CNY Lunch at Umai-Ya...

It has become a CNY custom to meet up with our friends for a "Lou Sang" session, but by the 6th day we were all a bit tired of pig's trotters, steamed fish, prawns, roast chicken etc all the traditional CNY goodies... So it was quite welcome when CK suggested Japanese food...

Our plan was to go to Umai-Ya at Uptown, which had been satisfactory on a previous visit, but as it was fully booked that day settled for the original outlet at Damansara Perdana.

First impressions weren't positive, with the whole building all looking a bit run-down. The restaurant itself wasn't bad, and the room we were given was quite nice and cosy.

To cap it all off, the food was okay, nothing spectacular, but certainly streets ahead of the usual Jap buffets and everything was passably fresh. The sole exception being the soft shell crab that our friends describe as "tasting funny", upon which I didn't take any, so thankfully I can't describe what that "funny" was...

Fortunately their impressive service looks to be holding strong still compared to our last visit a few years back.

Aren't we going all Japanese today...

Jun Yen with Mommy...

It was quite a hoot with our friends' babies around too. A lot of time was spent feeding them, and in CK's case, changing his baby (!!!). For us though it was mostly keeping them amused and feeding them tidbits...

Kura Japanese Restaurant at One World...

We went to Kura at One World Hotel for wifey's birthday as we had heard good things about it. Also, the choice of ala-carte Japanese was deliberate as this week was sheer gluttony. (Wed - King Crab, Thu - Kura, Fri - Serena Brasserie, Sat - Hooi Loong) So something light yet sufficiently refined to slot in between those feasts.

We were seated at what I can only describe as cubicle. On the plus side it gave us a lot of privacy, but felt rather claustrophobic initially. The menu was rather intimidating with a huge selection. For simplicity's sake, I ended up ordering the Rokkaku Bento (RM65) for wifey and the Sakura Chirashidon Zen (RM35) for myself. Here are the pics of both, the larger set is the Rokkaku Bento. Taken with incredibly crappy Nokia 2mp phone.

Rokkaku Bento

Sakura Chirashidon Zen

To sum it up, it was very satisfactory. Portions were large, so much so by the end we felt a bit like we had just hit a buffet. Quality was more than decent, with the sashimi on wifey's bento deserving mention. Wifey usually likes her sashimi with lots of wasabi and shoyu, but this time she didn't touch either. According to her, the fish was great enough on its own. And lastly, price? Very fair for the portions, quality and environment. Service was also very prompt, though the staff looked a bit confused at times.

Out For Dinner...

Babies were very good girls today, sleeping and playing by themselves for most of the day. Jun Yen since a week ago has learnt to flip onto her belly unassisted (previously she would flip over but then have one arm pinned under herself) and doing so more regularly. She still doesn't look very comfy though, as Jun Lee does. Jun Lee really likes to lie belly down and lift her head, while at the same time crossing and uncrossing her legs, all the while looking supremely relaxed like someone at the beach.

Had a hankering for Japanese food (after the unfulfilling Jap meal yesterday...) so decided to go to either Fu Rin or Seki Tei as Momo was out due to the rather smokey environment and increased prices. After all UOB has a 20% discount which makes these two look like pretty good value.

Dressed babies up , packed up and off we went at 6.45pm. Arrived at Fu Rin, and after getting a parking spot and bundling babies into their strollers, went into Fu Rin and found that they don't offer a buffet! Only Sunday lunch apparently.

Bundled babies back into the car and off we went to Seki Tei. And to cut a long story short the same thing occurred. Should have checked that they served buffet before going of course, but it was a spur of the moment thing. Will definitely not take for granted next time!

Ended up at Eden in Subang Parade at 2015, and what-ho, found a parking right smack in front of the door! Not many customers though... Didn't really care by then and just looked for the first restaurant in sight. Decided on the executive set meal which looked like okay value at RM34.90. Settled on Caesar salad, Seafood Platter and Bread Pudding for me, and Cream of Pumpkin, Mixed Grill and Apple & Peach Crumble for wifey. All washed down with water, coffee and tea. As expected everything was unremarkable, but passable. Special mention to the soup though, that was really good. Portions were acceptably good too.

And the babies? Both were very well behaved through most of the getting off and on, and only got restless and twitchy towards end of the meal at Eden. I fed JL at around 2030 as it was time for her feed. JY was squirming and kicking a lot in her stroller after that and though we thought she was hungry, she only drank 3.5oz of the milk that we fed her. Wifey guessed correctly that she was sleepy, and very soon after we put them back in the car they were both asleep.

Decided to let them sleep more and went to the bank to drop off a cheque, that we were planning to do tomorrow. Babies very well behaved when we arrived home, as we changed them and put them to bed, though both were very very talkative and excitedly chattering very loudly. It was like they were talking to each other about their night out... Hehe...

Wifey tucked them in and told them to save their stories for tomorrow morning to tell Grandpa and Grandma... What a night...