Kiraku Japanese Restaurant @ Shaftbury, Cyberjaya

When we first left Cyberjaya after graduating from university, the place is still quite deserted with only mamak stalls, Old Town White Coffee and Padi House as the main choices when comes to meal time. But it was a surprise that few months after we left, the place started to built up, with many new restaurants, cafe and fast food chains growing around the area such as Starbucks, Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC, Chatime, Kenny Rogers, Ko Hyeang and Come Buy, just to name a few.

The name ‘Kiraku’ means ‘Comfortable, at ease” in Japanese, and this comfortability is distinctly shown in the restaurant. Pushing the wooden door into the restaurant, the first thing that comes into sight will be the sushi and beverage bars, followed by an opened dining area.

Walking on you will come to a long hall ways with generous amount of private rooms to cater groups of different size including more intimate small room ideal for couples. Larger rooms are complete with teppanyaki section, where specially trained teppanyaki chef to prepared mouth watering teppanyaki orders in front of you.

We really like the large private room that boasts a Japanese atmosphere with contempary design and furnishing. Hue lightings, exquisite Japanese decorations, wooden flooring, long, shiny black dining tables with comfortable cushion chairs, these inviting environment will surely bring you to a calm, relaxing dining experience.

Apart from that, the well-trained chefs at the teppanyaki station is worth mentioned too. Throughout the meal, the chefs will bring you WOWs, laughters and claps through their amazing edge knife skills, flying knife & flying eggs demonstrations, and also fun yet friendly interactions.

Ramen Salad

The first dish is already highly recommended. Springy ramen tossed with honey tomato, croutons, lettuce in mayo sesame dreessing, mouthful of juiciness within creaminess with a touch of sesame fragrance. Tasty splurge with a healthy slant. You don’t find this palate pleaser in the menu, but is always available upon order.

Kiraku Special

A vegetarian friendly sushi roll comes in vibrant colour, unique flavours. Rolled within the sticky Japanese rice is mango and apple, laced with chopped chilli on top. sweet and crunchy with mild spicy aftertaste.

For Teppanyaki, we had the Premium Set of Seafood Platter Set and Premium Combination Set. Both the set comes with miso soup and rice, and ideal for 2 to 3 persons sharing. Seafood Platter Set consists of cod fish, tiger prawn, salad and Yari Squid while Premium Combination Set comprises of black Angus tenderloin beef, king prawn, chicken and air flown Norway salmon.

As we tucked in the scallop, we no doubt agreed that their ingredients are very fresh. the scallop was plump and juicy, with a layer of smoky flavour from grill. Same goes to the prawns. Thumbs up.

Cod fish was equally good, soft and melt in the mouth, so good that we wished for a larger portion. Addition with a touch of savoury soy sauce and chilli flakes are non essential, but brings in a different taste by giving a kick of spicy punch.

Salmon fish was our favourite. Soft and buttery, every mouthful is satisfying rich with Omega 3 fats. Laced with orange sauce for a tangy, zesty twist. Sided along was stir fried assorted vegetables with butter and garlic to balance up the nutrition intake.

Done medium rare, our black Angus beef cuts were seared up with juiciness, leaving tenderness with a touch of redness within. showered with mustard sauce for a kick of flavours. Together with the beef, served tender, juicy pieces of chicken dressed over with creamy pairing of mushroom sauce in assorted mushroom.

After few courses of delicate meat platters, the chefs continue to stock up our stomach with bowlful of fragrance garlic fried rice. Simple, garlicky and fluffy soft, but lacking in flavours.

Banana Flambe with Matcha Ice Cream (RM22.00)

The meal ended with a simple dessert, Banana Flambe with Matcha Ice Cream. Having grilled banana crowned with a large scoop of matcha ice cream, drizzled with colourful sauces and flakes, this dessert is decent enough to tone down the greasiness from mains, but not much surprise.

Creme Brulee (RM10.00)

Highly recommended by the restaurant, the creme brulee showcases a very smooth, rich and creamy texture, with thin layer of torched crisp caramel to contrast the soft custard. A little more richer, the dessert will be qualified to be on the cheese cake list.

In short, our dining experience in Kiraku was great. Good food, good service. Kiraku Japanese Restaurant is also one of the joining restaurant for MIGF 2013. Do make a visit there from 1st to 30th October to enjoy their mouth watering festival dishes.