The Umatei Sushi Restaurant in Permas Jaya is another nice Japanese restaurant in Johor Bahru.
I imagine many diners are from Straits View Condo and the Renaissance hotel. It is also right next store to my favorite books store (in fact I am on my way there an hour after I post this): Treasures and Books Store, Used English Language Books (though the bookstore is moving next month).
Yes it has great food, which thankfully there is a a great deal of in many place. What makes Tribal Stove someplace not to miss is it is the rare combination of great and generally inaccessible food.
I often find great restaurants in tourist destinations. And sometimes it is even local in a sense – but nearly always (not all, but almost) I can get very similar good dishes in any large city across the globe.
Tribal Stove had truly distinctive dishes that were also great. They have quite a few dishes, some of my favorite are wild jungle salad and tapioca leaves. The restaurant serves cuisine from Kelabit Highlands in Sarawak.
Maybe my all time favorite meal. The 3 sample items were great.
The set menu (photo above) of tea, a meat dish with 2 vegetable sides, soup and rice that was US$5 (15 MYR). It was amazing. It would be great at $20. I happened to be lucky enough to get my favorite vegetable there with my first order.
The meet dish in the triple was very good, the rice I didn’t care for. But the two vegetable dishes were amazing – truly great. One the right is Lamud Busaq Keluduh (Bario Wild Flower Salad) – wild ginger flower, petai and wild chives flavored with Bario Higland salt. I believe the dish on the left was Udung Ubih (Wild Tapioca Leaf) – cassava or tapioca leaf pounded and shredded and cooked to perfection over a slow heat. The middle dish was, I believe, beef with crisp vegetables.
I have been trying other dishes which are also great but those 2 are not to be missed (you can get “small” dishes of those for $3, see photo below – two pretty easily make a meal in my opinion). If the prices triple this place is still not to be missed.
There is no restaurant I recommend to travels more strongly than I recommend Tribal Stove. If I could have one restaurant transplanted to my location so I could eat their in my home town it would be Tribal Stove. There is nothing remotely close.
Gianni’s Trattoria has the same owner as Sweetwater Mediterranean Restaurant and both are excellent. Gianni’s in Taman Pelangi is two doors down from Sweetwater Mediterranean Restaurant and in Permas Jaya is over the pedestrian bridge from the Jusco mall.
This is a photo of the exterior at Permas Jaya. All photos are from my visit to the Permas Jaya location. Both sites offer fixed price lunches at about 35 MYR (a bit over $10 with soup or salad, entrรฉe and tea.
The Spice Kitchen in Bukit Indah is yet another excellent Indian Restaurant in Johor Bahru. I would eat here a great deal if I lived in Bukit Indah township in Johor Bahru.
The food is great and the interior is nice. It has the exposed ceilings with duct work showing that my brother loves and overall is just a nice feel.
Grandma’s House is a nice little Thai restaurant in Permas Jaya (part of Johor Bahru).
Shrimp dish with iced tea
The food is good and inexpensive. A meal is about 9 to 15 MYR (US$5).
The interior decoration is the best part of of the place in my opinion. This is a real old TV turned into a fish bowl with live fish swimming around.
Tandoori Mahal is another very good Indian Restaurant in downtown Johor Bahru. It is across the street from Village Briyani Cafe and Village Countryside Cuisine, next to Zen Zeng Hotel and a block from Danga City Mall.
This Panner Tikka was great. The paneer was much “richer” than any I had tasted before. I am actually not sure if this was intentional or not but I really liked it. I ordered it another time and it was still good but much more like the normal panner (cheese) I am used to.
A meal will cost around 15 – 30 MYR (US $5 – 10) depending on what you choose.
The Red Tro Cafe is a small cafe outside the Galleria at Kotaraya which is in the CBD and old town JB.
Nasi goreng sotong (squid fried rice)
The Nasi goring sotong was quite nice and the meal was under 10 MYR (I think) which is pretty typical (about US$3). The Red Tro Cafe is located right to the Old Chinese Temple, and across the street from the Sikh Temple.
The Grand Gem Indian Restaurant is located in the Blue Wave Hotel in the Central Business District of Johor Bahru. It is yet another good Indian Restaurant. Johor Barhu has many of good Indian restaurants a worthy choice along with many others.
I have seen swinging seats (similar to the one in the photo) in several restaurants in JB.
The Grand Gem has a very nice ambiance and the food is good. They don’t offer delivery, at this time.
The Blue Wave hotel overlooks the Straits with a view of Singapore. The restaurant is on the ground floor so you don’t have a view but the interior design is nice. The hotel is across from the old immigration site (to be a condo or hotel sometime soon, I believe) and near the new CIQ and City Square Mall.
Carabao Thai Restaurant is located in Johor Bahru’s CBD, next to the New York Hotel.
The restaurant has only outdoor seating. They spray mists of water and use shade and fans to help keep things relatively cool. I think the setting is the best reason to chose Carabao, as the food is only decent as is the service.
Even though it is downtown they do a nice job of situating the restaurant on the back of the lot with some shade trees so you do get a bit of a feel of escaping the city. They also have a large parking lot.
Ajisai Japanese Restaurant is near Plaza Pelangi (in the same strip of shops as Furusato Japanese Restaurant, Rosmarino and Clinic Australia).
My favorite sushi special
I really like the sushi special in the photo, it includes everything you see except the fried lotus root for I think 18 MYR (super deal ~ US$6). This special might only be available at lunch. I usually get one small item with it and they have some great choices (fried quail eggs, pumpkin tempura?, sushi items etc. – the fried lotus root was actually my least favorite so far).
It is my favorite Japanese restaurant with great sushi and good prices and good service. There are really several quite good sushi restaurants, in my opinion, this is my favorite but the others are very close to the same quality and service.