Japanese-Italian in Malaysia!

I'm a huge fan of japanese food, and a larger fan of italian food, so little wonder that i'm a big supporter of quirky japanese-italian places. That said, most are pretty disappointing, so it was a little worrying to try a new japanese-italian place named Ozeki in Menara Cosway...

Ozeki (Italian) is a spinoff of my local Japanese place, also named Ozeki, which is actually slightly Italian-Japanese... they have pesto octopus sashimi and mentaiko pasta... I really like the ambience (and sometimes food) of Japanese Ozeki so I thought I'd have to give the italian one a shot.

It's a pretty cozy place, nice lighting and comfy decor.

Now the food... hmmm well I am willing to give it a 2nd shot but only because it just opened. Overall the food wasn't great. Ideas weren't bad but execution was sloppy.

First up was a green salad with anchovies... i forget the menu description but i love anchovies (real ones AND the nasty ones they put on pizzas), so i had to try this. It was a fairly pedestrian salad with some mangos and grapes (which didn't work at all) and too much dressing. Anchovies were tasty tho.



Next was a recommended dish... a chicken liver pate and toasted baguette. I love pate too, but this was too large a serving and for some reason, much too sweet. I ate quite a bit, but more out of guilt than enjoyment. Not much to recommend here. Bread was nice but when i asked for more, they charged me 1 RM for each slice (O_O) Not cool. Especi since the hostess recognized me from my 20 trips to the Japanese Ozeki...

Last was one of my "must-order" dishes. Pasta (preferably Fettucine) Amatriciana, (along with any kind of Chili, and Pasta Puttanesca) must be ordered by me every time i see them at a restaurant. I'm still looking for the perfect example of each. This was not close. They chose to use Bucatini for their Amatriciana dish which i think could have been fine. However, this sauce was a little too oily and light for my taste. I think a proper Amatriciana needs to be spicy and a little thicker, with generous amounts of bacon and onion... well that's why it's so fun to order. Always looking for the best one...

 

In any case, Ozeki will be tried again (especially since they gave me a 20% off coupon as i left), but I think the secret is to order the slightly wackier stuff on the menu. I went too conservative and this is what i got! 2.5/5 for now.