Buzzing with FOOD

 When you hear the word "Bento", you’ll think of Japanese food. It’s a Japanese word for meals in a box.

What is bento?

Bento (written 弁当), or obento (お弁当) to use the honorific term, is the Japanese word for a meal served in a box. Beyond that basic definition though, just about anything goes as to what kind of box or container is used, as well as what is put inside that box,.

Different types of bento

(See also: Types of homemade bento.)

There are several different kinds of bento, with different purposes. Makunouchi bento are elaborate bento meals presented at formal meals, meant to be eaten at table.

(read more from the source)

Over here I think no Japanese restaurant go by without adding bento meals into their menu. But Tonki Bento stands out as a Japanese Restaurant which focuses on these box meals, hence the name.

It’s location is a little hidden, off from the busy Burmah Road, so some might not realise this corner shop. Nevertheless, they are going all out with their delivery service of bento meals. I tried their delivered bento lunch box before and I thought I would go to the restaurant to try out some other offerings of theirs.

Very simple interior decoration, comfortable enough for about 10 tables.

Free-flow of green tea

 Teriyaki Bento (RM 18.80)

A complete meal of rice, salad, teriyaki chicken, deep-fried prawns, orange and also a bowl of miso soup.

Tori Katsu Kore (RM 11.80) - Japanese curry Katsu-don. Japanese curry is not as spicy and fragrant as the curry we have here. It is more towards a sweet taste. It’s also not as red as our local curry. But this is how Japanese curry is like, since Japanese can’t really take spicy stuff. But there’s lots of big onions added in this curry.

Tori Katsu Don (RM 8.80). This version of chicken cutlet is added with an egg after being deep-fried. I’ve tasted much better Katsu-don elsewhere. Over here, it’s quite dry and lacks in aroma and taste.

A stock of carnation was given to each table for an occasion (go guess)

I think they are more popular with bento meals. Other types of ala-carte dishes are just so-so. I did not try their sushi though.

Look at their Bento sets for lunch. Great variety at a low price. (click to view larger image)

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Penang have so many Japanese restaurants, giving us ample choices where to go hunt for yummy Japanese cuisine.

Japin Restaurant have been established in Penang for quite a long time with their 1st branch in Island Plaza. Maybe the location is not so well-known, so they didn’t really grow to be a famous dining outlet. Finally when Queensbay Mall opened, they made their way into the mall and open another branch on the 2nd floor to cater for Penang southerners. (My earlier post on Japin)

They now spot a new menu and I don’t think ‘tong sui’ is served anymore.

Not a very big outlet but comfortable enough

They recently hav this Oishii Promotion at RM 7.90 and drinks promotion where you add RM 1 to get a free-flow of green tea or genmai tea upon ordering a set meal or ramen set.

Green tea and genmai tea.

Genmaicha (玄米茶^?, "brown rice tea") is the Japanese name for green tea combined with roasted brown rice. It is sometimes referred to colloquially as "popcorn tea" because a few grains of the rice pop during the roasting process and resemble popcorn. 

Genmai tea is a little different from green tea, with a taste of roasted rice. Some can’t stand the taste while others feel it’s another flavourful tea, just like me since I’m a tea lover!!

Kim Cyahan Set (RM 14.80). It’s Kim Chi fried rice and miso soup, some kim chi and 2 pieces of watermelon as side dish. Looks very simple but the fried rice is very nice, enough ‘wok hei’ and the kim chi flavour spice up the otherwise plain fried rice. It was a surprise for me that a simple dish like this can be as delicious.

It’s also not oily. However, the miso soup fell short of expectation as it’s too diluted.

Teriyakidon Set (RM 14.80). Teriyaki chicken cubes on steaming white rice with the same side dishes as the above. The teriyaki chicken is well marinated and very juicy. There were bits of seaweed and sesame seeds in the teriyaki don. The teriyaki is very aromatic and taste very lovely. I ate up all the chicken but couldn’t finish the rice

The word teriyaki derives from the noun teri (照り^?), which refers to a shine or luster given by the sugar content in the tare, and yaki (焼き^?), which refers to the cooking method of grilling or broiling.

Japin Restaurant is locate at 2F-147, Queensbay Mall. There’s no service charge or government tax, something quite uncommon nowadays.

To continue from where I left of…this Part II of the invited review at Haven Delights will showcase some of the popular dishes which were specially picked by the owner and chefs of the restaurant. The restaurant currently serves fabulous cuisines from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Shanghai with a twist of fusion thanks to their group of four experienced chefs.

Now on to what was in store for us during the dinner meal.

The eager wait was worth it when we were served the cold cuts of Hotzzz Abalone and Unagi Tofu (both can be found in the buffet menu).

The Unagi Tofu was a good start to a meal, being light and sweet which opens up our taste buds. A piece of unagi is placed on top of a square slice of tofu and garnished with spring onions, bonito flakes and sesame seeds. The sweet sauce compliments well with the silky tofu.

The Hotzzz Abalone is made up of abalone slices topped with homemade spicy paste and eel sauce. The spicy paste opens up our appetite to the otherwise rubbery texture of the abalone. Not really spicy but enough to "warm-up" our mouth for more dishes to come!!

Then came the main dishes.

Chicken Ban Ban (RM10) was the first dish. It’s a kind of fusion Japanese fried chicken with egg in chef’s special mayo sauce. There are 3 types of sauce which acts as the accompanying sauce for the fried chicken as well as a garnish. On the bed of the dish is deep fried egg.

The fried chicken cubes are juicy but mild in taste i.e. seasoning.

Luckily the 3 sauces (wasabi mayo, sweet sauce & mayo) saved the day…opps saved the dish by providing a sweet, spicy and sourish taste to it. Somehow the plain and simple fried egg tasted so good when combined with all the 3 sauces!! Nice work there!

Next up was Red Dragon Prawn with Jammy Sauce (RM20). Despite the name, it’s actually fried prawns and white dragon fruit in jammy sauce and not some special species of prawns. There’s about 5 prawn pieces and lots of capsiciums, white dragon fruit, onions and carrots.

This colorful dish is made up of battered medium-sized prawns with a special fruity sauce concocted by the chef. White dragon fruit was the main ingredient of the sauce and although in the photo there looked like some kiwi-like balls, it’s actually the white dragon fruit.

The tangy and citrus like sauce is a refreshing taste and even the plain red cabbage side dish tasted good with this lovely sauce.

The Korean Beef Kimchi (RM16) was fried homemade kimchi with beef slices. The kimchi has a good balance of spicy and sourness.

I did not try the beef slices but others say it’s tender and juicy.

Presentation wise, it’s a tad too normal but as long as the dish is good, others come secondary, right?

The Motoyaki Scallop (RM14) is grilled scallop with homemade spicy mayo sauce. We were delighted when this was served and it looked real nice and presentable. The scallop is hidden by the covering of spicy mayo sauce which consist of thousand island sauce, tobasco, chilli-flakes and black sesame. It is then baked before being served.

The actual size when you order it would be 4 pieces per plate and not like what is shown here.

The spicy sauce is actually quite overpowering and the scallop, although being the main attention, is side-tracked. All I could taste was the spiciness of the sauce instead of the freshness of the scallops.

One of the western-style food served was Lamb Teriyaki (RM18). The grilled lamb is marinated with herbs in homemade sweet sauce.

This dish passes the marks for being tender and having nice sweet sauce. I’m not a fan of oily/fatty portions of the meat, so this was alright for me. Others felt that if they include the fatty portion, it would have tasted even better.

One of the dishes I like for the night was Homemade Spicy Chicken (RM15), a dish of fried chicken with homemade spicy sauce. The chicken cubes are deep-fried and cooked in spicy sauce made up of fermented black beans, garlic, onions, curry leafs, lemon grass and sesame seeds. The sauce is cooked until it becomes a thick and rich in aroma.

The chicken is very crispy on the outside but tender. If you asked me to choose between the chicken ban ban and this homemade spicy chicken, this will definitely get my vote. But it could probably be due to my liking for spicy food. I had two helpings of this!! haha

The Shanghai Honey Spare Ribs (RM18) is fried spare ribs with honey sauce. Of all the dishes, this one fared the poorest. It was way too salty and there’s hardly any sweet or sourness in the dish. Also, the piece portion is way too huge and unless we have knives and forks, it is a very messy way to eat with chopsticks coz it’s not so tender and we were biting and pulling it away from our mouth at the same time!

It would probably taste better if eaten with rice but the chef ought to revamp this dish!

This dish is Tempura Cheese Maki (not in menu), a surprise dish by the executive chef. I like surprises and this turned out to be a nice surprise. Maki roll is pan-fried and then baked with cheese and mayo on top. A usual order will come in 8-pieces per plate. This chef’s secret recipe finger food (as we were told) are only served upon special orders.

A very innovative dish by the chef and I enjoyed it. The fusion of western (cheese) and japanese (sushi) is prevalent here! Kudos to the chefs here who are willing to try out new ideas.

Although there’s suppose to be only one special dish for the night, we were treated with another special dish of Chicken Bomb. It’s a new creation by the chef and hence no pricing yet. It is actually spiced grilled salmon wrapped in chicken meat. Presentation was very interesting, with blue-flames in a cup.

But unfortunately the dish did not turn out to be up to mark due to its weird combination. The chicken meat was not tender and the taste was bland.

The grilled salmon inside taste even more weird. The spices and herbs didn’t blend well and end up making this dish unappetizing.

Maybe the chef can change the way of cooking this dish or even consider to leave this out from the menu.

We also has the chance to try their HK Style Wan Than Mee (RM22). It is a little pricey but the wantans are really huge!!

The accompanying chilli for the noddle is good. The noddle tasted way better with chillies.

The wantan is a real burst of juicy prawns, just like in dim sums. But I just wonder why they didn’t add spring onions or more seasoning to the wantan filling.

Another noddle dish for the night was Japanese Yaki Udon (RM12). Fried Japanese rice noodles with bonito flakes.

It was a little too watery and there’s hardly a strong hint of seasoning in this dish. But a later serving (this time done by the main chef) rectified the earlier hiccups and it’s taste was much improved.

Then it was time for desserts, the one most bloggers have been waiting for. We are somehow a bunch of sweet tooth who just can’t resist having desserts. This is Macha Ice Cream (RM8), green tea ice cream with red bean paste and mochi (glutinous rice ball).

The green tea taste is very strong, leaning more to the bitter taste. Liking is up to each individual as some would prefer a sweeter version while some loved this bitter-sweet version. I enjoyed it and even felt that is tasted a little bit like the Haagen Daz green tea ice-cream! The sweetness of the mashed red beans compliments well with the bitter ice-cream. The mochi is nothing to shout about though, a little bit hard in my opinion.

(oh dear, it’s melting and we were still snapping away. Haha. But that’s never our complain. It’s great to be out dining with like-minded people who enjoys food photography and eating the food of course!!)

We not only had one but two types of ice-cream. This one is Kuru Goma Ice Cream (RM8), which is black sesame seed ice cream with crushed peanuts.

This flavour is indeed for the sweet tooth. It has the right level of sweetness and also very fragrant. The crushed peanuts gives a perfect end to the melted ice-cream in the mouth!! Thumbs-up!!

As mentioned in earlier post, they do serve buffet lunch or dinner at a price of RM49.90+ (children half price) with a limitation of orders within 2 hours. There’s a buffet line where you can get your food and you can also specifically order the dish you want from the buffet menu list.

HAVEN DELIGHTS @ Penang Times Square

77-L1-34, Jalan Dato Kramat, 10150 Penang, Malaysia.

Tel: 604-210 8855, 604-210 8856   

Business Hours: 10.30am-11.00pm

For other reviews:

http://crizfood.com/

http://penangtuapui.com/ 

http://what2seeonline.com/ 

http://stevengoh.com/

http://nickchan.net/

http://gourmetgarden.com.my/ 

http://www.lingzie.com/ 

http://yummy-station.com/ 

http://alliefoodtalk.com/ 

http://cariso-food.blogspot.com/

http://reginatravel-foodparadise.blogspot.com/ 

http://www.foodpoi.com/

http://thenomadgourmand.blogspot.com/