I see Yayoi often in Tokyo but have never eaten there because there's just too many other favorites and kombini food is just too affordable. With that being said, my first experience with Yayoi is in Malaysia, located in J's Gate Dining in Lot 10.
Photo from Yayoi Malaysia's Facebook
The restaurant was pretty full at 8pm even with enough space for social distancing. Ordering is done via a screen at your table though there are some items available on the screen that may not be in the written menu.
Yayoi serves teishoku or set meals where there's a main dish with rice, miso soup and usually 2-3 small side dishes like pickles and/or salad. It's meant to be a balanced and complete meal. This is really typical in Japan and many rice bowl places like Yoshinoya and Sukiya serve teishoku meals as well.
I opted for a Mix Toji set while Ezel went for a Chicken Katsu Toji. There's just something about the tamago-toji (Japanese scrambled eggs) that look so tantalizing even though I know under all that are onions that I won't end up eating.
The Mix Toji had tamago-toji simmered in a soy mirin sauce with onions topped with an ebi fry, half a chicken katsu and simmered beef gyudon style. The eggs were fluffy and the prawn and chicken had soaked up the sweet salty sauce. The beef below was quite tender. It was like having all my favorite Japanese dishes in one big dish, what a treat!
The side dish that really stood out was the chilled tofu which was firm to the touch but smooth and soft in your mouth. It was flavorful on its own even without condiments (except some finely chopped spring onions which I pushed aside). It reminded me a lot of the flavorful and smooth tau kwa from the lobak stall in Kheng Pin Cafe, Penang.
We couldn't resist ordering some ala carte dishes - I was really hungry cause it was my first meal that day.
The spicy karage was freshly fried judging how I greedily almost burned myself. Karage chunks tossed in flavored chilli powder like a really fine togarashi, there was just a slight heat from the chilli but the meat itself was moist with a pretty thin coat of batter on the outside. It was delicious!
The Beef Nasu Miso or beef brinjal miso stir fry was also a very well-executed dish. The vegetables were first charred on the exterior giving it a nice flavor before being lightly stir fried. The dish overall had wok hei! What was surprising is that brinjal was still plump after all that cooking. The savory miso sauce was a nice flavor to accompany the meat and the vegetables. I would really like to know how to cook this!
Overall, the food quality is really good. The rice is a good quality short grain and it did feel like a really nice balanced meal. Prices are pretty decent for the portion and the rice and salad are refillable. I did a quick search and the menu is pretty similar to the branches in Japan though my meal costed a bit more when converting to Malaysian Ringgit. All the more reason to have it in Malaysia instead!
Lot P1-19, Level 4,
Lot 10 Shopping Centre,
50, Jalan Sultan Ismail,
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Opens daily from 11 am to 9 pm