[Pork-free] Mitsumori in Isetan KL is a new spot for fresh soba and lightly-battered tempura.
Located on the fourth floor of Lot 10, this newly-opened restaurant is helmed by chef Mitsuhiro.
The soba noodles here are made using buckwheat flour from Hokkaido, with tempura lightly battered and cooked fresh to highlight the freshness of the ingredients. The restaurant also prides itself with the homemade tofu with koji imported from Oimatsu Sendai Nagata Jozo.
Mitsumori in Isetan KL
We are huge fans of soba. We had the best soba during our last trip to Fukuoka in 2017, where we enjoyed some of the best freshly-milled soba noodles in a ryokan.
Back in KL, we particularly enjoy the noodles at Soba Kichi in Mont Kiara (full post here) as they are made fresh in-store with buckwheat groats imported from Hokkaido. The tsuyu dipping sauce is one of our favourites, and we liked that they serve soba-yu as well.
When we found out about the fresh soba noodles here at Mitsumori, we knew we just had to check this place out.
Mitsumori in Lot 10
Mitsumori is located on the fourth floor of Isetan KL and located just opposite the popular Tokyo Restaurant.
We visited Mitsumori on a Saturday evening. As it was just newly opened after two weeks, there were no problems getting a table although we did make reservations to be safe.
The service here is excellent, and the waiting staff was happy to oblige when we requested to sit at the counter. The counter was the best spot in the house as we could watch chef Mitsuhiro work his magic with his able kitchen crew.
Fresh soba, tempura and more
As Mitsumori marketed itself to serve authentic soba, we had high expectations. And comparisons to Soba Kichi had to be made.
First impression – the space here has an elevated feel that makes for a comfortable and private dining experience thanks to the dim lights and wooden accents.
Compared to Soba Kichi, the items here are also pricier but we supposed this commesurates with the location and elevated space.
Mitsumori offers lunch and dinner set courses priced from RM150 onwards. But we were mainly drawn to the ala carte menu, which offers everything from tempura to salad, sashimi, grilled dishes and more. Check out their menu here.
Soba with assorted tempura
Since it was our first time, we had to order the Cold Soba with Assorted Tempura (RM63).
So was this good? Yes.
We found the soba to be quite comparative to the ones at Soba Kichi. The texture was on point with a nice al-dente and chewy texture. The mentsuyu sauce was very aromatic and fragrant, and the spring onion and wasabi were excellent.
We also enjoyed the tempura very much, which were prepared right in front of our eyes. Each tempura piece was lightly battered and meticulously fried to yield a light crispy batter, while the core ingredients remained fresh and juicy.
The prawn tempura were huge and succulent, and we enjoyed the various vegetable tempura – but the standout had to be the mountain yam, which were incredibly crisp and fresh-tasting.
Just like Soba Kichi, they serve soba-yu (water used to cook the soba noodles) at the end of the meal. This is to be added to the remaining mentsuyu and enjoyed as a soup.
Mitsumori-style soba
We were intrigued by the Mitsumori-style dipping soba (RM40) as we were quite intrigued by the picture on the menu.
The warm dipping sauce turned out to be a shoyu-based broth with a silken egg strands (ala Cantonese noodle style) with onions and chicken pieces.
We didn’t enjoy this as much as we thought the soba is best paired with the cold tsuyu dipping sauce to retain its al-dente texture.
Fried Chicken with Kurozu Sauce
We enjoyed the Fried Chicken and Vegetables Sauteed with Kurozu Sauce (RM35) as it has a sweet-savoury sauce similar to sweet-and-sour sauce, with lots of fresh vegetables.
Free plate of Tempura until 26th May
Mitsumori is running a promotion from 26th April until 26th May, where you can get a free Assorted Tempura plate. All you need to do is to order a soba item, post a photo on Instagram and tag them, and follow their account (which we did, coz who says no to free food?).
Summary
So did we enjoy the food here? The answer is yes.
Honestly, we thought the food was on par with Soba Kichi, but we did find the pricing by the latter to be more friendly.
However, the space is more comfortable and we’ll be happy to come back here for our soba fix.
Mitsumori
Address: Level 4, Lot 10, Shopping Center, 50, Jln Sultan Ismail, Bukit Bintang, 50520 Kuala Lumpur
Hours: 11am-3pm, 5pm-11pm (Closed on Mon-Tues)
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