Inagiku Japanese Restaurant - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Recommended to us by the concierge at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel we were ready for some great sushi and sashimi at a trendy and chic restaurant. However, to our amazement and disappointment that is not what we had.

Inagiku looked like it had not had a good cleaning in eight years I was pretty confident our dinner would be lucky to make it to the "good" level.

Thinking the concierge must know something we didn't, we overlooked (it was difficult to do) the filthy walls and decided to stay and give it a try.

The dinner menu, as was the wine menu, was very limited; very basic sushi and sashimi items and just a few very plain and boring rolls. I understand in traditional Japanese restaurants that the number of rolls and other items is typically limited but still I had hoped of a little more to choose from. The waiter suggested a decent Sake and our order was taken. We were now committed.

Just as we had requested not happen, almost all the food came at once. We asked the waiter to not bring it all at once but to serve it in courses. For that we received a scolding telling us which order we should receive our dishes in and that getting everything all at once is the traditional way. It has been a while since I have been scolded like that so we reminded our waiter that we were not in a rush and did not want everything all at once. In the end they slowed it down and gave us a chance to take our time and enjoy our dinner.

Now the big question, did we enjoy it? Well, let me say it in one word, no. It was edible but far from the best I have had. Some of the fish was not fresh, the presentation was pretty much non-existent and at the end we got a glimpse of the kitchen and that sealed it. Inagiku was not a place I would recommend or ever return to.

I'm not sure who I was more disappointed with, Inagiku or the concierge at The Mandarin Oriental for recommending it. Either way, this place just barely makes it past "not bombastic".

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