From the first slurp of the spoon to the final swoop of the chopsticks, a ramen meal at Okinii seeks to soothe and satiate.
The effort poured into the Chicken Miso Ramen is exemplary, with eight hours of boiling for the chicken broth, laced with red miso and loaded with no lack of noodles, plus a kitchen-roasted chicken thigh roll (a substitute for porcine chashu, since Okinii shuns the swine), marinated kampung egg, scallions and a nori sheet. At RM18, it's ramen worth relishing, though it's more of a Malaysian Chinese interpretation, with broth that's poultry-sweet rather than umami-resonant. Other ramen varieties include seafood (with prawns and mussels) and even a vegan one (with carrots, bok choi and deep-fried ginger in a sesame broth).
Rice bowls are also offered, with oyakodon and gyudon beckoning from the menu, as well as tofu or torched salmon salads; sashimi is also expected to eventually be available. And after supping up the ramen, customers can sip on coffee - perhaps a cold brew (RM13) to combat the ceaseless heat (lattes and flat whites are fully feasible too). While a Japanese noodle joint and a third-wave caffeine bar might not seem like the most natural coupling, Okinii could change that - its small crew hopes to have close interactions with customers seated at the counter, though that might require the first move on the patrons' part to initiate the conversation, especially when Okinii's team is busy preparing the food and pulling each espresso shot.
Little Monsters, take note: Okinii is a very Gaga-friendly venue - when we visited for an early lunch, Shallow played 11 times consecutively on a loop until the barista came in and changed the music.
Fun fact: Okinii is Japanese for 'second place', a clue that the folks here formerly ran Setia Alam's Comma Cafe.
Okinii
9A, First Floor, Jalan SS4C/5, Taman Rasa Sayang, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Daily, 930am-6pm (note: dinner from 730pm currently by reservations only). Tel: 012-213-2590
This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com