Pasta Zanmai

Pasta Zanmai at 1-Utama, next to Carl’s Jr is a Japanese casual pasta restaurant. Instead of serving the common yet famous Japanese food like sushi, sashimi, teppanyaki, etc, this restaurant serves pasta instead as the name suggests. It’s kinda hard to spot this restaurant as it is hidden behind Shojikiya’s Japanese foodstuff. The ambience of this restaurant is not bad though the place is quite small. One thing that I like the most is their kitchen. They have an open kitchen concept at the back of the restaurant, allowing you to observe the chef-in-action.

The giant menu

The open kitchen

There is a wide selection of pasta to choose from their gigantic menu. LKC ordered “hamburg to Kinoko no meat sauce” set while I ordered the ala carte “asari to kinoko no cream sauce”. It costs RM3 extra for the set which comes with a bowl of miso soup and a salad. We also ordered “Surumeika Sugatayaki” as a side dish. As for the drink, we had a pot of green tea which is refillable and just nice for the two of us.

Refillable green tea pot (RM1.50 per person)

Asari to Kinoko no Cream Sauce

Ever tried eating pasta with chopsticks?

I had the Asari to Kinoko no Cream Sauce which is short-neck clam and Japanese Mushroom Cream Sauce Pasta. The clams were quite fresh but they did not clean it properly leaving some mud on the clam. The serving was quite huge with a lot of Japanese mushroom and clams. The cheese was only grated when the pasta was served. This ala-carte meal costs RM25, which was a bit pricey but judging the quality of the food, it is worth giving a try.

Hamburg to Kinoko no Meat Sauce set

The hamburger and Japanese Mushroom Meat Sauce Pasta

The salad

The glutton LKC

This is the set meal that LKC ordered. The Hamburg to Kinoko no Meat Sauce set, which costs RM25. The set meal came with a bowl of miso soup and a salad. The pasta was served with the tomato meat sauce, Japanese mushroom and a piece of hamburger meat (it tasted like the Ramly Burger).

Surumeika Sugatayaki

The Surumeika Sugatayaki is grilled "Surume" squid. The squid is served with grinded ginger and a piece of lemon. Squeeze the lemon juice on top of the squid to remove the "fishy" smell of the squid and the squid is ready to be eaten. Both LKC and myself prefer to have it without the grinded ginger as the ginger does not really match with the squid. The grilled sotong costs RM15 per piece which is quite reasonable.

The dessert menu

They also serve a wide selection of desserts and beverages. Some special ones are green tea latte, black sesame ice-cream, ichigo ice, strawberry parfait and etc. We did not manage to order the tempting desserts as we were too full with the meal that we had.