Isaribi Tei Japanese Restaurant

My children’s god-sister, Teressa works at Isaribi Tei. That’s how we heard about this Japanese restaurant. So, we thought of celebrating my little boy’s birthday at Isaribi Tei instead of The Revolving as Revolving has barbeque on Friday nights and meat is not in my list of ‘trying to stay vegetarian’ foods.

However, before we head over to Isaribi Tei, I did a bit of Google search. I dare not go to any random Japanese restaurants because some of their prices are out of our budget. With six of us, I certainly cannot afford Kobe beef, you know? I found CKLam’s favourable review and the prices seem ok to us.

We reached there before 8 pm and not many tables are occupied. Teressa wasn’t working but the staffs are all very efficient, know their menu well and pleasant. I saw their Japanese boss running around with a mop, clearing tables and etc. The crowd starts to trickle in after 8.30 pm and by the time we finished eating, a lot of tables were occupied by mostly families and groups.

They have set meals and the price is around RM22 and above. I ordered a hot udon with vegetable tempura. If I am not fasting, I would have ordered the seafood teppanyaki or the beef dishes. *sobs*

I could only eye the beef and rice dish my second son had. I wish I can bite into that raw in the middle, cooked on the outside beef….

My hubby and eldest son both ordered salmon dishes but I didn’t managed to shoot any photos as they were sitting at the other end of the table. I didn’t want to create too much ruckus in the quiet Japanese restaurant by running from seat to seat to take photos. Everyone was hungry so they have no patience to pass me the foods for photos first. 🙂 Moreover, my sons said, “Mom, you take photos for what lah? You also cannot describe the taste of the foods.”

I love the cosy and warm settings in Isaribi Tei. It is not your regular Japanese restaurant with clean lines but instead, it is a mish-mash of antiques, unique decor items and a riot of colours.

Since my udon and vegetable tempura seems kind of pathetic for me, I ordered their king sashimi which costs RM50. Everyone was tucking into prawn tempura, beef, salmon…… So, I must console myself with something expensive instead of my RM18 udon, you know? However, I only get to get a bite of each. Sort of tasting but not really eating, so I am ‘still on vegetarian’ meals.

They have homemade icecreams but my two children who ordered them found the taste not to their liking. We ordered the blueberries icecream which all my sons insisted smells like insect repellant! Meanwhile, another one ordered the Japanese orange icecream and found the taste bitter. So, I walloped all the orange icecream while my hubby finished off the blueberry one. They also have tempura icecream which is deep fried icecream in tempura flour. We didn’t order it because the addition of the tempura flour costs twice the price of the normal icecream and no one is keen to know what it tastes like. Lucky we didn’t or else I will be stuffing myself with tempura oreo icecream (only two flavours can be made into tempura icecream).

Isaribi Tei is just behind Jempu Tree at Jalan Chow Thye, off Jalan Burmah. They have a website Isaribi Tei and a Facebook group as well.

Oh ya, their green tea and red bean ice blended is good too. Better than Coffee Bean.