Shunka (旬香) Japanese And Fusion Food @ 1st Avenue Mall, Penang.

If you have patronized around 1st Avenue Mall recently, you would have noticed there is a newly opened stall located on 8th floor (beside Red Box), serving Japanese food- Oden. Normal Oden (おでん, 关东煮) actually consists of several ingredients which being cooked and soaked in Dashi stock and can be easily found at any where beside the road in Japan. It is very common in places like Taiwan as well. There are a lot of choices available too, which the choices are not only limited to Oden, but more to Japanese food, they do have some Ramen/Udon and some Japanese delicacies as well such as fried food and some Japanese beverages. Prices are on the higher side (be aware that there will be a 5% service charge adding to your bill), but its definitely a place for you to sit down and have some snacks. 

You must place your order at the counter first, after paying the bill, they will start to pick and cut the food/orders of yours and you are required to collect them at the other end of the stall. As mentioned, most of the food will be soaked in the Dashi(Japanese Bonito Flakes stock).

There are quite a lot of sauces for you to choose, aside from the usual ones like Wasabi and Shoyu, they do have seven flavor chili pepper, Tonkatsu sauce (the sauce normally being used with deep fried pork cutlet), yellow mustard, and sweet sauce (Unagi/Japanese Eel sauce) etc. In case you are wondering how they are going to insert the Ramen/Udon onto the container, they actually have an isolated compartment where you can place them on top, separating the soup and the Oden ingredients; so the Ramen/Udon would not be exposing/soaking in to the soup and making them too soggy. Its a bit hard for me to tell the price separately, this whole bowl of Oden costs me Rm 16.80 in total (as shown in picture).

Tsukune (手工车轮, Rm4.90) was very expensive. This Tsukune was being separated into two small pieces (picture showing one piece only), it was very tender and has a very meaty flavor, nothing too special to shout about, just expensive in my opinion.

Ika Maki (墨鱼卷, Rm2.90) was okay, it comes with three small pieces but the texture was surprisingly good. The texture was as springy as fish ball's and it was not easy to find either. Recommended.

Age Ball (香鱼丸, Rm2.50) was just normal fish ball. Its very normal to have fish balls in Oden, even in places like Japan and Taiwan. The fish balls were normal and nothing to shout over too. However, the Dashi stock was extremely flavorful which makes it to be very good to go with some Ramen/Udon, you can eventually have a Japanese meal here, simply add some Ramen/Udon and pick some Oden and there you go, fast and easy.

Ratings:
Taste: 6.5/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Price: 5.5/10 (1-3 expensive, 4-7 average, 8-10 cheap)
Service: 7/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Parking: 7/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Service Charge: Yes 5%
Government Tax: No

Additional Information:
Address: 8th floor of 1st Avenue, 182, Jalan Magazine, Georgetown, Penang.
Business Hour: 11am to 10pm, Daily.
Website: http://www.shunka.com.my
Shunka Facebook Page