Yo! Sushi @ Gardens Mall

Japanese food has mutiliated itself by miles over the last few years. What used to be a proper posh meal consisting of delicate pieces of cuisine preserved in Japanese history has "fusioned" its way to a world of its own. Its as if there is a subcategory of good old Japanese food and Japafusion food.

Stepping inside Yo! Sushi, i seemed to have gone into a make shift disco turned sushi bar in the day. A place where the conveyor belt and the sushi tables will be used for the pole dancers, the music and lighting definitely played the part as well.

Gone are the days when sushi bars = Sushi King, machine churned rice balls, slimy pale looking fish slices that they call sashimi. Prices bordering on the verge of dirt cheap was what we got for obviously sub-standard sushi.

Not anymore.

Now we have Yo! Sushi, their own take of what a sushi bar should be. I like to say the UK take on the Japafusion cuisine.

Green, Red, Pink, Purple, We got a whole rainbow here..*Imagine dancers replacing the sushi plates*

Now if theres one irritating thing i need to complain about, it is the colours. The colours are fine, but the lack of prices associated with the colours other then shown on the first page of the menu, which requires to flick into it, is troublesome. If i had all the money in the world, i wouldnt care, but then again if i had all the money in the world, i would get a sushi chef to work for me right?

Prices dont start much cheaper then RM3. That is for your free flow tea by the way. Then of course your vegetarian choices, then it jumps to RM5, RM8, RM14 and a whopping RM16!

That is almost hotel prices, i tell you.

Orange = RM 10. Dont remind me about the price but the cream cheese and smoked salmon bagel has just turned into sushi which was surprisingly quite good.

The offer of the day, RM 8 becoming RM4 for this soft shell crab temaki. The sweet sauce and the juicy crab which actually had a bite rather then a crunch to it. At RM4 it was a steal and i am wondering why i didnt have more then one.

I cant resist avocado. For some reason, i have never got tired of the overdose of avocado, smoked salmon and blanched prawns in Australia. At RM3, you got to stuff this in if you want to leave the place satisfied.

An invention of their own i suppose, The Eel Dragon Roll, filled with fresh crab meat and that slice of unagi that the Girlfriend was dying for. (Another RM10)

Then the sashimi craze that started. Apparently if you compare restaurant prices, it is rather cheap, after all 5 slices for RM16 seem a steal. Sell it to me when it is moving around a conveyor belt, i believe it is blasphemy.

Then again, i am eating tuna that is so red, someone asked me if they dyed it red. No residuals of frosting and ice.

Seared for like god knows how many seconds so that the outer layer, and i mean outer layer is cooked. The inside is juicy like raw sashimi.

I mean this definitely doesnt look out of place if i replate this in a grander plate and lots of ice around it. Then again, i dont believe i am paying RM16 for each plate.

Another signature dish was their Miso Black Cod. A remake of the infamous dish invented by Nobu London.



The slice appeared thinner then the sashimi. The taste was spot on, white miso and the sweet mirin. Somehow i cant seem to reproduce this dish, well then again thats why i eat and i dont cook. The lotus root was soggy despite the proud crunchy look. At RM 14, i rather spend time in the kitchen reproducing the dish, bear in mind, white miso costs RM20 a box, cod fish RM8-9 by the 100gm and mirin which costs RM15 a bottle.

Address and contact details:

Gardens Mall
Lower Ground Floor
The Gardens Galeria
Mid Valley City
Lingkaran Syed Putra
59200 Kuala Lumpur

I would say its bordering on the original Mid Valley but it seemed to be part of Gardens for the sake of advertising.

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. There is totally nothing wrong with the food, they have bought the sushi bar quality to a level not capable 2-3 years ago. It is top notch but the mentality of people who visit sushi bars may take some time to accomodate the double digit price tags on some of their multi-coloured sushi plates. Come to think about it, someone was rambling on about their RM50 mini 8 course japanese meal, what was i doing here in the first place??