RokuNana Washu Bar @ Solaris Dutamas, KL
RokuNana Washu Bar
Located at Solaris Dutamas, just a few doors away from Sushiya. RokuNana Washu Bar is made for one who is really enjoy Japanese sake along with a munch or two. This bar offers a huge selection of premium nihonshu (Japanese sake): Dassai, Born, Nito, Kid, Tatenokawa and some very very rare gems such as Aramasa and Juyon Dai (these can really cost more than an arm and leg. Gulp). Seats are pretty limited here, so it is advisable to make reservation before turning up.
As usual, my gang and I would go for the counter seats, to observe some action and works from the chef/ staff. Food menu here is about a page full, not very extensive but good enough to pair with the drinks. There are salad, gyoza, and sashimi; carbs like ramen and rice bowl, and yakitori which is always the perfect combo with the sake, shochu or highball.
The night, we have Gino-san, the certified sake sommelier to introduce us the selection of sake available that fit on our preference. We prefer something sweet and not to dry, and also not to expensive (or else pocket turned bigger hole); Gino-san gave us a few options and we then settled on this bottle – Tatenokawa “Tatenyan” Junmai Daiginjyo from Yamagata Prefecture. Why? Because of the very cute label on the bottle! LOL.
Tatenyan (the cat) is the official mascot of Tatenokawa. Gino-san told us this bottle is a limited release from Tatenokawa. To me, it has the sweet floral scent on the nose and fruity base on the palate. I couldn’t stop myself inhaling it when it was presented in the wine glass during the tasting. I liked its fruity sweetness lingering round the oral cavity and it gave a harmony hint of rich flavour at the ending. Amai! However when I paired it with richly flavoured and slightly greasy food, the iberico pork ribs for example, it turned out to be too sweet to my liking.
Japanese Gyoza (Rm 24)
Made with iberico pork belly and packed with juice.
Grilled Pork Ribs (Rm 48)
With signature miso paste and served with sweet white corn! Marinated with miso and it was grilled to perfection, overloaded with fats my thing.
The sweet white corn was too good and we ordered another serving!
Yakitori – Seseri (Rm 8), Kawa (Rm 6), Sasami (Rm 12), Erynggi (Rm 12), Shiitake (Rm 12), Shishito (Rm 12)
As usual, kawa (or chicken skin) is my usual order in any yakitori place. The artery-clogging chicken skin was good but I wished it to be extra crispy. Sasami was succulent, topped with the wasabi leaf bits. Momo was out of stock, but it was replaced with Seseri, the neck. Oh yummm, I guess this was my first time having chicken neck yakitori too. We also fancied their erynggi, shiitake and shishito; and specially requested for negi too!
XO Ramen (Rm 18)
Our favourite of the night and it is a must order. The XO Ramen is very simple and fused with Chinese’s favourite, the XO sauce! A stir of everything gave a gooey madness, super packed with umami-ness too!
Finally, one highball before we left RokuNana. Kampai to our girls’ night out!
RokuNana Washu Bar
D5-G3-2, Solaris Dutamas,
Jalan Dutamas, Kuala Lumpur.
Opens from Monday to Saturday, 5pm to 1am.
Tel: 016-296-3777
That’s definitely some good looking yakitori, kenapa tak ada beer? 😀
Always prefer highball and sake over beer. Hehe