Review : Sumiya Izakaya, Cheras

Photo Credit : Sumiya Izakaya Malaysia

Sumiya Izakaya is a Japanese restaurant with 2 branches in Malaysia which serves pretty much generic Japanese foods like Yakitori, Bento, Udon and obviously, Sushi. They also serve a good variety of Japanese sake at reasonable prices and the general ambiance is great. The customers here are mostly the locals and their families and hence it's a great place to have a casual japanese food at a nicely decorated restaurant at reasonable price. My review will focus entirely on their Sushi offerings although I did indulge myself to a nice hot Kubota Senju sake. Simple but effective.

Nigiri and Gunkan sushi are sold in pair

They have a separate menu and ordering chit for their sushi and the price offered is very reasonable for a service restaurant. For example a pair of salmon nigiri will cost you roughly RM 3 after tax which is the sort of the price you'll see for an on the shelf takeaway salmon nigiri. Their traditional nigiri offering is not that much though which is expected. Their more popular offerings are based around cooked food like salmon mentai or tuna mayo. 

For their nigiri I opted for raw fish to assess the quality of their fishes. It was ultimately disappointing and bland. Their fish shows signs of being stored for days and there's hardly any flavor found in both their fish and rice. The rice ball is tightly packed and there's hardly any flavor in the rice as well, leading to customers preferring to dip the rice into the soy wasabi mix to get some flavor out of the nigiri.

The usual too much rice less fish

I tried eating the fish individually and when their salmon is unable to produce enough flavor for such an oily fish, you know they're giving you the worst of the lot. Now I'm trying not to be too hard on them because their nigiri prices aren't that pricey and serves as a good filler but that is what it is, a cheap way to fill your stomach and not a great sushi.

Their temaki is decently built but once again they fall short when it comes to their rice. The total lack of flavor in their rice means that half of the time you'll be tasting bland rice especially if you don't mix the contents of your temaki when chewing in your mouth. Usually a decent seaweed nori will inject some flavor into the temaki but even their seaweed falls short in their flavor. It shows signs of not being stored in a dry compartment and hence it lacks flavor and crispiness of a good nori. Their weakness in their rice and seaweed is also shown into their maki rolls which once again unable to bring any flavor by itself.

You'll have to rely on their condiments to get some flavor into your maki

Disappointed with their traditional selection I've decided to choose one of their 'Dragon Rolls', a western style Makizushi and the one I ordered consist of fried prawn as the core ingredients with avocado and ebiko on the outside garnished with some tempura flakes

The dish has a good presentation and pleasing to the eye

It's no surprise that this is the best sushi dish for this place. Considering the strong flavored ingredients used for this sushi it doesn't need to rely on the rice for bringing out the flavor. The prawn is fresh and well fried, and the avocado used has a smooth buttery texture and isn't too strong to overpower the other ingredients in this sushi. Overall it is a very well made roll which emphasizes on the prawn's flavor without over-relying on the garnish ingredients to bring flavor to the dish.

They manage to capture the essence of this dish which is the prawn

Sumiya Izakaya is the place to bring friends and family with their vast variety of food in the menu. They have good service staff and wonderful environment to have some sake and have a chill out with your friends. However I wouldn't recommend their nigiri sushi other than to fill up your stomach at a low price (even so I would prefer their yakitori if i'm looking to fill my stomach here). Their dragon roll fared of better than the nigiri but it highlights the main problem with their sushi; lack of flavor in their rice and reliance on strong flavored ingredients to compensate for the rice. For their sushi it's simply a case of getting what you pay for.