The Cheapest Japanese Food Ever .... - tastes great too!

Ah... finally i have time to blog. It's Sunday today. So naturally what with the potential KL fiasco with the protests - i am using Sunday to catch up with my blogging.

The past few weeks i have not really been eating out a lot. Even if i did, twas with people whom i am not too eager to show my blogging pictures too! hehehe not everyone is fond of people whipping out cameras to take photo of food unless they r very close to you. Anyway, this week is much better and Mashi and i did our round of let's eat japanese this week.

It was suppose to be @ Ang Kee in SS2 but then the guest of honor cannot make it. So we decided for something less chinese and still asian. Mashi's on her "i am on a budget but still want to eat japanese food", so our best choice was Hokano in Damansara Utama - behind the Uptown area. I have been there a couple of times but never took photos as that time- i wasn't equipped with my baby olympus.

To start off with, it took me 1 and 1/2 hours to reach DU. I work in Sentral and technically it should not be THAT difficult to reach this place.... BUT NO....................... Thanks to the people protesting and the police putting up roadblocks PLUS people watching the roadblocks. I reach there late. And with a rather full bladder as well :P

Well... People wasted no time in waiting for me, they decided to order first. Hokano is a rather small japanese restaurant and it has a rather limited menu. But it does have some rather good choices of food that make you come back for more. Our personal favorite is the seaweed salad. It's green, it's full of sesame seed and topped with a tasty sauce. At one time, we actually ordered about 3 dishes of this because all of us just loved it. This is ... by the way my remaining portion! You can also buy this seaweed in Isetan and make it on your own. But don't ask me about the dressing or what's in it - suspect goma, sesame seed oil and a host of other stuff.

They also have a good choice of Rolls and the above is the Hokano Roll! Yumz- with Unagi and avocado- this turns out to be a lovely combination. I think everyone banned me from soft shell crab. I love that in this place, but this time around - NO CRABS. :)


Though i am a total egg fan - but i really don't fancy chawan mushi unlike lil'Bro and Mashi who ordered this for themselves. Though smooth like our Cantonese steam egg - i find the dashi broth added to it really smelly but i have to give it top points for smoothness. The key to good cooking is how well u steam your eggs!

Talk about innovative rolls, Hokano also serves some rolls that make you think if the combo really works. But they normally do otherwise people won't put it in their menu. This is their smoked salmon and cream cheese roll. Yes, when i first ordered it, i was skeptical. However once bitten into it, lordy- it was delicious!! :) I think i ate most of it while others were busy with the fried oyster.

We had our usual order of tempura moriawase and extra helping of daikon. Nicely fried and not oily surprisingly - with lots of prawns and seafood added. This comes with a helping of rice and miso soup.

Now we had other stuff like fried oyster, beef katsu don and matcha that did not make it to the pictures as ... hmm we were hungry. Their selection of desserts is not as good as mizu or rakuzen. In fact the matcha here could be better. It's not creamy and very bitter for some. However, don't write the place down. It has it's own good points and i definitely make it my need to come back place for japanese food.

Hokano is small and not really large- so come early if you want to avoid the crowd

Restaurant Jepun Hokano,
74, Jalan SS21/35
Damansara Utama
47400 Petaling Jaya
Tel : 03 – 7729 5325
Business Hours : 12 noon – 10pm