It’s the system that’s causing my problems!
> Beast Monster Thing (Love Isn’t Love Enough) by Car Seat Headrest
Welcome back to Foodgazer, the sometime-blog, as we wind down for the year and race into the final month of what has been a crazy, chaotic, and very, very strange year. Well, for me at least. Oh, and of course, this is also a review of Ishin, the Japanese joint that has become a mainstay of Old Klang Road, long before Littlepeople and all the other new boys. In fact, they’re not far away from the 10 year mark now which is really remarkable for eateries in KL. It’s a transient town, at least for food.
But I suppose the golden question is: is Ishin still good? Well, that’s what we were dispatched to find out.
First off: it’s a gorgeous place. Tucked away along good old congested Old Klang Road, the bar section is a particularly great spot to chuckle at the poor saps stuck in the jam. But pretty much everywhere in the restaurant is very pretty. Also, the service is great AND you get a portable Mi tablet which isn’t affixed to the table. Brownie points everywhere and the meal hasn’t even begun! And yet…we’re not going to post any photos of the interiors because it really deserves to be seen in person.
But alright, alright. On to the food.
Where to start really? Take us back to the start, maybe, with the simmered iso tsubugai (RM 8/piece). Slimy in a kinda-okra way, but warm and comforting, and comes with a satisfying bite to it too. We finished it before remembering we were supposed to take photos. On to the next dish then:
The taragai cheese yaki. Sure, it’s RM78 for a half piece, but it’s very tasty. The bite is even more satisfying here. It’s chewier, more resistant to the hungry foodguzzlers’ teeth, but each chew sends a fresh wave of flavours out. Love that texture. And the cheese is quite nice too.
There was also the Chef’s special sashimi platter – generally nice stuff, and the uni was quite good too. Nothing particularly amazing about this but if you’ve a deep craving for sashimi, this will fix you up well enough.
Next, I wrote down ‘fish thang‘ in my notebook which I suppose refers to the Kasago Nitsuke (RM 88). What a treat this was. Super silky, lustrous tofu almost stole the show from the fish. I could eat blocks of that tofu, honestly. But the fish thang isn’t one to shy away from a challenge: it brought to the ring tender but firm flesh, a balanced hand on the sauce, and an overall plate that oozed with delicate precision. Loved this dish.
And then our favourite arrived. The glorious, majestic – nay, magisterial – HOKKAIDO WAGYU KATSU SAMMICH (RM 138). Boy oh boy. You know we love our beef sando. And this one featured some unapologetically, super fatty, super juicy wagyu – it honestly wouldn’t be out of place in Tokyo, and you know that’s incredibly high praise coming from us. It’s really very good.
And so the denouement began.
It was around this point that we started mulling over the impossibility of reviewing food. This wagyu sandwich was excellent. But it was excellent at that point in time. Would it be the same if we came back a month later when the batch of beef was different? What if we were in a different mood then? Or we were just not as hungry? Or had different, more unpleasant, company at the table? Or if the kitchen crew were having an off day? Would we feel the same way? Would YOU feel the same way if you get the sando at Ishin? Maybe. We hope so. But we can only hope – and that’s the inherently tricky nature of even writing about food.
Which is all to say that perhaps the glowing reviews and scathing words of disgust that we write don’t matter all that much. It doesn’t say all there is to be said about the dishes, because we each experience them in our own different ways. If there is any value to be had in them, perhaps it’s in the way it paints a picture of the overall place: it’s a promise that even if you have a bad experience at place A, we had a good one at it before and maybe one of us had the deviation from the norm but if in general we feel that it’s going in the right direction, we’ll point it out. Maybe there is some value, after all, in reviews written about places we visited months ago. I’d hope there is, because 2019 is going to see this site relaunched.
Anyway, back to Ishin. Because we weren’t done yet.
There was, for instance, the Teppanyaki duck liver with caviar (RM 118). Nice. The foie wasn’t exceptional but the ikan bilis cracker was nice and crunchy. Loved the texture on that cracker, and the caviar was nice and briny too. And then the meal wrapped up with, we were happy to find, some dipping noodles. Cold konnyaku soba (RM 30), done well, which is a rare thing to find in KL. Such a comforting, (seemingly) simple dish.
And so that’s Ishin. Good food, great service, and an even greater setting and atmosphere that actually manages to elevate the experience by quite a fair bit. They’re a mainstay for a reason – here’s to another decade!
Ishin is open daily from 12 to 3pm, and then from 6pm to 1am. They’re at 4 off, Persiaran Klang, Batu 3 3, 202, Jalan Kelang Lama (just Waze it) and can be reached at +603-7980 8228.