Miraku, G Hotel

Being back home is such a treat despite the obvious mad rush of a much too short weekend. I just can't do any wrong with food here, given the company. I could probably get by with meal replacement shakes and they'd still taste pretty damn awesome. But this is Penang and fortunately, I do not have to resort to meal replacement shakes.

My first visit to Miraku the Japanese restaurant located on the first floor of G Hotel at Gurney Drive pretty much sealed it as one of my very favourite Jap haunts. I was suitably impressed with the fine balance the lunch sets provided, a feat many a lunch set places have difficulty in pulling off - it's always either too much or too little of something. Even if it looked like we over-ordered, we walked out feeling like we've had just the right amount of quality.

We started with individual portions of appetizer - a dish of soybeans and hijiki.

Each set came with pickles, a nondescript salad, another appetizer of sliced okra mixed in some kind of coleslaw (which gave it a natto-like consistency), miso soup, chawan mushi (very well executed), rice and dessert of red bean agar. Fat Tulip went for the Karei Nitsuke Zen (RM32), a well-marinated slice of flounder in a delicious sweetish broth. The fish was fresh and smooth, the flavours extremely delicate.

The Tempura Zen set (RM28) came with a larger than usual portion of huge tempura prawns and vegetables.

My Salmon sashimi & tori karaage (RM32) set was just right - something raw, something deep-fried. The sashimi was fresh and delightful when dunked in wasabi and soy sauce. I was a very happy girl.

Mama Chow's Zaru soba set probably didn't fare as well as the rest. It arrived later than the rest and Mama was somewhat put off by the tsuyu noodle sauce. She felt it was fishier than usual.

We walked away from the restaurant with a pleasant feeling of general well-being and certainty that we'll be back.

Apparently, parking at G Hotel is exhorbitant so we parked at the mall next door and walked over.