Omakase Dining @ Kampachi Restaurant, Equatorial Hotel Penang.

After the recent experience with Omakase dining, I was invited again to one of the well known Japanese restaurant in Penang, Kampachi Restaurant located inside Equatorial Hotel Penang. Kampachi Restaurant has been in Penang for years as one of the resident outlet in Equatorial Hotel and I've heard a lot about them especially their weekend buffet. 

Once again, Omakase do not have a fixed menu. The customers will be served with whatever the chefs will be serving on the day itself and they will bring all the freshest ingredients for the meal and leaves you with a lovely dining experience. Omakase literally means "I'll leave it to you" which customers will let the chefs to decide what they will be having for the night. But usually customers will be asked about special diets and the chefs will tailor the menu. I'm not sure why we weren't asked about that on that evening. 

Spacious restaurant that comes with VIP room, sushi bar, teppanyaki tables and normal dining area.

It would be really lovely if customers get to watch live performances of chef making teppanyaki for them. I must try this one day.

If you are sitting right in front of the sushi bar, you will get to watch how the chefs prepare your sushi on the spot.

The restaurant is well equipped with all sorts of imported Japanese sake.
These are not like the kind of ordinary wines that you can find else where. 

Proper and elegant table settings for all guests. 

  

 A group photo before the food tasting begins. 

*Special thanks to Kampachi & Hotel Equatorial Penang for that evening.*

We started our meal with some fine Kaiseki appetizers. Our lovely Zensai platter features Kurumi Koranago(sesame, chestnut, soy sauce, anchovies and sugar), Amera Tomato that is naturally sweet and lightly salted with some charcoal salt, Morokiu Miso barley that best paired with Japanese sake, soju or beer, fresh red snapper that mixed with special homemade sauce and Tai Shimoguri that has got prawns, squid and vegetables in it.

We rather enjoyed every dishes on this platter, all the ingredients were put together to make this magic and we were pretty impressed by the taste and quality of all the dishes.

Then we were served with Osuimono / Dobinmushi that refers to hot soup for the 2nd course. Inside the soup has got matsutake, some fresh seafood, ginko and a little bit of sake. We were told that the chefs took quite some time to steam this soup instead of boiling it.

We were pretty surprised by the presentation that the soup was served in a teapot instead of an ordinary bowl, and then we were told that we should slowly savour this soup as it was boiled for hours to bring out the natural taste from all the ingredients.

Sashimi platter must be a part of Omakase dining to show how well the chefs can prepare sashimi. 

I was a little bit disappointed that we didn't get to watch how chefs slice those sashimi like what I've experienced before.

We were lucky that most ingredients just flew in all the way from Japan just a day before our dinner. We get to enjoy all the ingredients fresh and juicy. Kampachi Restaurant will flew in all the ingredients very often so that they get to keep all their food quality fresh and maintains the quality for all their customers. 

We enjoy this sashimi platter a lot and rather impressed by the quality of the seafood here. 

The sashimi were paired with their fresh wasabi as well as one of the special sauce here, their Tosa Soy Sauce that is only available at Kampachi Restaurants. No doubt it tasted better than soy sauce and you will surely enjoy it with your food.

What could be better to enhance your sashimi enjoyment?
Of course a bottle of fine and great sake does help a lot! Our dinner includes Japanese sake so you can further enhance your dining experience and pair all the dishes with a great sake.

The Omakase dining is charged at RM250.00 per pax without sake pairing and RM360.00 with sake pairing.

Moving on to the next course Yakimono, we were served with a piece of Sanma Fish(秋刀鱼) that freshly flown in from Japan. This fish was lightly salted and then grilled on the spot for us to enjoy the freshest and the most natural taste of a Sanma fish. 

Though I'm not a fan of fish, but I didn't enjoyed it thanks to the help of some friends who are kind enough to spare me some meats so that I won't choke on myself. I admit I'm kinda like a careless fish eater.

Our 5th course was Yozara, which stands for western plate that can be any meat on the table.  The part where I don't like it was because we were not asked about our special diet and I don't take beef, hence I didn't try this dish though the rest of them kept saying that it was really juicy and good. 

The 6th course is our main course, Shokuji, which can be any form of rice dish. We were served with 3 slices of sushi featuring aori ika, salmon belly and anago as well as negi toro maki. The quality of the ingredients are real good that no doubt these are all great. Only the portion could be more filling though.

PS: The ginger was very delicious.

Lastly, we were served with their homemade pumpkin ice cream. The taste of the ice cream was a little bit disappointing but I like the not so sweet ice cream anyway, only I would prefer the texture to be smoother and creamier.

Special thanks to Executive Sous Chef - Chef Tamaru(left) & Junior Executive Sous Chef, Kenji Beh(right) for preparing the great meal and explaining all the details of the dishes.

Omakase @ Kampachi Restaurant

RM250.00 without sake pairing

RM360.00 with sake pairing

(Advance booking is required, best 3-4days before the dining day) 

Omakase Dining @ Kampachi Restaurant(Hotel Equatorial Penang)

Address: Equatorial Hotel, 1, Jalan Bukit Jambul, 11900, Bayan Lepas, Penang.

Contact no: 604- 632 7000(Reservations)

Business Hours: 12:00pm - 2:30pm & 6:00pm - 10:00pm(Sundays to Fridays), 6:30pm to 10:00pm(Saturdays) | Saturday & Sunday buffet lunch 12:00pm - 2:30pm

Website: http://www.kampachi.com.my/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/KampachiOfficial/

GPS: 5.3371507,100.2846181

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