Entree Kibbles: Hono Workshop (炎工作室) - A Japanese Eatery @ Penang in Malaysia

Friday, January 31, 2025

Hono Workshop (炎工作室) - A Japanese Eatery @ Penang in Malaysia

Given my body's penchant for gaining weight, you would usually not catch me having any supper but when I walked past the above shop in Penang at about 9pm, my eyes were drawn to the Chinese / Japanese Kanji character, 鳗.

Now, I really can't resist Japanese eel, known as unagi in Japanese and 鳗 in Chinese / Japanese Kanji. And it definitely did help that the overly Japanese decor piqued my curiosity too! Plus, I noticed the charcoal grill station right at the entrance, which captivated passersby with the aroma!

Interior design of the eatery; felt like the works of a japanophile! Before stepping in, I also did a search on google and it was much better than expected; a high review of more than 4.5!

Comfortably seated.

Draft Beer - starting with one glass of refreshing ice cold Kirin draft beer! Beer is such a versatile beverage; too hot, drink one to cool the body and too cold, drink one to warm the body.

Unagi Hitsumabushi - how to resist not ordering this?! Before trying this for the very first time at Man Man, I had absolutely no idea of the three ways we can thoroughly enjoy unagi!

Having it the normal way, and with the freshly ground wasabi (so much better than those artificial one), seaweed and spring onions. Unagi was nice grilled and although slightly charred with a smoky sweet marinade, it lacked the crispness that Man Man had perfected.

Soaking the unagi and rice with the dashi broth was my favorite out of the three ways! Strangely, however, the broth tasted more flavored and this kind of masked the original, natural taste of the grilled unagi, which would be more my preference.