Tatsu, Intercontinental Hotel

For my belated birthday celebration, I was pleasantly surprised by the boy with the company of colleagues to dine at Tatsu, located within Intercontinental Hotel at the heart of Kuala Lumpur. 

Overview:

Tatsu is a japanese cuisine buffet with a twist to its concept when it comes to ordering your food. It is not the conventional japanese buffet restaurants whereby the dishes are prepared and placed on a buffet platter (i.e. Jogoya). How Tatsu does it is that there's a maximum order of 5 types of dishes per order. There is an exception though, for selective categories such as Sashimi and Tempura, whereby you may order as many "portions" as you wish and it is considered as one dish. 

The ambiance of the restaurant is elegant and had a zen-like feel 

Salmon, butterfish and tuna sashimi with wasabi

No japanese food will be complete without sashimi. As we were all suckers for sashimi, this dish made it to the top of our priority list of the first 5 dishes. The menu for sashimi consists of salmon, tuna, butterfish, octopus, and yellowtail. What you see in the picture above is considered as one dish (6 portions). I must say the salmon has a dark shade of reddish-orange which made it look so appetizing. Although the slices of the sashimi were thin, they were fresh. We eventually ordered 30 portions of sashimi by the end of the dinner!

Grilled cod fish with teriyaki sauch

Don't be deceived by the size of the fish in the picture above, in contrary the size of the fish served for each portion was small enough to be consumed by one person only. Nevertheless, this would be one of the highlights of the food at Tatsu as the cod fish was cooked perfectly and tasted exquisite with the sweet teriyaki sauce. 

Hotate mini scallop

Based on the pictures from other review of this dish, we had high expectations for this as it looked mouthwatering. However, we were quite disappointed as the sauce accompanying the scallops tasted really bland. We felt like it could use a little bit of salt.

Tempura soft shell crab

Ebi (prawn) tempura

The ebi tempura was deep-fried to perfection with a golden, crispy coating. *thumbs up* 

Dobin mushi 

 This seafood broth is one my favourite dishes to order in a Japanese restaurant. It is served in dobin pot with chicken, shrimp, gingko, soy sauce, mushroom and lime. The broth is then poured into little petite cups which is placed on the top of the pot. This heartwarming dish is perfect for a cold winter's day.

Unagi with teriayki sauce

 This spells out yummy.  If you're a big fan of unagi, this is a  must try at Tatsu.

Teppanyaki beef

 The teppanyaki beef was over-cooked and a little too tough for my liking. 

Rice with green tea soup 

 Thats right, you read it right. It's rice with green tea soup. This dish instantly captured my attention and although was filled to brim, I had to try this. The broth tasted surprisingly similar to miso broth with a slight tinge of green tea. Accompanied with salmon and seaweed, this is dish is worthy of a try.

Mochi

Matcha (green tea) ice cream

 Alas, after 2 1/2 hours of pure indulgence, it was time for desserts. As a lover of all things matcha, I'm proud to say that we had at least 10 portions of the green tea ice cream :) The creamy and flavorful ice-cream tastes so delicious as it melts and swirls in your mouth. Definitely a must-have for desserts if you're a green tea lover. If you're not, don't fret! Tatsu also offers black sesame and vanilla flavors.

The bill came up to a grand for 9 of us. If you happen to be a Citibank or CIMB cardmember there is a massive 20% discount off the total bill which saved us almost RM200.

Out of the 88 dishes available, we only managed to try at most 30 dishes. Would definitely return to try the other dishes offered on the menu.

Nitty-gritty details:
Place: Intercontinental Hotel, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur

Opening hours: Lunch - 12.00pm to 2.30pm

                          Dinner - 6.30pm to 10.30 pm
                          * Buffet is only available on Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays

Price: RM98++ for adults, RM49++ for children ( 6-12 years old)

Contact: +603 2782 6118

Updated price and menu (subsequent to our visit):