Aragan Yokocho @ Sunway Velocity

I used to visit Great Eastern Mall to pick up Cookie's snacks but would usually find them out of stock.  So, since finding his favourite (and expensive) snacks at a mall nearest our home, I no longer have to make a trip to Great Eastern Mall for this purpose.

Most dining options at this mall are chain restaurants which we're not too excited about.  Then we spotted Aragan Yokocho @ Sunway Velocity (which I didn't have a clue about) and decided to have a quick bite before heading home.

My first impression was that the place was really huge and the seating was really spacious which I liked.  It looked like a large food court-style space offering different Japanese staples.  It reminded me of J's Gate Dining in Lot 10 but the different 'stalls' in this one looked a bit more 'hidden' and confusing (some even looked deserted with no-one manning it).

It was only upon my return when I googled that I realised that this is the first and largest authentic Japanese restaurant in Asia serving Japanese cuisine from the Kanto region (instead of the more common Kansai region of most Japanese restaurants here).  This is their second outlet, their first being in Quill City Mall.

It seems there are four themed seating areas inspired by the four seasons - spring, summer, autumn and winter.  We took our seats from the hundreds available (they can accommodate over 400 guests at a time). We saw only about 3 or 4 tables occupied (on a weekend we were there) in the vast 'summer' themed space where we were seated.

Once seated, we noticed a tablet on the table with 10 main categories or 10 concept 'stalls' if you will.  The 10 main categories include sushi, tempura, rice bowls, noodles, hotpot, kushikatsu, teppanyaki, robatayaki, sake and a drinks cafe.  Ordering is simply done online which enable the orders to be sent instantly to the various kitchens.

There's also this cute and colourful little origami swan that adorns the tables as your chopstick holder...a nice touch :)  I say colourful coz I saw green, blue and pink ones on other tables (I was just unlucky to get a white one).  Your guess is as good as mine if these are discarded after every service or recycled and reused (>.<).

I ordered the Ika Kamameshi @ RM17 as I wanted something light even though it was mentioned that the dish will take 25 minutes to prepare.  I thought I'll probably get it sooner than that since there were hardly any customers (and I did).  Kamameshi means Japanese rice pilaf cooked in an iron pot.

The dish came nicely presentated in an iron pot (that kept the rice hot) with slithers of squid, shimeji mushrooms, carrots, wood ear mushrooms and snow peas.  I guess you eat it by mixing everything together.

It was also accompanied by a teapot of soup (dashi).

The menu said that this dish can be eaten in two ways.  One is to taste it as it is.  Well, it was tasteless...and Kanto food is supposedly to be saltier (I read that somewhere).

The other way is to taste it with the soup poured into the rice.  It tasted slightly better as the dashi stock was at least a bit more flavoured.  For someone who enjoys subtle tastes in my food, this was way too bland.....even for me.  And the portion was also very measly (oh well, Liang Sandwich Bar to the rescue).

My son had the Ika Yakisoba @ RM18.85, a classic Japanese stir fry noodles with squid and cabbage (found more cabbage than squid) and topped with a fried egg.

Again, it was a bland-tasting noodle.  It looked similar to our local tit pan meen which I'd rather have honestly as our cheaper version of sizzling tit pan yee meen would certainly come with more flavour than this.

Green Tea was RM2.85 per pax.

They currently have a monthly promotion where you'll get an FOC item on your next visit with a minimum spend of RM20.  What irked us even more was that they don't accept credit card for charges below RM50 (and they even have the cheek to display a notice at the cashier counter mentioning that)...ish...potong lagi markah (deduct more points, not that they had any to begin with)! :>(

My Personal Opinion

Although you'll be spoilt for choice here with so many dishes, again I have to say that less is more...and unless you're confident of doing many dishes right, don't! :P

Just two dishes in that tasted outright bland will not encourage me to revisit.  You may think that it isn't fair only after tasting two dishes...and you're right but if they can't even get two simple dishes right (with no crowd), then it becomes an uphill task to convince customers to return.  This was one of the worst meals I had this year (if not the worse), I'm sorry to say.

I think they bit off more than they can chew by doing too much.  They should have spent a little bit more time getting the food right and spend a little bit less time on the look, space and decor of the place.  I did like the comfortable space (and the origami was a nice touch) but that was about all I did enjoy.

I think they wanted to do a concept like J's Gate Dining where they can offer numerous types of Japanese cuisine in a single space...but failed miserably as they just didn't concentrate on getting the food right unfortunately.

Aragan Yokocho

No. 04-16 Level 4

Sunway Velocity Mall

Lingkaran Sunway Velocity

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-9201 0863