Having started in the year 2003, Tako TAO has had a long journey in Malaysia and today, they are found in many Jusco stores and some prominent malls in the Klang Valley. They specialise in Takoyaki's, one of the snack food items from the Land of The Rising Sun. For those who do not know what Takoyaki's are, they are grilled octopus balls cooked with some cheese and shredded cabbage. If I am not mistaken, one of their famous outlets is the one in 1 Utama and their most recent outlet would be this one in NU Sentral Mall which I have visited today.
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| The Outlet On Level 5 NU Sentral Mall |
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| Just A Small Area |
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| Small Seating Area For Dine In's |
As this is very much a snack item, most people would be doing takeaways with just a handful of dine ins. They occupy just half a shop lot on the fifth floor of the mall. Limited bar style seating places are located along the side.
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| Octopus Takoyaki's |
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| Prawn Takoyaki's |
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| Chicken & Cheese Takoyaki's |
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| Abalone Slice Takoyaki's |
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| Unagi (Eel) Takoyaki's |
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| Add On's |
Takoyaki's are originally made using octopus and these guy's have localised the taste using other variations like Chicken & Cheese, Shrimps etc. Prices are the market standards and I would not say that they were expensive.
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| Set's Were Available Too |
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| Current Promotion |
Besides the usual Ala-carte Takoyaki's, they also had some set meals. This seemed like a little expensive to me. The drinks, I could anytime get them cheaper anywhere else in the mall. Once we went through the varieties, we then placed our orders and the girl manning the booth went on to prepare them.
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| Small Self Contained Booth |
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| Cooking The Takoyaki's |
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| Being Prepared |
She was all alone preparing them as well as managing the booth. Seem's like not much crowd these days and I believe that a single person would be sufficient to cater for this kind of crowd. Perhaps, once business grows for them at this outlet, then they would surely need another staff at least to manage the crowd, else it might just become very messy.
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| Drinks |
As mentioned earlier, the prices of drinks were definitely on the high side and that deterred me from buying them here. Preparation of the Takoyaki's did take a while. I understand that that is something that needs very detailed attention as you should keep rotating the balls to ensure that they are equally cooked on all sides.
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| Lovely Packaging |
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| Comes With A List Of All Their Other Outlets |
After 15 minutes, we got our Takoyaki's. They came in a beautifully designed packaging with just the right colours that carries the brand forward. The rear side of the packaging had a list of all their other outlets.
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| Chicken & Cheese Takoyaki's @ RM 5.60 |
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| Chicken & Cheese Takoyaki's @ RM 5.60 |
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| They Were Small Chicken Ham S;ices |
Just as shown on the earlier menu, the set came with three Takoyaki's. There were hot and served with some Bonito flakes and some proprietary sauce on the top. Honestly, it tasted not so great. They were soft and nice, but it lacked cheese and the chicken ham used was just too small to add any impact to it. Tasted quite plain if not for the sauce that's sprinkled over the Takoyaki's. The Bonito flakes however were good. I would perhaps only rate this at 6/10 .
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| Individually Marked Boxes |
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| Prawn Takoyaki's @ RM 5.60 |
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| Just One Small Shrimp |
The good thing here is that both packages were marked as to whether they were Prawn or Chicken & Ham as if you were to open them, they both looked the same. Unless they were broken and exposed, then the contents would be visible. This is a good step taken by the operators. Coming back to their Prawn Takoyaki's. If you look at the picture, it shows three shrimps but we were only served one shrimp per Takoyaki. That's is just unfair. Taste wise, once again it was quite bland if not for the sauce. The only good thing here is the sauce, the preparation was somewhat mediocre. I would only rate this at 6/10 .
Overall, just a so so place. I think that I have tasted much better Takoyaki's in this very same mall, even at slightly cheaper prices. In a nutshell, they were nice but not a taste to remember.
Address: Unit 5.13A, Level 5, NU Sentral Mall, No. 201, Jalan Tun Sambanthan,
Brickfields, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Opening Hours: 1000 - 2200 Daily
Website: http://takotao.com/main/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/takotao
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