We headed over to ENSŌ Izakaya & Bar to try their new Saturday Roaming Bar Brunch — a monthly residency that trades the familiar buffet line for an open kitchen, a three-hour free-flow bar and, on this particular Saturday, a table of strangers celebrating a birthday who did not stay strangers for long.
I didn’t snap any interior photos of the establishment this round, as it was buzzing with patrons, but you can view the photos that I shot during the exclusive media preview before its official opening last year:
Make no mistake: this is a drinking brunch first, a dining one second. Ivon Soon, ENSŌ Izakaya & Bar’s resident mixologist and the 2025 Monkey Shoulder Malaysia Awards winner, moves table to table under ENSŌ’s Do-It-Yourself Cocktail programme, mixing drinks tailored to individual palates and inviting guests behind the bar to build their own. It is this interactive, roaming format — together with the food — that gives the brunch its personality, and its RM380+ free-flow package (also including house wines, beer and sake) is priced accordingly.
That is not to say the food is an afterthought. The sashimi and sushi bar, stocked with seafood flown in from Tokyo’s Tsukiji Market, was the strongest part of the spread, with unlimited maguro, shake and kanpachi that arrived genuinely fresh. The oyster station was the other highlight, with a steady supply that will have you definitely going back for seconds.
The rest of the menu — sushi rolls, yakitori off the binchōtan grill, wagyu sukiyaki, edamame, tempura, udon and more — was decent and hearty, with more than enough variety (good luck trying to taste every dish!) to go along with your drinks. If you’re a sweettooth, don’t forget to try the kakigori, which was most refreshing – especially on a warm day!
The setting does a lot of the work. Designed by GA Architects UK, ENSŌ’s dining room pairs a rustic, farmhouse-inspired layout with higher-end finishing, anchored by a centerpiece bar and open kitchen that puts the binchōtan grill and sashimi prep on display. It is a room built for lingering over three hours rather than one designed for a quick meal, and the pacing of the brunch — live stations, tableside cocktail service, an unhurried three-hour window — reflects that.
For value, this reads best as an occasion package rather than a straightforward meal out. At a neighbouring table, a group was celebrating a birthday, and being the extrovert that I am, I stopped by to wish the birthday girl and share a round of drinks before returning to the main table. That kind of easy mixing is part of the brunch’s design: cocktails kept moving between tables, conversation travelled with them, and the room had the loose, sociable feel of one long lunch rather than several separate ones. Groups celebrating birthdays or other milestones, or anyone looking for a long, sociable Saturday rather than a fast one, are the clearer fit here than diners who simply want a good Japanese meal, since the format is built around the drinking and the socialising rather than focusing just on the food itself.
A brief exchange with Executive Japanese Chef Masami Okamoto, who runs the kitchen, added an unexpected note to the afternoon. Asked about his ikigai — a Japanese concept roughly meaning one’s reason for being — Okamoto said he tries to find enjoyment in his work, and in life more broadly, because that enjoyment carries through into the quality of what he cooks. It is a small philosophy, but one that tracked with the kitchen on display: unhurried, hands-on and clearly more interested in the process than in showmanship.
For consumers weighing whether to book, ENSŌ offers three ways in: the full RM380+ free-flow package with unlimited food and drink, and a RM190+ brunch-only option for those skipping alcohol. Premium add-ons — a 50g caviar tin at RM570, individual Japanese oysters at RM68 each, and Miyazaki wagyu at RM187 per 100g — are available for anyone looking to upgrade further. The brunch runs from noon to 3pm every second Saturday, with seating capped at 90 guests, so reservations are worth making ahead of time.
ENSŌ’s Roaming Bar Brunch delivers on the specific thing it sets out to do: turn brunch into a long, social, drink-led occasion, with genuinely good sashimi and oysters keeping the table fed between rounds.
ENSŌ Izakaya & Bar’s Saturday Roaming Bar Brunch runs every second Saturday from noon to 3pm at Hyatt Regency Kuala Lumpur at KL Midtown. Reservations: KULRK-FB.Reservations@hyatt.com or +603 0931234.
Photos by the author using the vivo X300 Pro
timchew.net 