Momiji-tei

My Ratings: 4 Stars

Cuisine: Japanese

Location: 1A, Jalan Tanjung Bungah (opposite Copthone Hotel), Penang

Non Halal

RM10 - 35 per person

This restaurant is just newly opened in April 2009. Concepted as a Japanese Garden Restaurant and the front facade of the restaurant is landscaped like a zen garden complete with a Japanese arch. Run by a sweet young lady named Evelyn Loo with another person as her partner, the restaurant is quickly gaining recognition as a authentic Japanese restaurant as the food there has a lot of variety from bento boxes, sushi to ramen and it has a dedicated set lunch menu and the all essential sushi bar. The food quality is fresh, taste nice with pleasing food presentations. As a matter of fact I was introduced to the restaurant by my Japanese friend and he says food is oishi!

We went there for lunch. Our table ordered a few spicy ramen sets, a shoba set, a bento box and a deep fried pork cutlet with egg and rice. The food is good and beautifully presented. The service from Evelyn is great. Very polite, sweet and just as accomodating. For example, I ordered the shoba set named "Tenzaru Shoba". The set comes with buckwheat shoba and prawn & vegetable tempura but I am not a great fan of Mr. Buck Wheat. I saw on the ala-carte menu that they serve Green Tea Shoba called "Cha Shoba", so I asked Evelyn is I could substitute buckwheat with green tea.....she totaly fine with that. How nice. We also swaped some other ramen in the set with other types. No problem. I am not suggesting that every customer swap and I think it is not fair to the chef but I think it is good that they are open to that option if the menu compilation does not meet a certain customers taste to fully enjoy the dining experience. This shows that the establishment places customer service as top priority. One of the ramen set comes with 4 gozen (fried dumplings) - delicious!

The price on the menu is fair. Not too expensive. No government tax. Great! and they do not charge for green tea. Double great! (10% service charge do apply)

The ambience in the restaurant is nice and clean with portraits of japanese art and sumo. There are still some areas outside the restaurant is still being done up (renovated) but I can feel that the final product will be pleasing. Diners can expect privacy as the areas are partition by bamboo decor and everyone have a great view of the sushi chef hard at work dishing out his creations.

A few comments I have is that there is a sight glare from the outside on a bright sunny day from where I was sitting. I would have been better if there is some Japanese fabric prints on the glass windows to soften the glare. Evelyn's service is great, however there are a few even younger waitress does not know the dish and we were left to guess for ourselves to sort out the confusion of who gets what. No big problem. I guess the staff is just new and need time to familirize since it is just opened less thatn 2 weeks. Another one is that one of the air-conditioner unit above the sushi bar counter must have been defective as it was making a rattling noise throughout the dining experience. Once and if they get that fixed, the dining experience would have been perfect.

Overall, this place has good ambience, quality food, a decent variety and great service and pricing. Can't wait for all the reno to be done. I am visualizing a couple of cool beeers in the garden with sounds of Japenese guitar strumming in the background. What would have been cooler if the waitress is dressed in kimonos! Hey! I can fantasize....can't I? Ample parking at the back road and easily enter through the back entrance.

Call the restaurant +604-8998415 or Evelyn +6012-5447722 for reservation and special dining request. Closed every Thursday.