Teriyaki Chicken Set @ Sakae Sushi Malaysia

Forgive me, but I have never been very impressed by these so called fusion sushi joints like Sushi King or Sakae Sushi. These are not Japanese Izakayas but rather commercial restaurants started by restauranteurs to make money.

Commercial value is what dictates its success and I must say that they are borderline with Sushi King in Malaysia in terms of quality. The outlet in question is located in City Square Johor Bahru, the Sakae Sushi chain was a huge hit in Singapore and started expanding to Malaysia.

The lunch set on offer is something else. It seems like good value for money. The set which came with soup is priced at about US$4.00 and looked very good on paper, until it was served then you started to wonder if there was any false advertising involved. Platted on the advertising billboard, it seems quite generous in size and portion.

Then when the lunch set did come, your expectation is punched like a floating ballon. The portion seemed smaller as it was arranged on a narrow plate and for some reason, the salad and side of corn was there as a side show rather than in a eatable portion.

The taste was less than satisfying. The Chicken was deep fried before being drenched in Teriyaki sauce. It wasn't even grilled! This means any short order cook would be able to whip this up in minutes. It was tasty, I won't argue with that but it wasn't authentic.

Then came the soup. Which is Miso soup without the dashi. This is an expensive ingredient in Japanese cooking, dashi is made with seeweed and bonito flakes. I suppose you could try to buy the cheapest Miso paste on the market and make this with minimum fuss but it does not taste the same as the authentic Miso soup.

The rice, which is the short grain version or arborio rice wasn't cook to perfection. Somehow, I felt that they may have mixed the rice or bought a lesser quality rice to serve as a meal.

Fortunately, there were other items on offer that I had access to, the Fruitti Sushi was pleasant but I felt that the flavors were mixed up. Having salmon and fruit pieces with your sushi roll just doesn't cut it for me. The tiny slices of straberry was at best, sour, while the Avacado slices was hardly noticeable.


I am disappointed. I may not have expected much in the first place but then Sakae Sushi has built quite a reputation for itself in Singapore. It was probably my mistake for expecting it to be authentic. The food is edible. I won't fault it there but the quality is pedestrian. That said, if you are looking for a true Japanese experience, I won't be using this as a benchmark.

Terayaki Chicken Set @ Sakae Sushi Malaysia