Kuriya @ BSC

We have. Come to the conclusion. That George and the Dragon will never be on our "GO" list.  .. Let's rewind back a week or so when makan gang and i went on our montly sojourn of eating and drinking. Our group, is the epitome of democracy. All restaurant choices are put up in an email and voted for - hehehe.  And everyone normally gets to order 1 dish of their choice to share around. So we can eat more dishes...  We have one makan gang member who is currently far far away in Berlin pursuing his MBA. Faster come back and bring some sausages with you!

Ok back to the why of why we think we will no longer try to go to George and the Dragon? ... Well, we have been derailed again in our attempts to go there. Place was packed and smoky and after looking around for a seat we decided ah- heck ... we're gonna go look for another place to eat. Plus, it was middle of the week... why are there so many people in that place... event ke?  I must say though BSC is quite hip now. I like the new deco and the place feels less creepy and brighter. Did i say creepy? Never mind.

We finally settled for Kuriya, looking at the other places being packed and we all just wanted to relax and slowly dine and chit chat. This establishment is one of the newer ones in this area and, i heard that this a chain restaurant ran by the people who own Ichiban Boshi etc.  And the place kinda looks like rich japanese man's house. The old traditional kind. At the entrance... was this -> A yoroi (armor ) and a kabuto ( helmet . I rarely see this in Malaysia and i so wanted one for my house the last time i was in Japan. Funnily enough, i only noticed it 1/2 through the dinner and it was too good an opp to pass up on photo taking.

A kabuto

A yoroi.  Headwaiter photo-jacking me T_T

The menu is not fantastically extensive unlike some places but the food is a combination of izakaya food and restaurant style food. We ordered for 4 persons 7 dishes. The waiteress was giving us funny looks already when we hit the 5th dish. After placing our orders, we waited for our food to come while some of us ( me actually ) were busy taking pictures of the shop opposite kuriya. ( House + Co ). All 4 of us were obsessed with houses these days, Mashi is renovating her house, L is moving house and Lil Bro and I just want to buy and own our own house ( mission currently failing due to sky high property markets ). We all love the er .. edgeless pool in the pic below. Nice?

Soft shell roll came out first.  Not enough wasabi to go around, you can ask for extra. Quite nice. Nothing spectacular, but i like the crunchy coating that was on the sushi. Not sure what it was though. Very pleasant on the eye dish. Love the japanese food styling.

The next dish had us giggling when it arrived. It is actually called Potato Mochi. With no picture in the menu, i only ordered it because of the combination of what makes up a Potato Mochi. It's actually a potato ball crust (baked i believe) with cheese inside topped with mentaiko. What's funny is the shape. Kinda looks like a nipple. Hence, throught the night this was called Nipple Potato! If Kuriya could change the name of the dish, it would be a hit. Anyway the taste is quite amazing actually. The combination of potato and cheese itself is quite extraordinary on it's own but the mentaiko adds a zing to it. Not only that, the cheese is the oozy kind, so when you bite into this.. thing... you get the oozy cheese! With such a word in my blog, i will definitely get a lot of hits T_T..... for the wrong reasons.. :D.  This is a must order in Kuriya, if not for the taste but the funny looking shape.

Asari in butter and enoki was the next dish that came. Was quite a huge pot of clams, i thought it was only say 10 clams but there are about 20 here with lots of fresh mushrooms. I am not fond of shellfish, so i ate the mushrooms and tasted the stock. Wonderful combination!

This gindara ( cod ) steamed with Ume is suprisingly a addition we thought not to order. L was debating whether she should go for the normal grilled cod or something different, i am glad she picked this one because this was a hit. Thank god it does not taste like Teochew steam ( which i do not like because it is quite bland imho ) but this was an extremely sweet in taste. Kinda like i think i discovered the true meaning of Umami.

Something you never expect in Japanese restaurants but... Miso Fondue? The dish comes with a few fried items ( which are seafood and some vegetables ) and a fondue pot of miso and cheese. You need to dip the skewered stuff into the bubbling miso fondue. The miso fondue is initially a bit watery but once it continues to bubble, it becomes thicker and actually when it is finally thicker, it was quite nice! But we had no skewered stuff left, but we did put the sauce into good use ( see bottom bit after this miso fondue section ) Interesting combination for miso + cheese like sauce.

The skewered food items that comes undipped.

My hand models demonstrating how to do the dipping. Thank you L and Lil Bro.  

There were 2 dishes we ordered that did not make the pictures, my flash was acting up then. It's the Double Niku ramen and the Seafood Kaiten ramen ( i think ). The former was quite nice. A deep broth with beef strips and beef balls. And the soup was nice. But i could not say so about the Seafood noodles. It was pretty bland despite the reddish tone of the soup, kinda like eating watery tomato sauce. It was pretty weird tasting. So we added the Miso Fondue to give it a bit of kick and we could finish it. Otherwise it was such a waste as the dish had prawns, squid and scallops. I did forget to inform the waiter the lack of taste of this dish.

We also had Wagyu grilled beef sticks, that cost us about RM16 per stick, but it was quite tasty. A bit pricey but compared to other places for wagyu, this was pretty reasonable. Sorry no pics for this one - flash acting up SECOND TIME * GROWL *.

We ordered a rather tangy dessert of raspberry sorbet. Rather sourish but not until your eyes are in thin line. My lovely other hand model posing for this shot. Thanks Mashi. :D After all that heavy stuff this clears the system. Some what. Oh. The bottom bit of the ice - not edible. Only eat the one on top!!  And hand model passed this dish. A wee bit sour for her taste.  I think i have gotten used to sour as my mom force feed gives me with sour oranges alot of the times....

This would be a nice place to make a second visit for dinner and chat.  I think we will make another visit soon. But definitely pass on that Seafood noodles.

The locale:
Kuriya @ BSC
T2, 3rd Floor, East Wing
Phone No: 03-2093 9242