Hanare, The Intermark Hotel - Kuala Lumpur

Add: Ground Floor, The Intermark - 182 Jalan Tun Razak, KL
Tel: +603 2164 2133
Review: Lyrical Lemongrass
We wanted to try a different Japanese, besides the regularly visited Rakuzen, Mizu, Zipangu etc ... so I asked LL (See review above) for some advice. Hanare was one of the 2 short-listed restaurants, so we braved the drive to Tun Razak at rush-hour to have dinner :-)

I chose the "set menu" ... which started with a simple salad.


Deep fried fish fin (For the life of me, I can't remember exactly what fish - I think it was stingray!) whose salty texture went perfectly well with my Sapporo.


The Malay chef (where were the famed Japanese masters that I read about in Hanare!?) then prepared my simple tofu steak, which was very good ...

And our mains arrived ... mine being a Aussie wagyu steak, whilst bbG chose the Unagi. Both were good, but hardly "rocking"!

V's dish, a simple soba in soup, turned out to be the BEST DISH of the night .. Mmmmh, japanese soups rock!

My set menu was completed with a rather bland stir-fried vege dish, and garlic fried rice.

The total bill? RM$300 for the 2.5 of us :-)

Yes ... I liked the decor with lots of wood and granite, and the service from the Japanese "captain" was good too (Pity about her less eloquent waiter), but somehow ... I found the food too ordinary and "safe", perhaps it was due to what we ordered?

What did I think ... Not my fave Japanese, but perhaps I should have ordered some "authentic" Jap stuff like LL did ... Next time!