, the membership form isracist racial--it requires you to fill in your race, like some of those weird forms we have that require you to fill in your religion, so I wrote 'N/R' on it. Come on, what's race got to do with a restaurant membership form? Malaysia Boleh.
I wasn't impressed with Sushi Tei, Vivo Vity, Singapore because Singapore has some of the best Japanese restaurants in SE Asia, maybe even Asia. But in KK, well, Sushi Tei shines above the rest. My only complain is that the portions are stingy (read: expensive) but then that's always the case with Japanese food. You want cute and miniature, you get it at Japanese restaurants. Btw, Sushi Tei KK's chawan mushi is too firm, unlike the one at Vivo City, which was perfect. I had Sushi Tei KK's chawan mushi twice and both times they failed to please me.
Next up is "Dinner at Sushi Tei", that is if my son remembers to upload all the photos from the memory card he accidentally brought to Melbourne, leaving me with nothing to blog about.
Sushi Tei
Lot G-68, Ground Floor,
Suria Sabah Shopping Mall
Kota Kinabalu
Tel:(088) 485 595
Karaage chicken, yummy.
Yakitori, RM9/USD3, disappointing because the chicken was overcooked and tough. This will be the last time I order grilled meat in a non-kushiyaki restaurant.
Soft-shell crab rolls, RM8/USD2.60.
Unagi (eel) rolls, RM8/USD2.60.
Fried udon. I didn't like this because I had better (in Genoa, Italy, of all places). I didn't like the canned tuna and the taste of what I think was ponzu sauce instead of regular light soy sauce.
Cod with cod roe, RM26.90/USD8.80. This was very expensive by any standard because it was a tiny, real tiny piece. But it was VERY good--soft, moist and tasty. Still, I wouldn't order this again unless E who paid for this lunch does it again.
Garlic fried rice, RM8/USD2.60. All the Japanese restaurants get this dish right, don't they.
Chocolate-coated strawberry ice cream, gorgeous because the strawberry flavor (real, no coloring too) was so good but they were the size of choc truffles and cost RM11/USD3.60 for 6.
The reasons why this restaurant has taken the town (the queue is long especially for dinner) and my kids, who have been there 10 times in one month, by storm are because the variety is wide (especially the sushi of course), the quality is above all the other Japanese restaurants in town (udon noodles are not dried packets noodles, rice is short-grain, plates are ceramics not plastic) and the yearly membership (get it before they close it) gives you 10 % discount on all meals (20% discount five days before and after your birthday) and coupons worth RM180 for the membership fee of RM99. Btw, the membership form is
I wasn't impressed with Sushi Tei, Vivo Vity, Singapore because Singapore has some of the best Japanese restaurants in SE Asia, maybe even Asia. But in KK, well, Sushi Tei shines above the rest. My only complain is that the portions are stingy (read: expensive) but then that's always the case with Japanese food. You want cute and miniature, you get it at Japanese restaurants. Btw, Sushi Tei KK's chawan mushi is too firm, unlike the one at Vivo City, which was perfect. I had Sushi Tei KK's chawan mushi twice and both times they failed to please me.
Next up is "Dinner at Sushi Tei", that is if my son remembers to upload all the photos from the memory card he accidentally brought to Melbourne, leaving me with nothing to blog about.
Sushi Tei
Lot G-68, Ground Floor,
Suria Sabah Shopping Mall
Kota Kinabalu
Tel:(088) 485 595
I'm liking Sushi Tei a lot especially since good Japanese restaurants are hard to come by in KK. However the quality of their dishes is uneven. Some things they do better than others. Need to discover.
ReplyDeleteUnagi (eel) rolls, RM8/USD2.60?
ReplyDeletehave you gotten over your "fear" of eel? must be that someone else at the table ordered it again.
racial profiling or simply a matter of demographic data being collected to better understand who their customer base is? it could very will be an insensitive way of them wanting to better understand who the client base is.
i probably would have done the same as you though. or like my dad used to do when he would see that on a form, he would write stuff like pygmy or Native American or swimmer. LOL
You should write a KK food guide, or an article like 'top 10 places to eat in KK', for people who are visiting KK for the first time who don't have a clue on where to go for food. Maybe that will even further promote your blog
ReplyDeleteand I don't mean chain restaurants like Sushi Tei, I mean food that can be found only in KK, eg ngau chap, sang nyuk mien, etc.
ReplyDeleteHi Terri, nice to see u back to blogging regularly... but that may mean that you have more time alone, which may be a bad thing? Anyways, I've read somewhere that out of Japan, Singapore has one of the top 5 japanese restaurant in the world (yeah, not just Asia). Can't recall which restaurant that is though but I remember it being a restaurant in one of the posh hotels here in Singapore.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, in Singapore, you are spoiled for choices and apart from Sakae Sushi, I have not had a bad Japanese meal in any restaurant here. To be fair, Sakae Sushi serve reasonable jap meal for the lower range consumers. I've tried Sushi King in KL (Can't recall which one) and it is enough to put me off jap food in Malaysia for ages!
Keep up the blogging sis.
Cheers
Next time try writing 'Human' under 'race'.
ReplyDeleteThe worst sushi I have ever eaten is at Yo!Sushi, a popular UK conveyor belt chain. It is also disgustingly expensive - I had two handrolls and one small plate of maki and the bill was GBP11. Which would not have been so bad if the sushi had been edible. But the rice was hard and tasteless and the nori was soggy. Most of the menu has been indigenized so as not to scare Brits so you get lots of teriyaki chicken, battered prawns and crispy duck. Crispy duck wtf? Well you see to Brits, crispy duck is *the* definitive Oriental flavour so all cuisines east of Calcutta and west of Honolulu translates into crispy duck.
It is utterly depressing how savvy businesspeople can make money selling overpriced and mediocre food.
fooman: yes, some hits n some misses but generally good. still, overpriced.
ReplyDeletelunch guy: haha i can eat one piece of unagi roll w/o feeling sick but if it's in a whole piece as in grilled unagi, i can see the pattern of the flesh n imagine the fish's snake-like body and tt's a put-off.
well, i'll cooperate if the demographic data is not for the wrong reasons. i've been thinking about this n i think most of us fill official forms w/o hesitation bc we've been doing it automatically n w/o thinking. i don't want to even fill my residential add now--why shd i tell ppl where i live? what's tt got to do with say doc's clinic? they never house call anyway.
don't even get me started on the job forms (i like tt in ur country you don't even have to reveal your sex. n religion n race) and exam papers in the country. do i think it's for demographic reasons? yeah, but for insidious ones.
anon: my top ten list would prolly be 3 ngew chap 3 sang nyuk mien 2 bun mien...
ReplyDeleteok, will think about it. thnx for the suggestn!
joh: i thought u said i remind u of ur MIL? but sonny, i don't mind calling you "bro" :D
anon: does sound like crap. the worst jap i've eaten here is wagamama which uses local ingredients n cheap plastic plates. and they even stole the name from tt brit chain restaurant.
anon: shd read 'jap food' insead of 'jap'.
ReplyDeleteFunny you bring up British Wagamama. That's crap too. Peddling overpriced pan-Asian rubbish to gullible white people. Gyoza (which are grilled can you believe it) are 5.15 for a serving of 5! Lacklustre noodle dishes cost easily twice what they would cost in any standard London Chinatown restaurant. And yet it is a thriving national chain - go figure!
ReplyDeleteHi Terri I was there on Friday with some friends who are regulars. They told me that food quality is starting to vary now i.e. sometimes good sometimes just ok only. But even thier 'just ok only' is still miles better than a lot of other places here in KK.
ReplyDeleteI agree in that I liked the menu offerings, and I was quite pleased with the fact that there is a page devoted just to soup alone. I for one will be going back to round 2.
However this time I will grab a table far,far,far away from the entrance if I can help it - the constant screaming of welcomes and goodbyes to customers gave me a throbbing headache!
Nice sushi. Must try the Miracle kangen water also. Special invitation only.
ReplyDeletergds
Hi.. you can try ichiban boshi at suntec city next time u visit singapore.. it's decent...
ReplyDelete