Two Pesos is a charming steamboat restaurant that started in SS2 and has since expanded into multiple locations in Klang Valley.
Despite the ongoing challenges in F&B business, they are doing extremely well and their outlets are usually full house. Sometimes, you even need to queue to get in.

Taiwanese style mini steamboat is Two Pesos’ specialty, where each diner gets his or her own pot to cook the food with. There are more than a dozen of choices and it’s not limited to hot pot only, as stone grill options are available too.

Based on what I read from other customers’ feedback, the Milky Seafood Pot @ RM19.80 is one of the most well received item. I have to say their recommendation was spot on and I liked the sweet milky taste that complements both seafood and meat well. Portion wise the pot was loaded with plenty of vegetables at the bottom so it’s actually quite filling.

The add ons are affordable. A portion of seafood or meat usually costs RM7.20 but it’s RM13 for 2, so there’s a bit of saving. We had the Australian beef slice and fish fillets. In hindsight, we would have asked for the pork slices instead.

SL had the Japanese Sukiyaki Pot and the ingredients were slightly different. I took a sip of the Sukiyaki broth and it was seasoned just right, not too sweet nor salty.

Overall it was an enjoyable steamboat meal which came to a total of slightly over RM50. We had a great time here and appreciated the freshness of the ingredients and the effectiveness of the dipping sauces.
Pricing wise I thought it was alright considering a normal set for 2 at the normal steamboat restaurant would have set you back by around RM36. And that’s not including the extra meat slices yet. Furthermore, there’s no service charge here and all the prices quoted are already inclusive of GST.

The post Two Pesos Mini Steamboat @ Kota Damansara appeared first on Malaysia Food & Travel Blog.

Safe to say steamboat, or hot pot is more popular in Klang Valley than any other places in Malaysia. There’s simply something special about this cook-it-yourself experience that keeps us coming back for more.
Maybe it’s because you don’t actually need to have an expensive 8-course Chinese dinner to get together for a meal with family and friends. Or maybe you just enjoy swishing thinly sliced meats and dip them into your favorite sauces.

Then there are plenty of soup choices that make every steamboat meal different. If the weather is chilly, go for tom yum or ‘ma lat’ soup. If you need something nourishing or to boost your energy, opt for the herbal ones. Even after you have tried it all, milky pork bone soup will always be a great choice to fall back on.
Here is a compilation of my tried and tested ones for you to explore. The list includes a la carte, buffet, Japanese shabu shabu, Hong Kong style and Taiwanese restaurants – basically any place that lets you cook something in a pot of boiling soup.

** click on the Prev and Next buttons to navigate the list, it’s not in any particular order. All images are COPYRIGHTED, and may not be altered or used for any purpose and in any form without written consent of vkeong.com **

Harbour Steamboat (海港火锅)

Hong Kong HotPot (香港热锅)

Yezi (椰子)

Coconut Steamboat (好椰火锅)

Tian Siang Hui Wei Hot Pot (天香回味)

Ba Sheng Zai Huo Guo (巴生仔火锅)

Sukishi Japanese Sukiyaki & Sushi Buffet

Chun Ciou Hot Pot (马来西亚春秋战锅)

Popo Steamboat Cafe (宝宝火锅)

Only Me BBQ Steamboat Buffet (唯我铁板生锅)

Two Pesos (兩披索靓锅)

Coco Steamboat Restaurant (海底炉)

Xiao Lao Wang Hotpot (小捞王)

Senthai & Mookata Thai Steamboat

OIC Cafe Steamboat Buffet

Taifeng Taiwanese Hotpot (台风台式火锅)

Fat One Steamboat Buffet (肥一自助火鍋)

Kurata Japanese Restaurant

Oppa Steamboat Buffet (欧巴火锅)

QQ BBQ Steamboat Buffet (QQ 铁板烧火锅店)

Hometown Steamboat (好家乡火锅世家)

Ho Ho Steamboat (好好海鲜火锅之家)

Happy City Steamboat (快乐城海鲜火锅)

Other Worthy Mentions

• EatMor Paradise Steamboat Buffet @ Kepong / Damansara Utama
• Dian Huo Xin Wo (点火心窝) @ Kelana Jaya
• Suki-ya Japanese Hot Pot @ Mont Kiara / Pavilion / Paradigm Mall / Setapak Sentral / Da:men USJ / Klang Parade
• Volcano Shabu Shabu Buffet @ Cyberjaya
• Citarasa Seafood Market Steamboat @ NSK Kuchai Lama

The post Steamboat Restaurants to Eat in KL & Klang Valley appeared first on Malaysia Food & Travel Blog.

The first time we came to Dian Huo Xin Wo, it was still operating at their old location in SS4. I remember I was hooked on their crustacean roe soup which led me to rank them as one of my favorite steamboat restaurants in PJ.
A few months later, they shifted to SS6. We dropped by for dinner recently but unfortunately, we found that not only the price had gone up, the quality had declined as well.

Although the crustacean roe soup did not taste as good as it used to be, it’s still my most recommended soup here. Get the 1/2 pot (RM13) and pair it off with another soup of your choice.

Dian Huo Xin Wo does not offer any set meal so you can only order a la carte items. The menu consists of a variety of handmade meat balls, dumplings, meat slices, seafood and vegetables. If you are looking for a meaty meal, the Millennium Pork Loin @ RM19 is probably the best-value choice.

It’s hard to go wrong with their handmade meat balls. There are ten different types to choose from but we always stick to the mushroom pork ball @ RM8.50 and mixed treasure seafood ball @ RM9.50. The latter is full of shrimp, squid and crab filament, delicious. Some other items we tried that are worth ordering include the golden egg pork ball and freshwater shrimp ball.

The Grouper Fish Head @ RM28 was the most expensive item we had, yet most disappointing. To be fair, we never expected it to be super fresh, but it tasted like it had been sitting in the freezer for way too long.

Come to think of it, we could have left the place with a more positive note if the fish head we had was actually fresh. That did not happen so we ended up to scrutinizing the other shortcomings of our meal.
In fact, I wanted to include Dian Huo Xin Wo into my personal list of best steamboats, but abandoned the idea after this. Overall, I still feel this is still a decent place to have steamboat – just not as good as it was.

The post Dian Huo Xin Wo Steamboat Restaurant @ Kelana Jaya appeared first on Malaysia Food & Travel Blog.

Looking back, our previous vacation to Taiwan 8 years ago was a touristy one. We went to as many night markets as time allowed and and ate almost exclusively at the food stands. The only proper sit down meal we had was probably at Din Tai Fung – which we had to queue for a long time. Years later, we realized that it was a mistake to focus so much on street food, as we learned that Taiwan has plenty of great restaurants as well.

So for our trip to Taiwan recently, we decided that there are three things we need to do: try their Japanese food, have dinner at a 熱炒 shop (something like our Tai Chow) and eat in a hot pot restaurant. For hot pot, we picked 无老锅 (Wulao Guo / Elixir Health Pot). It is one of the most prestigious hot pot restaurants in Taipei and also a spin off of the famous 鼎王麻辣鍋 (Tripod King).
To some, it might seem weird to have steamboat in Taipei. But for us, it was a must in order to understand their hot pot culture better. After all, more and more Taiwanese hot pot restaurants are opening in KL, so our opinions only have merit if we actually dined in a hot pot restaurant in Taiwan before. Although this was a costly meal, it was thoroughly enjoyable and most importantly, eye-opening.

Wulao Guo offers two kinds of soups: Layered Tofu White Soup and Spicy Wulao Soup. As expected, you can order it yin yong style but that it will cost more. For the Twin-Side Hotpot, the soups are are chargeable at NT$159/pax plus an additional NT$180/table.
So if there are two of you, then the soup alone would cost NT$159 x 2 + NT$180 = NT$498. And if you opt for ginseng and ice cream tofu, there’s an additional $20/pax. I’d say just get the Twin-Side Hotpot with everything in for the fullest experience because the extra cost is negligible.

Once you orders have been taken, the staff will provide a brief yet concise introduction on their hot pot. Those who are dining in smaller groups like 2-3 pax are encouraged to refer to their ten best sellers since the portion for meat and seafood are meant for 4 pax and above.
Each table has bottles of the white soup for guests to replenish the pots themselves, rather than having to flag the staff for it. After your order has arrived, you will hardly be interrupted for a more intimate and private dining experience.

We had the Pork Shoulder @ NT$288, Scallop Paste @ NT$278, Assorted Meatball Plate @ NT$248 and Fried Bread Sticks @ NT$68. Among all, we liked the scallop paste and assorted meat balls the most, and if given the chance, we would have gotten pork belly instead of pork shoulder.

This is how the ‘ice cream tofu’ (NT$30/pc) looks like when it’s ready to be eaten. To be clear, it’s not exactly an ice cream but made with squid paste, milk and egg. It had a firm marshmellow kind of texture that melts away in your mouth.

As for the soup, Wulao Guo uses a traditional cooking method which involves boiling down ingredients such as chicken bone, large pork bone, onion, scallion, ginger and garlic to draw out their flavors and essences. This creates a milky broth, full of collagen and tastes naturally sweet.
Then, over a dozen of Chinese herbs and spices are added to infuse even more flavor and aroma, followed by duck blood jellies, ‘layered tofu’, chicken / pork bone soup and various seasonings for the final touches. The duck blood is a peculiar ingredient which I guess most people wouldn’t dare to try. But if you take pork blood cubes, you will find this perfectly acceptable.

Lastly, some other things worth mentioning:
– The waiting staff would bow before turning away and leaving your table. Talk about service.
– The Layered Tofu soup is super flavorful on its own and anything that gets cooked in it will taste delicious. Dipping sauces are not even required.
– The Spicy Wulao Soup is kind of different from the normal ‘mala soup’. It is not as numbing and spicy as you would expect and it’s drinkable.
– Walk-ins are OK but you are encouraged to make a booking to secure a table that fits your party size. We were lucky to be able to get a table without any reservation.
– Dining time is limited to 90 minutes so you can’t linger as much as you want.
– No set menu offered here, the hot pot items are only available a la carte.
– Hot tea, sauces and white rice are included in the meal without charge.
– For 2 pax, the items you saw we ordered were more than enough. Anything more will most likely result in wastage.

The post Elixir Health Pot 无老锅 @ Taipei (Wulao Zhongshan) appeared first on Malaysia Food & Travel Blog.

Among the 22 species of fugu (puffer fish) that you can eat in Japan, the ‘torafugu’ or tiger blowfish is recognized as the highest grade and most poisonous. Because of that, chefs have to go through years of training before being lawfully allowed to prepare fugu for consumption.

Although fugu is available across Japan, over 60% of fugu fished in Japan is consumed in Osaka alone according to reports. That means there are a lot of fugu specialty restaurants to be found here.

If you are visiting Osaka and want to try fugu, E Street is a good place to start. It’s an arcade housing probably hundreds of restaurants where you can also find Guenpin Fugu, a restaurant chain that has more than 90 shops in the country specializing in fugu cuisine.

Like the name says, Guenpin Fugu uses only wild torafugu in their restaurant whether it’s hotpot, sashimi, sushi, BBQ or deep fried. The recommended way to enjoy fugu here is by having it as the main course Washoku style complete with rice, appetizer, soup and side dishes.
A couple of course menu are available which you can pick according to your party size and budget. The most affordable option starts from 3980 yen and includes 5 dishes – just nice for 2 pax. We opted for the Guen Course which comes with parboiled torafugu skin, torafugu sashimi, hot-pot, Japanese rice porridge and dessert.

Since fugu flesh is quite chewy, it has to be thinly sliced when made into sashimi. The slices are so thin that they are almost translucent yet does not break easily. The flesh is firm with a mild and subtly sweet taste, almost flavorless actually if not for the soy sauce and other condiments.

When cooked, fugu flesh turns white and tastes similar to frog legs both in terms of flavor and texture. I was surprised because I had the impression that fugu was going to be mind blowingly delicious because people are risking their lives just to enjoy this delicacy.
Having said that, I am still glad that I had the opportunity to try fugu, moreover in Japan, as it had been one of my bucket list items.

After finishing the hotpot, the remaining soup which will be used to cook Japanese style porridge. As simple as it looks, the porridge was actually nice and you can taste the natural sweetness from the fugu and other ingredients.

For a totally different experience, Guenpin Fugu also serves fugu in Japanese-Italian fusion style. Instead of a clear dashi broth, the hotpot would be filled with Italian herbs and mixed seafood. After you are done with eating the fugu and seafood, the soup is used to prepare pasta.

Flavor wise, you can expect the Japanese-Italian version to be tastier because of the extra seasonings. As for the pasta, it was just alright. I liked the Japanese rice porridge more.

Affogato was served as an end to the meal.

In Malaysia, fugu is sometimes offered at the higher end Japanese restaurants as a seasonal item. But if you can’t wait or can’t fly to Japan for it, Singapore would be the nearest place because Guenpin Fugu opened their first restaurant at Maxwell Chambers earlier this year.

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DreamWorks’s first Kung Fu Panda Kitchen was opened at Sunway Pyramid West a couple of months ago. Like the name says, the large restaurant focuses on Po – the main star of Kung Fu Panda franchise and his love for food.

So it’s no wonder the restaurant offers eat-all-you-can steamboat buffet @ RM79 nett (RM69 nett for supper session) and a couple of dishes inspired seen in the movies.

For the soup base, there are 6 types to choose from and you can pick any two of them. The options include Black Truffle (recommended), Cheddar Cheese, Spicy Szechuan, Seafood Porridge, Pumpkin and Herbal Blackbone Chicken.

Ingredients wise they are pork free and you can expect plenty of them to be seafood, meat and meatball based. All of these mentioned items used to be served in the buffet line, but have been changed to a la carte.
That said, you can still order them without limit and they will be served to your table. But if you ask me, you should probably focus on the seafood and meat items, as the meatballs are just alright. Our favorite has got to be the tiger prawns, they are large and fresh with a sweet taste, definitely a class above what other steamboat restaurants offer.

As for the drinks, noodles, desserts, vegetables and sauces (more than 30 of them), they are placed at a common area for taking.

To start, every table will also receive a bowl of Kung Fu Noodle as appetizer. It’s served with fried salmon skin, fish roe and mentaiko sauce – delicious if you like creamy and savory food.

Fried ice cream is one of the main attractions here, popular with everyone especially with the kids. We liked it a lot too and had seconds.

FYI, each buffet session is only limited to 120 minutes. RM15 is chargeable for every additional 15 minutes.

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3 years ago I mentioned that Kurata Japanese Fine Dining‘s RM120 eat-all-you-can Wagyu shabu shabu was too good to be true. If you didn’t jump on the chance to try it then, you would be kicking yourself because the price has more than doubled to RM250.

Currently, most shabu shabu buffets in KL are priced around RM45 but the selection of items are not impressive. So despite the price hike, I would still recommend Kurata because their shabu shabu buffet also offers a variety of a la carte sashimi, sushi, tempura and other freshly prepared Japanese dishes. More importantly, they actually taste good.

Recently, their shabu shabu buffet offering has been updated to cater to customers with different budgets: RM65 (Australian beef), RM90 (seafood), RM100 (Angus beef) and RM250 (Wagyu beef). If you opt for the Wagyu shabu shabu buffet, a couple of exclusive and premium items are included such as seasonal and higher quality sashimi.

Another thing I like about Kurata is that they are not so calculative towards their guests. How? Well, if you are dining with a friend, you are not restricted to ordering the same buffet set. In my case, my wife had the seafood shabu shabu buffet while I opted for the Angus one. So we kind got to enjoy ingredients from both sets.

The Angus beef has a good amount of marbling which is more superior to the normal beef. You can definitely expect the meat to be tender, juicy and flavorful. It was delicious alright.

For the seafood shabu shabu buffet, you will receive a ‘starting set’ which comes with a few slices of fish, a whole squid, a piece of prawn, oyster and scallop. However, the refillable seafood items are only limited to squid, scallop and oyster.

In conclusion, Kurata still serves the best shabu shabu buffet in KL. Although the price might be the highest among all options, it’s worth it for the choices, good service and no time limit imposed.

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Damansara Uptown has a handful of shabu shabu restaurants and two of them are buffet style, namely Sukishi and Mikoshi. Since Mikoshi got some good reviews from personal friends, we purposely dropped by last weekend for lunch. But ultimately ox tongue is the biggest reason we came all the way here from Kepong.

Mikoshi’s lunch buffet (Friday and weekends only) is priced at RM28++ while dinner buffet is RM48++. You are given 1 hour to enjoy the lunch buffet, whereas you get 2 hours for the dinner buffet.
If 1 hour sounds short, you are not wrong. However, the 1 hour time limit applies only to food ordering, and not the entire dining experience. In other words, you can order as many a la carte items from the menu at the last order, just make sure you are able to finish them later. Based on our visit, here are the pros and cons:

Pros:
• Quality of meat slices are great (for the price), especially the ox tongue, pork and lamb
• They offer fresh kampung chicken eggs as dipping sauce
• Wide selection of vegetables, other common steamboat ingredients and ice creams
• Plenty of condiments
• A la carte menu has many cooked dishes (eg. Japanese fried chicken) to complement the meal

Cons:
• Their signature Ginger Soup was underwhelming, I wouldn’t recommend it
• The drinks taste diluted

Overall, it was an enjoyable meal and the lunch buffet is a great deal. If you are looking for a filling and satisfying shabu shabu experience without having to splurge, Mikoshi won’t be a bad choice.

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For a cozy little mall, SS15 Courtyard is doing extremely well. They have strong F&B tenants and Fei Fan Hotpot is one of the most popular restaurants here.
Now there are plenty of buffet style steamboat restaurants in town, but Fei Fan managed to stand out for offering a Hong Kong style hotpot experience at a reasonable price.

So, first things first, please do yourself a favor and be sure to make a reservation first especially if it’s weekend. Due to their popularity, walk-in customers should expect to get on the waiting list.
In our case, we waited for about 30 minutes on a Saturday night. Luckily there is a Village Grocer in the mall to let us kill some time.

You get to choose two of the four available broth: pork bone, tomato, pepper pig’s stomach or spicy ‘ma la’ soup. Since this was our first time here, we decided to play safe and had their pork bone and tomato soup. While both of them were not as impressive as Coco’s or Hong Kong HotPot’s, they are reasonably good for buffet standard.

The selection of meat you get here is quite impressive which includes chicken, pork collar, pork belly, beef (too lean for our liking), pork intestines and pork liver.
A number of handmade meatballs (actual meat texture, not starchy), fish noodle and dumplings are also available and you can taste the quality in them.
Among all, the beef meatball, pork meatball and prawn dumpling were our favorites. And of course there’s a buffet section where the vegetables and other common steamboat ingredients are laid out.

On the whole it was a highly enjoyable meal and any shortcomings mentioned earlier could be considered nitpicking. Some other things that we really liked about Fei Fan Hotpot were their array of sauces that actually enhanced the flavor of the food, nice drinks (they serve Ribena), delicious soft serve ice cream and efficiency in serving. Safe to say, any steamboat lover will find Fei Fan Hotpot satisfactory.

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Talaykrata Seafood BBQ is the first buffet restaurant in KL to offer catching of live tiger prawns at table side as part of the experience. Watch the video here.

The owners were inspired by the idea after traveling to Bangkok’s famous Taikong Seafood, where they are known for popularizing this dining concept. For those who are not familiar, live tiger prawns are released every 10 minutes into a ‘small river’ which is essentially a stretch of stainless steel aquarium.

But of course, Talaykrata is not the first to offer this kind of seafood buffet in Klang Valley, as two other restaurants in Hulu Langat also serve it. Instead of live freshwater prawns, you get live tiger prawns here.

For RM88 nett/pax, the buffet is time limited to 2 hours and customers can also enjoy free flow of Haagen Dazs ice cream and soft drinks. Personally, I feel this alone is worth the price because any buffet in KL that offers unlimited Haagen Dazs ice cream will cost more than RM100.

As soon as you are seated, you will receive a platter of seafood to get your started immediately. It includes a couple of super premium (and seasonal) seafood items such as wild jumbo freshwater prawn, baby Pacific Lobster, giant scallop and slipper lobster.

Seafood items that you can refill include:

– Live tiger prawn (catch yourself)
– Flower crab
– Spider conch
– Mayo cheese oyster
– Mayo cheese scallop
– White sotong
– Cockle
– Lala
– Bamboo clam
– Mackerel fish (Saba)
– Salmon
– Mussel

For grilling, there are marinated chicken (delicious), Australian beef and NZ lamb slices. And of course, not to mention some hot food like fried rice, wonton, sausages and a variety of processed food for steamboat.

If you are worried about having not enough time to enjoy your food, my suggestion is to boil the seafood (especially prawns) first then grill them afterwards. This way, they cook faster and stay juicier as well.

The post Talaykrata Seafood BBQ Buffet @ Publika (Live Tiger Prawns) appeared first on Malaysia Food & Travel Blog.

If you are not a Fave user yet, this Chinese New Year will be the perfect time to take the plunge, as they are giving first-timer Fave users 22% off on their purchase by using code “ENJOYCNY”.

It’s perfect if you are looking for a place to enjoy a meal with family, or to catch up with your friends over a cuppa during this festive season. In fact, I took my family to MQL Steamboat in Icon City recently for a pre-reunion dinner to experience steamed food with congee, something all of us never tried before.

The concept is all about steaming the freshest available raw ingredients using a high power electric steamer, which allows you to enjoy them at their original form and flavor.

The deal I bought was a seafood and meat combo for 4 people which includes a seabass, tiger prawns, scallops, chicken, chawan mushi, mushroom and vegetables.

For congee you can opt for minced pork, pumpkin, sweet potato, preserved egg, or even all of them if you want. Dried scallops are available at RM10, recommended as a natural alternative to MSG.

For voucher redemption, simply swipe when you are at the restaurant. Totally paperless and the other thing I really like is that a lot of these deals do not require reservations. Just walk in and enjoy when the mood to eat strikes.

Every ingredient requires different length to cook, all controlled by a timer. For example, prawns only need 3 minutes while fish takes 10 minutes.

A couple of seafood such as flower crab, NZ mussel and clam need to be booked ahead, otherwise the chances are you won’t be able to order them. Reason being, the seafood needs to be really fresh so booking is required so they could get the stock ready for you.

Among all the a la carte items we had, the tiger prawns, sea bass, dumpling, herbal chicken and pork ribs were all great – provided that you pick the right sauces to go with them.

They are pretty generous with the tiger prawns @ RM18, recommended and satisfying.

At the end of the meal when the congee has been cooked (from scratch) and absorbed all the essences and flavor of the steamed ingredients, it has become sweet and flavorful with an almost creamy consistency.

Available on both PC and smartphone, Fave helps you to discover a range of services from food to travel to nails in and out of town.

Whenever you are at a new place, simply change the location to access even more deals to fully enjoy your trip. The hottest and latest deals are also just a click or a tap away! I don’t have many apps installed on my smartphone, but Fave is one of them, because it’s so useful and just worth having.

Found a great deal and want to purchase it? Always opt to pay with FavePay to get up to 30% instant cashback. Just enjoy your meal, ask to pay with FavePay using your smartphone and enjoy rewards at participating merchants. The process is quick, easy and seamless, everyone can do it!

So if you are a deal-hunter and savings is all you crave, Fave is a name you must know. There are thousands of FaveDeals with low prices that let you save up to 80% at your favorite restaurants, cafés, spas, salons, gyms, retail stores, and more in your city. So explore awesome things to eat, do, see and experience in your city – all from a single, convenient mobile app!

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Besides being the first restaurant in KL to provide live tiger prawns to customers to catch and barbecue directly, Talaykrata Seafood BBQ is now also the first to offer seafood tabur buffet. If you don’t know what “seafood tabur” is, it’s just a localized version of Louisiana seafood boil. Watch how it’s served in the video here.

For RM68, you get to choose your seafood tabur in two sauces: Sambal Pedas or Buttermilk. You are given two hours to enjoy the meal which also includes free flow of Haagen Dazs ice cream, soft drinks and rice. With all things considered, this buffet is of good value and I highly recommend it.

The Sambal Pedas sauce is our favorite, as it’s truly spicy (but not punishingly hot) and appetizing. It just pairs well with the seafood and makes it irresistible not to eat with rice.

Buttermilk wise, it’s more suited for those who can’t handle spicy food. The sauce is rich and creamy and slightly sweet. The selection of seafood you get include tiger prawn, flower crab, mussel, lala and scallop. Sometimes there are squid or razor clams too, depending on the stock they have.

If you have been to Talaykrata Seafood BBQ before, you would know that the owners are very particular about the quality of seafood. One of the reasons is that they are from Sabah, where fresh seafood is in abundance. So they aim to provide a fresh and delicious experience to their customers as well.

After 3 months, there are some changes to their seafood BBQ’s starting set. Some items such as baby lobster, oysters and scallops with cheese mayo have been replaced with mud crab with roe and pen shell – a type of giant clam. Other popular items like giant fresh water prawn and giant scallop are still included in the set.

And of course, live tiger prawns are still being replenished frequently. This is one of the best things of eating here as compared to other places which also offer live prawns. As soon as the customers have finished catching he prawns from the ‘river’, the restaurant would refill them immediately.

So don’t worry about the restaurant being stingy about the live tiger prawns. Don’t need to be kiasu and just focus on enjoying the meal at your own pace.

The easiest way to look for this restaurant is by locating Papparich or Bestari Nasi Kandar in Publika. Talaykrata Seafood BBQ is located at the same row, but further down the shop lots towards Jalan Duta side.

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One of the best things about living in Kepong is that you will never need to travel out of town for steamboat. A steamboat restaurant can be found at every corner of this town and dozens of them can be found at Bandar Menjalara alone.

However, almost every one of them is Chinese hot pot styled so if you wanted something different like shabu shabu, your choices are extremely limited.

Luckily, Kuro Japanese Steamboat opened at Plaza Arkadia not long ago and it’s only a quick 10 minutes drive away. Price wise it’s alright because it’s a buffet which includes free flow of Haagen-Dazs ice cream.

The normal buffet package starts at RM54.90 for lunch and RM64.90 for dinner. For a more indulgent experience, you can opt for their Wagyu buffet – either RM128 for Australian Wagyu or RM338 for Japanese Wagyu. Currently, they are also having a promotion for the latter where the 2nd diner enjoys a 50% off the bill.

There are 6 types of soup available and you can pick any two of them. They are Kuro Broth (pork bone soup), Spicy Kuro Broth, Shabu-Shabu, Sukiyaki, Japanese Curry and Mala. During our visit, we picked their signature Kuro Broth and Sukiyaki – essentially one savory and the other being sweet to contrast the flavors.

Meat wise there are Kurobuta pork, Australian beef, Australian lamb, chicken, squid, dory fish slices and homemade seafood paste. Since we opted for the Japanese Wagyu buffet, all these meats and seafood are also included in the package. Here’s what you could expect for the same:

Japanese Wagyu – grade A5 and the marbling as you can see is excellent. They take only seconds to cook in the broth and tastes absolutely tender and wonderful, they just melt in your mouth.

Australian Wagyu – the marbling is not as intense but still highly enjoyable. If you are the kind of person who likes to have a little chew in your meat, I think you would prefer this to the Japanese version.

Kurobuta Pork Belly

Kurobuta Pork Shoulder

Kurobuta Pork Loin

Australian Beef Belly

Australian Beef Shoulder

Australian Lamb

Squid and Dory Fish – we have never been a fan of dory so this was probably the only item we did not refill.

Homemade paste – it tastes like a cross of fish and squid paste with a really nice texture. Highly recommended to try.

If for some reason you are bored of the premium meats, head to the common buffet spread with more than 30 kinds of meat balls, vegetables and noodles. Based on what we sampled, our favorites are the Ika ball, curry fish ball and mushroom ball.

There are plenty of sauces and condiments present too which lets you customize your very own dipping sauce. We didn’t experiment too much on this, since we found that a simple combination of soy sauce and chili garlic paste is good enough to pair with anything.

Haagen-Dazs ice cream is without a doubt a highlight of the buffet. There are multiple flavors to try and they all taste just so good. So it’s not surprising to see the customers actually attacking the ice cream first before they start enjoying their steamboat.

All in all, if you are looking for a good Japanese steamboat try, Kuro will not disappoint. The normal buffet is already good enough and worth the price you are paying for.

As for the Wagyu promo, you really gotta be able to eat a lot of it to make it worthwhile. The price might be a little high but definitely worth checking out if you just want to enjoy as much Japanese Wagyu as possible for a fixed price.

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