We were privileged enough to be invited to a food tasting in Kin Shui Tei at Tropicana Golf and Country Club recently. This quaint little Japanese restaurant is situated in the main wing of the club. If you are not a member of the club fret not, because you just have to drive through the main guard house and let them know you are heading to the club house for dinner and they’ll give you a placard and thats it. Simple and convenient.
We were accompanied by Mr Tham who is director of the restaurant and he gave us detailed explanation of each dish and how the restaurant came about.
To start the ball rolling, the first dish we had was a potato salad. This salad was a warm salad, with japanese cucumbers, bread crumbs and japanese mayonaise. Very comforting food. The mayo was not heavy but rather very light. I believe it had some miso paste somewhere in there as well, as I could taste abit of miso.
The next dish would make any sashimi lover drool. It was a beautifully decorated sashimi boat ( Sashimi Moriawase) with fresh sashimi of all kinds. The sashimi was supplied fresh that day, so we really had the best of the best. You can tell its fresh and not frozen because when you bite into it, it comes off easily. It was all cut very professionally. Even the salmon roe which I normally avoid cause of the ‘fishy-ness’ was very fresh, cause I ate most of it that night 
We also had the Teppan seafood dish, which had squid, prawns and fish. And on the prawn was seared japanese mayonaise which is freshly made in the kitchen. Oh heavenly.
One of their house specials is their Jumbo Spider Roll. This is a definite must try if you are here. We loved it very much. The role is coated with fish roe and also another layer of green tea. Giving it an edge.
Our next dish came as a bit of a mystery. The waiter walks in with a shell like shape aluminium hot plate and when open lots of steam came out. ( We couldn’t catch it on camera) and inside was stone grilled US Sirloin steak topped with radish, garlic and ginger. Very tender and succulent as you can see. The hot plate is actually heated to a high temperature and the then removed from the heat, after which the beef is placed unto it and the whole dish is wrapped in aluminium to seal in the heat. The high heat from the stone grill sears the outer layer of the meat while the inside of the meat slowly cooks when wrapped in the aluminium foil. So the meat remains juicy and tender.
They also have Wagyu and Kobe beef (Grade A5 – most premium) available. Something for those to consider if they have deeper pockets.
Our last dish was Escargot Garlic Butter. I think the shell was a sea snail shell, it was huge for a snail shell. It can on top of this salt like looking powder which the waitress later lights on fire. Its a very fascinating dish. You basically see your meal cooking in front of you. A new experience. Later as the flames die down, the escargot is ready to eat. Smothered in parsley, garlic ,butter and onion, this is almost a fusion french dish. We use a small spoon to take the escargots out of the shell. It was delicious. Something to try if you want to try something different.
Lastly to top it all off was dessert. We were glad it was fruits cause we were just too full for anything else. This fruit platter was the chef’s creation thats off the menu. It had watermelon, rockmelon and the most expensive of all, Japanese peach. This peach costs up RM50 for one. Its a real privilege to be able to sample that. It was an orangy pink in colour, it tastes like a peach, but sweeter. The chef did not let anything go to waste, he even deep fried the skin of the peach, pisang goreng style, except this was japanese peach skin goreng. A good healthy way to end the meal.
For those looking for a place to break fast, Kin Shui Tei has a ramadhan promo, whereby you pay RM1 for syrup bandung, dates and vanilla ice cream to help start of your meal.
They also have Kaisaki here, where you pay RM100 and the chef comes up with a selection of dishes made from the current available ingredients of the day.
The master chef, Mr Ikuo Tanabe the man behind the restaurant is a has decades of experience in Japanese cooking. He was responsible for the first fine dining Japanese restaurant in KL, Kampachi in Equatorial hotel. With that in mind, you know you are in good hands.
Kin Shui Tei
Tropicana Golf and Country Club,
Jalan Kelab Tropicana,
47410 Petaling Jaya,
Tel: 03-7804 8888 ext 315
Fax: 03-7804 2079
Pork Free
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Sue Ann, 2 years ago
Oh and I forgot to add, that everything on the sashimi boat is edible), including the flowers!! Put some flower petals into your wasabe and soy sauce for some extra fragrance. Remember, the boat’s not edible..so don’t go nibbling on that.