6 restaurants for stimulating eel dishes in KL & Selangor

From freshwater unagi to saltwater anago, here are six restaurants that put an eel-ectrifying spin on this popular delicacy.

1. Koikeshoten in Bangsar

The eel skewers here restore our faith in how drop-dead divine unagi can be – well worth the RM25, with each bite conveying achingly tender textures and a rich but well-tuned sweetness.

Address: No. 8 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur.
Read review of Koikeshoten.

2. Hikari-Ya at Desa Sri Hartamas

This new venue serves unagi sourced from Japan’s coastal city of Nishio, where eels have been farmed for over a century, conveying the flavours and textures of unagi at its most unadulterated. The eels are flown live into KL, with Hikari-Ya’s chef Moroi Kunihiro slaughtering them in his kitchen and slicing them with his special eel knife of two decades. Start with the unagi shirayaki, roasted without a sauce, mildly seasoned only with salt to maintain the focus on the fresh eel’s delicately clean, pure flavour and naturally smooth, tender texture, before heading for the hitsumabushi, a more elaborate version of unadon, with a centrepiece of a grilled eel fillet over warm rice.

Address: 54, Jalan 27/70A, Desa Sri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur.
Read review of Hikari-Ya.

3. Sushiya at Plaza Mont Kiara

The unatama eel-egg sushi combo is a total should-order, boasting a warm, sweet-savoury succulence that’ll linger in the memory.

Address: A-G-03, Block A, Plaza Mont’ Kiara, Jalan Kiara 2, Mont’ Kiara, 50490 Kuala Lumpur.
Read review of Sushiya.

4. Kouzu at Taman Tun Dr Ismail

For a fulfilling helping of comfort food, our best bet is the stone bowl rice, served scorching-hot at the table, topped with tender unagi, scallops, vinegared prawns, capelin roe and a runny egg, all ideally proportioned, with the rice remaining moist near the top and deliciously crunchy at the base.

Address: 18, Lorong Datuk Sulaiman 1, Taman Tun Datuk Ismail, 6000 Kuala Lumpur
Read review of Kouzu.

5. BLVD House at Persiaran KLCC

The timbale of foie gras and unagi is a luscious liver-and-eel coupling that tastes as memorably ultra-decadent as it looks and sounds.

Address: NAZA Tower, Platinum Park, No. 9, Persiaran KLCC, 50088 Kuala Lumpur.
Read review of BLVD House.

6. Antara Restaurant at Raja Chulan

A Peranakan classic reimagined: Delicate pie tee with shaved foie gras and anago underscores Antara’s effort of imbuing the generations-old heritage of Malaysian cuisine with modern gastronomy’s ever-expanding palette of ingredients.

Address: Lot 2, 66-68 Lorong Raja Chulan, 50250 Kuala Lumpur
Read review of Antara Restaurant.