The All New Nagomi Japanese Restaurant @ Jaya 33

The All New Nagomi Japanese Restaurant @ Jaya 33

Two months ago, this popular restaurant revamped its image from serving Shabu shabu, bento boxes and limited sushi items, to include Japanese food of all types. Salads, Sushi, Sashimi, Nabemono, Kushiyaki, Yakimono, Teppanyaki, Agemono, Nimono & Zousui, Oshikuji…

It’s all there for you in one giant, picturesque menu.

Nagomi in Japanese, means relaxed and comfortable. It is the brainchild of Master Chef Tanabe San, who reigns supreme in the Yosh! Group of restaurants. With outlets in Menara Hap Seng, Hartamas Shopping Centre and a soon to be opened outlet in Beijing, China, its success does indeed stretch across continents.

You can enter via two entrances.

One through the mall or the other facing the main street.

The semi-private seating at the mall side is apparently more popular with diners for its cozy booths. Personally, I preferred the street side of the restaurant.

It had open table seatings, hand-painted Japanese lanterns, slender wooden branches, a Sashimi and Kushiyaki bar.

Eddie Kong (Business Development, Catering & Event Manager, Yosh! Brands) and Debbie Wong (Adevertising & Promotion Senior Executive) welcomed Terry (Red FM Drive), Yin (Red Breakfast Producer) and Alvin(Photographer) and I with open arms. And with a colossal bright blue bottle of Japaneese Sake.

Hana-bonbori, a dry base sake with good body and delicate freshness, priced at RM60 for 300ml, RM128 for 720ml, and RM 249 for 1800 ml. Can you guess which one we had?

The perfect accompaniment for sake or beer is Edamame and Deep Fried Octopus Legs.

Edamame

Deep Fried Octopus Legs

With similar items on the menu to its sister restaurant Kin Shui Tei, Nagomi is far less taxing on the wallet. Dishes range from RM 3 to RM12 for an order of grilled skewers, RM8 to RM28 for a Salad, and sashimi items can cost anything from RM 18 for Octopus and RM90 for Toro.

We started off the meal Nagomi’s signature Mango Salada.

Fresh Romaine lettuce tossed with succulent mango slices, crab sticks, salmon sashimi, crunchy croutons and a smattering of bubbly Tobikko (Flying-fish roe). The dressing was excellent, a secret recipe passed down by Master Chef Tanabe which had a wasabi base and thousand island ingredients.

Chef Sam heads up the kitchen at Nagomi Jaya 33, and rightly so.

Working his way up from a dishwasher to numerous restaurants in New York, he has returned to his home and earned the honour to run the kitchen here. He presented us with the Sakura Sashimi Moriawase, a selection of various raw items, chosen by his knowledgeable self.

Our jaws dropped at the beautiful presentation of seafood in a big bowl of crushed ice. This platter speaks miles for itself, as proven by Yin, not a great sashimi fan, who found herself polishing of the fresh, juicy slices of fish on her own!

Sake (Salmon)

Magura Toro (Tuna belly)

Shiro Magura (White Tuna/Butterfish)

Magura Akami (Tuna)

Hotate (Scallop)

Kanpachi (Amberjack)

Ameabi (Australian Banana Prawn, seasonal)

Debbie recommended another house specialty and one of her favourite dishes at Nagomi, the Golden Roll.

Warm, deep fried tempura prawns cuddled in Japanese rice, and wrapped with slender mango slices.

The combination of warm, crunchy, salty prawn and cold, sweet, melt in your mouth mango was luscious.

Next up, a selection from the Kushiyaki (Barbecue) section. Each item comes on two skewers.

Beef with Enoki

Scallop wrapped in Beef

Salmon

And the winner… drumroll please…

Beef Tongue

Terry and I loved the tongue and its springy texture, bursting with smoky flavour and lip smacking goodness. We ordered seconds.

The Nagomi No. 1 is another signature dish.

Pan fried Kanpachi (Amberjack) wrapped around a mountain of shredded crabmeat,doused in a secret sauce and topped off with fish roe. A must try.

Eddie slotted in an order of Potato Salade, another signature dish with fresh lettuce leaves, with shredded carrots and red cabbage, succulent cherry tomatoes.

On the side you’ll find a creamy serving of mashed potato, with plenty of texture and interspersed with salmon slivers. Sitting softly on top of that is a poached egg, glisteningly screaming out to be cracked. Mixed all the ingredients together and enjoy!

It was time for the famous Nabemono item. Shabu shabu is basically a Japanese version of steamboat. Rumour has it that Shabu shabu originates from Mongolia from the time of Gengkis Khan, created to bring people closer together.

In present day at Nagomi, you’re served a miso based soup cooked at your own personal induction cooker.

Each serving comes with rice, a plate piled high with raw vegetables, mushroom, tofu, and a 100% carb free glass noodle.

“100% carb free?” I exclaimed. “Are you sure?” Debbie laughed and guaranteed that it was the perfect noodle for the carb-consious dieter like myself. In went the vegetables and all the contents on the plate, boiling at a gentle simmer to flavour the soup.

Terry, of course, was more interested in the meat. First we tried the Chicken Shabu shabu set with minched chicken fashioned into a well, with a raw egg in the centre, adorned with thinly sliced chicken meat.

Dig into the center, unleash the egg that coats the chicken to give it a lovely, juicy finish.

The second was the magnificent Kobe beef, also delicately sliced into sizeable slivers.

Debbie explains that we’re to pick up a piece and perform the act of Shabu shabu – dip and whirl, dip and whirl.

Three times of this motion is just about enough, allowing the beef to stay tender and not overcooked. Bathe your vegetables and cooked meat in three homemade sauces. A favourite was the Sesame sauce, made from peanuts, white sesame and ponzu. I also quite like the fragrant peanut, chilli and garlic sauce that complemented the beef perfectly.

Nagomi Outlet Manager Andy Hew joined us and topped up our order with Ribeye and Salmon.

Ribeye

Salmon

We discovered that the more items we added to the soup, the more delicious and irresistible it was. Sweet and salty, we watched as it transformed from a clear consommé to a rich, flavourful broth. “It’s so good I could eat the bowl!” proclaimed Terry, proudly holding up his empty bowl.

It was dessert time, and after a feast like that, all we craved was something light and tasty to cleanse the palate.

Almond Tofu

Refreshingly wobbly, the tofu is infused with almond kernel. A very distinctive taste, and you will either love it or not.

Grape Cheesecake

All of us agreed that the Grape Cheesecake was exceptional, and we’d never had anything like it. A dense, crispy crust, with a fluffy cheesy filling mixed with chopped grapes that left a sweet sour finish on your tongue.

Tempura Banana with Vanilla Ice-cream

Sugary and syrupy are the words I would use to describe this dessert. Highly recommended for those with a sweet tooth, the crispy tempura battered banana is coated in a thick caramel sugar, but the sweeteness is toned down by the homemade vanilla ice cream, complete with seeds from fresh vanilla bean.

Oh, what a wonderful meal it was. If you’ve got a Japanese food craving, then head to Nagomi to satisfy. It’s wholesome, hearty homemade food, cooked with care and love, with a crazy amount of variety, and it’s also extremely affordable. I loved it, we loved it, and I hope you do too.

*Eddie, Debbie, Vincent, Chef Sam, and Andy, thank you so much for having us and treating us to such a wonderful meal.

*Special thanks to Alvin (www.damienphotography.com) for the beautiful photographs.

CONTACT

Nagomi @ Jaya33
PG-02B, Ground Floor, Jaya33
3, Jalan Semangat, Section 13
46200 Petaling Jaya
Selangor, Malaysia

W: www.nagomishabushabu.com

Opening Hours:

Mondays to Fridays: 12 noon to 3pm and 6pm to 10.30pm

Saturdays & Sundays: 12 noon to 11pm

Telephone: 03-7956 2330

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