Shunka Japanese Restaurant @ Burmah Road, Georgetown, Penang!

Starting with their humble flagship outlet in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, Shunka Group has managed to expand their franchise to 8 outlets in Malaysia, namely 3 restaurant outlets in Penang (Bukit Mertajam, Butterworth and Burmah Road), 3 restaurant outlets in Perak (Parit Buntar, Kampar, Taiping), 1 restaurant outlet in Kedah which is at Aman Jaya, Sungai Petani and finally 1 restaurant outlet in Kuala Lumpur which is located at the high-end shopping mall, Publika. Solaris Dutamas. Shunka Japanese Restaurant at Jalan Burmah, Penang is their latest outlet.

To get there is a bit tricky. You will miss the restaurant if you are not careful. It is located in the row of shophouses besides Penang Plaza or commonly known as FIMA. As you go along Jalan Burmah, keep to your right. The restaurant is near to the traffic light, before Penang Plaza. The parking space in front of the restaurant is very limited. Shunka management is also aware of this and there is an unsheltered car park for Nagore Square customers including Shunka Japanese Restaurant. You can get your parking ticket validated by Shunk. That’s very considerate of Shunka.

Shunka which means period of fragrance which comes literally from its Chinese words which are 旬香. Their motto is “Reliving Tokyo” and they strive to keep their food and experience as authentic as possible. The management even organise a yearly trip to Japan for its executives to look out for new recipes and understand the current trend in Japanese food to stay in front of the changing waves. The Managing Director, Mr Edisson who hosts us during our food review shares with us that he tried chicken and even horse sashimi in his trip to Japan. He said that the chicken and horse sashimis are awesome! Not for KayaButter, definitely! We might puke. Haha.

Their partial open kitchen. This is where your skewers are being prepared 🙂

Shunka focuses on cuisine, matcha and sake . They drop sushi from their menu because they feel that sushi is becoming too common in Malaysia already. Shunka provides an up-scale dining experience with their elaborate decorations and fittings to bring out the modern yet traditional Japanese feeling. If you are coming in a big group, you can request for a private dining room which can accommodate up to 15 people at one time. It is located upstairs on the 1st floor. They still have extra dining areas on the 1st floor in case the ground floor dining area is full.

Every diner will be given a cold towel to clean your hands before you start your meal. They also have the electronic device to call for servers to help you with your order, request and bills. Kaya loves the small blueish device. It is definitely an upgrade from the electronic device you see in many restaurants which are bulky.

Japanese Cheese Omelet/Cheese Tamagoyaki (チーズの玉子焼き) RM9.90

This is a MUST-TRY dish as this is one of their best sellers and recommended by KayaButter. What makes this dish special is that there is a piece of cheese rolled together with the omelette. Coupled with the mayonnaise on top, it gives a tasty cheesy egg with a hint of sweetness. Remember to eat this dish while it is hot to get the best taste.

Grilled Squid Butter (烏賊のバタ焼き) RM21.90

Seafood lovers will definitely be excited when they see this big grilled squid. The squid is perfectly grilled and lightly salted. The squid is not too hard to chew and it is rather QQ (a Taiwanese expression that means chewy) To get a better taste, you can dip the pieces of squid into the mayonnaise.

Crispy Sushi (寿司カツ) RM11.90

Even though Shunka does not want to do sushi, they do have one sushi item on their menu just in case you have a sudden crave of sushi. This sushi is done rather differently. Unagi and Japanese cucumber are rolled together with seaweed and Panko/Japanese breadcrumbs and deep fried. The result is a very crispy and crunchy sushi. The mayonnaise helps to give the sushi a stronger taste with a sweet aftertaste.

Grilled Pork Belly (豚トロ塩焼き) RM6.90

Grilled using the fat from the pork belly, this is a very sinful yet delicious dish. It is very crispy and sweet. You can add on lemon for the extra tang taste. 🙂 You can hardly stop once you start biting this little devil. 😛

Kimchi Steamboat (キムチ鍋) RM15.90

This dish has a lot of good reviews among the bloggers especially the ladies. It has a lot of ingredients, namely tofu, cabbage, Enoki mushrooms, Shiitake Mushrooms and onions. It is very comforting and nice as it was raining heavily when KayaButter reached the restaurant. The spiciness of this hot pot takes time to build yet this does not stop us from keep on drinking the soup. Perhaps the spicy and sour taste that attracts us.

Japanese Omelette Noodle (オム焼きそば) RM15.90

This is a rather special and interesting dish created by Shunka. The yakisoba is wrapped around with omelette with squiggles of mayonnaise and tonkatsu sauce on top. So for those who love eggs, this is definitely a dish not to miss. You will get the taste of egg mixed with every bite of the well-cooked soba. The soba is springy and lovely to chew with. You can mix it with the mayonnaise and tonkatsu for extra flavour.

Ishiyaki Bibimbap (石焼きビビンバ) RM16.90

This is a dish recommended by KayaButter. The chicken chunks has a strong taste of teriyaki sauce which makes it so tasty. The sweet taste and well-executed chicken chunks that make us keep taking spoonful of this dish. The use of stone bowl is a very wise choice as it keeps the rice constantly warm and in good taste. The rice is a bit too wet and sticky to our liking. KayaButter prefer the type of rice that is cooked by Sushi King, dry and not sticky.

Japanese Salad (和風サラダ) RM12.90

We also get to sample their Japanese salad. It comes with cucumber, tomato, bean curd, corn, carrot strips and seaweed. KayaButter feel that seaweed is the one thing that makes the salad feel Japanese. 🙂 Each order of Japanese salad comes with a dressing. You get to choose from 4 types of dressing, the Wasabi Dressing, the Goma Dressing, the Wafu Dressing and the Goma Yuzu Dressing. KayaButter prefers the Wasabi Dressing as it gives a sharp and spicy taste with a hint of sourness.

Sweet Flag Bento (菖蒲弁当) RM30.90

For those who are looking for a more fulfilling meal, Shunka has their bentos to offer. Shunka has 10 types of bento to offer and each is named after a flower. What we have for the review is Sweet Flag Bento which comes with grilled red snapper, barbecued beef, onsen egg, apple salad, pickled seaweed, pickles and rice. The grilled red snapper is well done and the fish is not too soft or too hard. The barbecued beef is not too chewy. Each bento comes with a small bowl of Miso Soup. As Shunka tries to give an authentic Japanese dining experience, they do not allow take-away for all their dishes except bento. The reason is that most of the Japanese cuisines need to be consumed straight after it is prepared to get the best taste and flavours.

Assorted Kushiyaki (串焼き)

Kushiyaki or Grilled Skewers are best to consume together with Sake as what the Japanese usually do in Japan. Each of the order comes in a pair.

Matcha Pancake (抹茶パンケーキ) RM18.90

Their desserts totally stole the show. KayaButter feels that you can visit the restaurant just to have their desserts. KayaButter have read about their desserts online and nothing beats the real experience. Matcha Pancake is one of their bestseller. Matcha is the highest grade of tea leaves and are more commonly used as flavours in desserts or drinks. The pancake is soft yet maintains its fluffiness. Oh ya, they add matcha into the pancake which gives the pancake a greenish colour. Their pancake leaves a strong impression on KayaButter. It is that good. Do rub the pancake with the squiggles of Kuromistu which literally means black honey. Kaya salivates whenever Kaya sees this photo that reminds him of the black honey. The red bean paste is also mention-worthy. The red bean paste is prepared by their own kitchen. They mix the black honey together with the red bean paste to give it an added fragrant smell. It also comes with green tea ice cream and shiratama which is something like our glutinous balls.

Magic Matcha (マジック抹茶) RM15.90

This drink is their own creation called Magic Matcha. Why is this drink called Magic? It is magical because as you continue to sip on this drink, the drink will become thicker in flavour as the ice cubes that they use is not plain water but the matcha drink itself. This is a rather interesting thing. Shunka added a personal touch to this drink by making their own version of couple straw. Couples can drink together simultaneously using their couple straw. A nice touch indeed. 🙂 The green tea latte comes with a generous scoop of green tea ice cream.

Matcha Parfait (抹茶パフェ) RM18.90

KayaButter is not a big fan of parfait as we don’t really enjoy the cereals. We do enjoy the green tea ice cream, shiratama, whipped cream and the parfait cream. Parfait cream is made with frozen cream stirred with egg and sugar).

Shunka Japanese Restaurant does offer some secret dishes that are written on the secret menu as above. The management told us that the dishes served as Japanese favourite street food and many of them are quite unfamiliar to us. If you are adventurous, you can try to order from the secret menu.

Starting from now till the end of this month (October 2014), for any bento order (starting from RM18.90), any one choice of matcha dessert (worth up to RM18.90) is available for only RM5.00. Do go and try them NOW! Such a great offer. 🙂 Shunka will also start to serve lunch set starting from RM9.90.

contact information

Shunka Japanese Restaurant
124E, Jalan Burmah,
10050 Georgetown, Penang.
Contact No: +604-228 3889
Website: www.shunka.com.myFacebook Page: www.facebook.com/shunka.com.my
GPS No: 5.42096 N, 100.32542 E

business hours

Daily

11:30am – 11:30pm (Last call at 10:30pm)