Dig In: Contemporary Japanese for Folks in PJ

The rundown

In Japanese, ‘kintsugi’ translates to ‘golden joinery’, the art of piecing together remnants of broken pottery using gold dust. To this sleepy part of Petaling Jaya, Kintsugi Robatayaki is the missing piece that fits right in. The team describes their food as contemporary Japanese cuisine, but it really is so much more — think traditional robatayaki, redefined with the use of Malaysian ingredients.

The vibe

Pro tip: The restaurant is located on the first floor. It has no signboard as of yet, so look for a grill door and head upstairs to be greeted by imposing wooden sliding doors. Their eye-catching drawings of a geisha and The Great Wave off Kanagawa on the wall will help put you in the mood for Japanese. Coming as a pair? Grab seats at the bar and watch the chefs at work. If you’re planning a visit in bigger groups, call ahead to book a private room — there are two — that accommodates up to eight people. Service is super attentive — our mujicha (barley tea) was refilled discreetly throughout the night — and you get a sense that they genuinely love what they’re doing. We also appreciated how they took the effort to walk us through the menu, seeing it was our first time dining with them.

What’s good

You won’t find the typical Japanese spread of sushi, ramen and maki rolls at Kintsugi Robatayaki. While the heart of their menu is Japanese, you’ll also discover unconventional pairings and even Malaysian ingredients in their dishes. Take the Kintsugi Bacon Special (RM20), housemade bacon cooked over local mangrove charcoal and served with two daily dipping sauces — ours were plum chutney and Hungarian honey. The meat was juicy, peppery (from the sprinkling of Sarawak pepper) and very tasty, even without the sauces. The Unagi (RM30) with kimchi and green apples might not sound like an appetising combination, but the contrasting flavours of sour apples, spicy kimchi and sweet unagi really worked! In fact, it was easily our favourite dish of the night.

In the words of the waiter who served us: “Are you into vegetables?” We ask because Kintsugi’s vegetables or ‘Yasai’ menu is so intriguing, you might end up ordering everything on it. If you had to pick just one, go for the Retasu (RM14), baby romaine lettuce served with mushrooms, pecorino and crème fraîche. The crème fraîche is artistically splattered onto the plate like ink strokes, so be prepared to whip your phones out for this super Insta-worthy dish. More importantly though, the charred greens are delicious. If you’re still craving for some carbs after that, try the dons. The Mini Duo of Tuna Don (RM40) comes with fresh and delicious minced tuna belly, sliced tuna loin, a raw quail egg, fluffy sushi rice and sides of miso soup and interestingly, pickled burdock root. For a sweet end to your already satisfying meal, go for the Sweet Potato (RM15) dessert with grass jelly, rice cake and milk creamer, a dish full of texture and sweetness. With their constantly evolving menu (tasting menus are also available), Kintsugi Robatayaki is where you can always expect to have a good meal. At the end of the day, that’s all we want, really.

Check out what the Burpple community thinks about Kintsugi Robatayaki here!

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