Shunka Japanese Restaurant in Bukit Mertajam, don't surprise!

Bukit Mertajam is a small town located near Seberang Prai, Penang. You can find a lot of, various Chinese food or hawker centres here, but Japanese food... I'm surprised when I find 'Shunka Japanese Restaurant' that is run by a local in Bukit Mertajam. Well, I never notice this restaurant even it's at the same row as CIMB bank, until I realize that it's a shop owned by a colleague's friend. No worry that you'll miss out the restaurant at night as they have a very bright signboard, but I'm still wondering on the chinese character whether it's a '口' or '日' inside the big 口;)

'Shunka Japanese Restaurant' is not purely serving Japanese food only, but it's a mix of Korean and Western food as well. The cozy ambient with the tidy arrangement of the wooden furniture is making myself to feel here as 'home'; a nice place to enjoy a peaceful, quiet meal. Besides, the dim yellow light is adding on a little romance into the surrounding. If you dislike wooden chairs, you can choose to sit on 'Tatami'; on the floor. For smokers, you can take the stainless steel chairs at the open area, just beside the entrance to the shop. The wall is decorated with the paintings of Japanese ladies and you can also find some magazines to read while waiting for your order to be served.

BoyBoy orders an 'Oriental Chicken Chop' set dinner that comes with a mushroom soup and refillable green tea. Alternatively, you can ask for Miso soup if you prefer Japanese's flavour. The mushroom soup contains few slices of button mushroom and some shredded chicken that adds on a natural sweet taste to the soup itself. It's not too creamy or sticky, and it's definitely better than anything that you can find in Kulim or fast food stalls. The chicken meat is deep fried yet it's tender and not too oily either. We like it, except we find the portion is just too big for BoyBoy and my appetite. Anyway, the set meal is worth at the price of RM 11.90 only.

I ask for a mini 'Kimchi steamboat' and an eel omelette. I love the 'Kimchi' soup as it's on the right taste of spiciness and sourness, then being heated with the petroleum gel inside a ceramic pot, I can drink the soup slowly without worrying if it's will get cold. The 'Kimchi' soup is just like a small treasure box whereby I find prawn, squid, tofu, mushroom and vegetable; what a healthy order that is not to be missed. The eel omelette; you can choose original or cheese flavour if you dislike eel. The eel is wrapped inside the egg sheets layer by layer and when you bite it, the egg layers is actually adding on some bonus about the softness, moist and aroma of the fried egg. Do allow the waiter to serve this dish slowly as they're taking time to hand-roll it by layers ;)

At last but not to be forgotten, a must for a dessert. I've ordered the Japanese Mochi with red bean paste. The taste is little bit weird for me as it seem to contain some mint or sake flavour.

'Shunka Japanese Restaurant' doesn't serve sushi, but you can still find other Japanese specialty like sashimi, tempura or chawamushi or even Korean BBQ here. To me, I personally like here as it's suitable for a couple like BoyBoy and I whereby I prefer Japanese food but BoyBoy eats only Western food. The price is reasonable either, especially the big portion set meal :o

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