Food Blog | Kushiyaki Kim San Restaurant Eco Botanic

Eko Botani is an area that is quickly blossiming into a food hub for all Johoreans, and this time I’m talking about a new Yakitori restaurant, Kushiyaki Kim San Restaurant, in the square.

Kushiyaki Kim San Restaurant, sorry for the quality xD. Should have turned off my car lights

Is This Place Halal?

Nope, this is a non-halal restaurant boasting of numerous pork dishes in its menu.

Where is It?

It is on the row facing the main street heading into Eco Botanic, and on the second floor (quite hard to see, but see it visually from the street). It is beside what I believe is a yoga studio, and maybe 7/11 is the easier to identify landmark. It is further down the row from a starbucks.

Address: No. 22B, Jalan Eko Botani 3/3, Taman Eko Botani, 79100 Nusajaya, Johor

Opening Hours:

Everyday 11am - 3pm (Lunch), 5-10pm (Dinner), Closed on Sundays

What it Costs

Lunch sets are considered pretty worth it, with you getting 2 servings of chicken breast and a single serving of shiitake mushroom, rice, a salad and topped off with a tea at a modest RM9.90. I personally did not try this, but I think that the portions would be a bit too small for the average Malaysian.

I tried the RM19.90 dinner set menu, coupled with a few a-la-carte dishes from their menu. At RM19.90, you get 2 servings of chicken, vegetable and mushroom, topped off with rice, salad and tea. Personally, I think it is borderline as to how full I was at the end of the set, so I guess you guys can kind of decipher what I think of the dinner set from my words.

How it Tastes

…Kinda like something I can make at home. Don’t get me wrong, just hear me out first. It starts off with the salad. Personally, whenever I taste a salad at a restaurant I am paying for, and the dressing is that Kewpie roasted sesame sauce dressing (trust me on this, I know, because I use it personally for a lot of the dishes), I kinda get skeptical about both the quality of ingredients, and the general quality of the food.

Then, you move onto the chicken and the vegetables, and it just feels a bit lacking in the flavour department. I think I personally said to my girlfriend, with whom I ate at the time, “This tastes burnt, but doesn’t look burnt at all”, so yeah, there’s that. The vegetables are nice in general, the enoki mushroom and the shiitake mushroom are both winners, the okra being okay-ish.

The pork dishes are saviours though, in my personal opinion. The pork belly, as well as the pork bacon wrapping (what I remember to be) a mushroom inside tasted good, and that would be what was my favourite dish.

This Place is Suitable For…

Trying when they are more ready. At the moment, it almost feels like this restaurant is just trying a lot of things out and customers are the guinea pigs. That’s just my personal opinion, I hope readers take that into account.

Pork Yakitori! The best part of my meal.

Star Rating

4.5/10. But that being said, I honestly think that this is the type of place I will go back in a few months time. Here is why. They seem to have sources quality ingredients, and have a rough idea of what they want to do with the place. They just seem so new to the business as a whole, that it comes off as pretty mediocre. If they just rectify a few things, I honestly think that this will be a really nice place to eat at (at prices you can almost eat at quite regularly).