I’ve walked past Sugisawa Japanese restaurant many times but somehow, I’ve never noticed it. On the outside, the Japanese restaurant at Robertson Quay looks very plain, which explains why I don’t remember seeing it before.

Ju suggested going there after reading raved reviews about the food. We had lunch there last week and we left the place very satisfied. I’d definitely recommend Sugisawa Japanese restaurant for good Japanese bento sets at affordable prices.

The menu has a good selection of Japanese food ranging from affordable bento sets ($15-22), good quality sushi ($15-25), and fresh sashimi ($13-40).

We shared the Sashimi moriawase ($25) which comprises an assortment of fresh sashimi. It was excellent value for the quality of the sashimi.

I was tempted by the Yakiniku bento ($15) and Ebi Fry bento ($16), but eventually I decided to stick with the Tonkatsu bento ($15).

The tonkatsu was fairly decent, not like those that you can get from tonkatsu speciality restaurants, but still good enough for me to satisfy my craving.

The Tempura bento ($18) that Ju had took our breath away when it arrived at the table. Not only do they look good, they taste great too!

Sugisawa Japanese Restaurant at Robertson Quay has very good value for money bento sets. Like other Japanese restaurants, the bento set is inclusive of rice and miso soup. But what makes Sugisawa different from the rest is that the portions are really generous and they even come with sashimi.

One thing to note, though. The service isn’t exactly friendly, and depending on how you see things, it can be quite intimidating. That said, Sugisawa is one of my new favourite Japanese restaurants. I’m not sure about you, but there’s just something about Japanese food that makes me happy.

Singapore Food Blog Review
Sugisawa Japanese Restaurant
30 Robertson Quay
#01-16 Riverside View
Tel: +65 6235 0212
Daily: 11.30am – 3pm; 6pm – 10pm

For more recommendations, read my list of best Japanese restaurants in Singapore

Much has been said about Chikuwa Tei at Mohamed Sultan road, the Japanese restaurant opened by the former Chef of Wasabi Tei at Far East Plaza.

From what I heard, the chef used to be a food nazi when he was at the previous Japanese restaurant. Although he had a nasty reputation, the place was extremely popular and there were always long queues. That said, I did not visit Wasabei Tei when he was there, so I wouldn’t know how it was like. I can assure you though, the chef was perfectly fine when we went there for dinner a few weeks ago.

Chikuwa Tei has 18 bento sets on the menu to choose from, and the price range from $12 for the more affordable Mackerel set to $25 for their popular Chirashi Sushi set.

My dining companion went for her favourite Grilled Eel set ($20) and it was wonderful. The sight of the huge slice of grilled unagi was enough to get a ‘wow‘ from us.

I like the Ten Cha Soba set ($12) – which you see in the first picture. Deep-fried tempura with cold green noodles, very simple yet so satisfying.

Salmon Sashimi ($10 for 5 slices). Om nom nom nom.

From the Makimono menu, we eyed the Avocado & Crab Maki ($8) and Deep-fried prawn ($12), but in the end we decided to share the Tuna Belly & Spring Onion ($12).

Dessert is probably Chikuwa Tei’s weakest link as they only have green tea and matcha ice cream. It doesn’t really matter as we were full anyway. I wouldn’t say no to another serving of salmon sashimi though.

Chikuwa Tei is a place that I will go back again when I am craving for Japanese food. The offerings are generally good, and the prices for the bento set and ala carte menu are very reasonable. For those of you who have been to Chikuwa Tei, En Japanese Dining Bar across the street, has a 50% promotion off Sushi and Sashimi from 6pm – 8pm daily.

For more recommendations, please read my list of best Japanese restaurants in Singapore

Singapore Food Blog Review
Chikuwa Tei
9 Mohamed Sultan Road #01-01
Tel: +65 6738 9395
Daily: 11.30am – 3pm, 6pm – 10pm

I will cut to the chase and tell you to go En Japanese Dining Bar at River Valley for their 50% promotion off Sushi and Sashimi from 6pm – 8pm daily.

The prices of the ala carte menu are similar to other Japanese Restaurants in Singapore. But it makes a whole lot of difference when you factor in the 50% discount off sushi and sashimi. Forget about the other Japanese casual dining restaurants, go to En Japanese Dining Bar’s for their 50% Early Bird Promotion.

It was a table full of food that night. We had Sashimi Platter, Maki rolls, Pork Belly (picture below), Sushi Platter, Soba and Black Sesame Ice Cream. By the way, En Japanese Dining Bar’s menu is not restricted to just Sushi and Sashimi. They have a good selection of Grilled Dishes, Tempura, Salad and Appetisers too.

We started with the Nigiri Platter ($23.80 before 50% discount) with 8 pieces of Sushi. Up next was the California Maki ($10 before 50% discount) which was nicely placed on an elongated white plate. Even without the 50% discount, I think it is good value considering that it comes at $10 for a platter of 6 Maki rolls.

Where else can you find a California Maki Platter at just $5++? This is incredible. Other selections on the Maki menu includes Soft Shell Crab Roll, Tuna Roll, and Salmon Avocado Roll (prices range from $4.80 to $12 before 50% discount).

Sashimi fans will definitely order the Sashimi Go Ten Mori ($34.50 before 50% discount) with five different kinds of sashimi. If you have a big group of friends, go for the Sashimi platter with seven different sashimi ($47.50 before 50% discount). Otherwise, the individual Sashimi options are available too.

En Japanese Dining Bar is a great reasonably priced Japanese Casual Dining Restaurant to satisfy your Japanese Food cravings.

Do note that the food promotion of 50% discount off Sushi & Sashimi is only available at their Mohamed Sultan branch (River Valley road). For those who cannot make it for the early bird discount from 6pm to 8pm, you can go there for supper as the Mohamaed Sultan branch opens till late night 3am on Friday and Saturday.

En Japanese Dining Bar has another branch at Bukit Timah and they have a different promotion of Japanese Hotplate Buffet at $48++/pax.

Service at the Japanese Restaurant was quite poor during our visit. Their staff were not very knowledgeable about the menu, and they missed out one of our orders. But I guess we can’t complain since they have such a good promotion.

This is going to be my new favourite place for cheap and good Japanese food… Unless you guys make it too crowded!

For more recommendations, read my list of Japanese Restaurants in Singapore.

Singapore Food Blog Review
En Japanese Dining Bar
207 River Valley Road
#01-57 UE Square Singapore
Tel: +65 6735 2212

Sun to Thu: 6pm – 12am
Fri to Sat & PH Eve: 6pm – 3am

557 Bukit Timah Road #01-14/16
Crown Centre Singapore
Tel: +65 6468 5710

Mon to Thu: 6pm – 11pm
Fri to Sun & PH: 12pm–3pm, 6pm–11pm

Note: The 50% promotion off Sushi & Sashimi is ongoing, but please call En Japanese Dining Bar to verify it again before going down.

Standing Sushi Bar has established a good reputation for good quality Japanese cuisine since opening back in 2009. The quirky concept of standing-in-a-sushi-bar has also helped boost their popularity in the Singapore Food Scene.

Fans of Standing Sushi Bar will be happy to know that they have recently added new branches at 8Q Singapore Art Museum and Marina Bay Link.

The new location at 8Q sam is much bigger than their original outlet at Raffles Place. While I like the idea of watching the chef in action while eating at a sushi bar, sometimes I just want to sit in a corner and enjoy my Japanese food in peace.

Standing Sushi Bar’s menu is very comprehensive and it includes a good variety of sashimi and sushi, agemono, robatayaki, noodle and grilled items. It took us a while before we could decide on what to order. Luckily, the staff was very knowledgeable about the menu and she advised us to go for some of their popular dishes.

The Sushi Take ($25) set came with 7 assorted nigiri, 2 pieces of maki, miso soup and a salad. Every piece of nigiri was so delicate and easy on the palate.

The Garlic Fried Rice ($7) came highly recommended and it did not disappoint. It had a lovely smell and every grain was so good. Seriously I could just eat this and ignore everything else. Definitely one of the best fried rice I’ve had.

Standing Sushi Bar’s Sashimi Platter ($35 for 6 kinds, 12 slices) is a good choice if you want variety. But we decided to focus solely on Salmon Sashimi ($10 for 5 slices). There are only so many words you can use to describe sashimi, and sooner or later, it is inevitable to repeat the same description. So here goes: the gorgeous salmon sashimi was extremely fresh, and it was excellent with a gentle touch of wasabi.

With choices like foie gras, chicken heart, chicken gizzard, chicken skin, chicken cartillage on Standing Sushi Bar’s robatayaki menu, it was very difficult to choose just one. In the end, we went for the Beef & Enoki mushroom skewer ($8 for 2 sticks) and it was fantastic! Together with the flavourful sauce, the mushrooms added an earthy tone to the succulent and tender beef.

Anyway, I am not sure if it is just me, but I do feel that most Japanese restaurants in Singapore have pretty expensive grilled skewers. Do let me know if you know any place that serves cheap and good yakitori.

We were quite full by now, but of course, there’s always room for desserts and we ended the Japanese dinner with matcha and black sesame ice cream.

* * *

The fact that there are plenty of seats in a Standing Sushi Bar (SSB) is contradicting, but I am not complaining. The new Standing Sushi Bar at 8Q @ Singapore Arts Museum (SAM) is a place where you can dine in peace and have good Japanese food. Otherwise, there is always Food For Thought Cafe, which serves comfort food at affordable prices.

With sashimi, sushi and sake, my life is complete.

// Standing Sushi Bar at 8QSAM has an 1 for 1 Asahi draft beer promotion from Monday to Friday 5pm – 7pm happy hour.

Singapore Food Blog Review
Standing Sushi Bar
8 Queen Street #01-03 Singapore
Tel: +65 6333 1335

8A Marina Boulevard #B2-51
Marina Bay Link Mall Singapore
Tel: +65 6634 7068

1 Raffles Place #B1-02B
One Raffles Place (OUB Centre) Singapore
Tel: +65 6533 7078

Besides desserts, I have been eating a lot of Japanese food recently and it wouldn’t be right for me not to tell you about Izakaya Nijumaru Japanese Restaurant at Cuppage Plaza.

As much as I will like to keep this place a secret, many Singapore Food Blogs have written on Izakaya Nijumaru before, so I guess there’s no harm for me to share this little Japanese gem with everyone.

Cuppage Plaza has always been known as a mini Japanese food paradise with the likes of Nagomi Japanese Restaurant, Kaiho Sushi Restaurant, Kushigin Japanese restaurant, Maru Sushi restaurant, Ooi Japanese dining, Kazu Sumiyaki restaurant,  Ohsumi Japanese restaurant, Hanashizuku Japanese cuisine and Izakaya Namiwa in the rather dodgy building.

Out of all the Japanese restaurants in Cuppage Plaza, my friend recommended me to try Izakaya Nijumaru. The plain menu only has the name of the dishes without any pictures. Under normal circumstances, a boring-looking menu isn’t helpful to a visual person like me. But as I flipped through the menu, there were some interesting choices which seemed to jump out of the pages saying “EAT ME!”

One of them was the Beef Teriyaki ($13). It was very well executed, the tender beef was prepared just right and while the teriyaki sauce was rich, it didn’t overwhelm the meat. Only one word to describe this — Yummy!

The Katsu Curry Rice ($10) was another excellent choice. For just ten bucks, it was a huge bowl of the delicious rice and katsu topped with the sweet curry sauce.

On the other hand, the Hire Katsu Set ($11.50) was completely different from what I had in mind. Instead of a beautiful rack of nicely fried katsu, it was served in chunks and the meat was slightly dry. I’d go for the Katsu Curry rice over this.

We ordered a serving of Salmon Sashimi ($15) and when it came to our table, we realized that it wasn’t enough for four person, so we ordered another. See that fatty slab of salmon up there? It’s in my stomach right now. Oh life is good.

Some of the other dishes that we had: the deep-fried golden brown Agedashi Tofu ($5), two sticks of grilled Shitake Kushiyaki ($4), Tempura Soba ($11) and Maitake Tempura ($10).

Izakaya Nijumaru is a great hidden gem with good Japanese food at very affordable prices. If you are meeting your friends in town and trying to decide what to eat in Orchard, you may want to drop by Izakaya Nijumaru at Cuppage Plaza for a drink and some Japanese food.

Merry Christmas everyone, have a good feast during Christmas Dinner tonight!

Singapore Food Restaurant Review
Izakaya Nijumaru
5 Koek Road #02-10
Cuppage Plaza Singapore
Tel: +65 6235 6693

// I’m adding Izakaya Nijumaru to my list of Singapore Best Japanese Restaurants.

With so many new restaurants at Ion Orchard, it really gives us a headache (not that I am complaining) when it comes to choosing a place for dinner. I was in Ion Orchard a couple of weeks back, and I was actually craving for Japanese food that night.

There’s a couple of Japanese restaurants in Ion Orchard, and I was considering between Watami, Itacho Sushi, Aoba Hokkaido ramen, Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin and our choice for dinner was Watami Japanese restaurant.

California Sushi Roll ($7.80)
From Watami Singapore

Sushi Roll ‘air-flown‘ from California
Extremely healthy Avocado
Appetizing Crab stick
Incredibly crunchy fresh lettuce
& sprinkled with countless tobiko

Obviously the California Sushi roll wasn’t air-flown all the way from the States. But I love how the crunchy green lettuce added some bite to the the sushi roll coated with the pretty orange dots of tobiko.

Hire Katsu Tamago Toji ($7.80)
From Watami Singapore

Sizzling Hotplate
Drizzling fresh egg
Cranky Pork Cutlet of Hire Katsu

We were quite pleased with the Hire Katsu Tamago Toji initially. But our world came crashing down when we saw the next table had a gigantic tonkatsu that was twice the size of ours. Needless to say, we were extremely gutted by it, and ate our hire katsu that were soaked with tamago in silence. I am so going to get that on my next visit!

Gyubara Eringi Kushi ($3.80)
From Watami Singapore

Juicy and succulent Beef skewers
Mixed Eryngii mushroom

It’s a catastrophe to just order one serving of skewers. Although the beef skewers were slightly overdone and a little tough to chew, there’s no way anyone could just have one skewers each. I’m pretty amazed that we didn’t order the other skewers, talk about excellent self-control. Ya right. If you must know, we ended at Marmalade Pantry for desserts.

Salmon Sashimi ($7.80)
From Watami Singapore

Finely sliced raw salmon
Tangy citrus lemon wedge
Lump of green, spicy wasabi

Salmon & Sashimi – Need I say more? The gleaming sliced raw salmon was presented nicely on a plate of wooden straws that portrayed a very rustic feel to the whole dish. The green lump of wasabi and the yellow citrus fruit were the best companion, that sashimi can ever asked for.

* * *

Watami Singapore Japanese Restaurant is the epitome of a causal, affordable Japanese dinner. When the Japanese restaurant first opened the branch at Ion Orchard, the crowd was unbelievable – well it still is – there’s always a long queue forming outside during peak hours. It took me so long to do a Watami review as I wanted to wait for the hype to die down.

For the prices on Watami’s menu, you will probably not get the best Japanese food. Instead, it is all about the causal dining and the enjoyment of decent Japanese food at a very affordable price. I can see myself coming back to Watami whenever I need a quick fix in Ion Orchard.

Restaurant Review
Watami Japanese Restaurant
2 Orchard Turn
#B3-23 ION Orchard
Tel: +65 6509 9366

This is my first time to Ichiban Boshi.

Before you scream, or throw macarons at me, I want to let you know that I have not been to Sushi Tei YET. Okay, go on, throw your macarons and cupcakes at me.

I don’t have a good impression of Japanese restaurant chain, or for that matter of fact, any restaurant outlet chain. What’s the point of having dinner at a restaurant that is found in almost all the shopping malls? They just don’t appeal to me if you get what I mean.

Given that I have a list of Japanese restaurants in Singapore to go to, I probably would never visit Ichiban Boshi if not for the fact that the other restaurants at Esplanade didn’t catch our attention that night. But in every way, I’m actually glad that I have finally tried Ichiban Boshi; the food is surprisingly very decent considering the price and prime location at Esplanade.

The menu at Ichiban Boshi is very comprehensive; with a wide range of affordable sushi, to sashimi, main courses and most of the essential Japanese food that you will expect to find in a Japanese restaurant.

Given a choice between Sashimi and Tonkatsu, I will definitely choose the latter. Call me silly, but I love every bite of the juicy and crispy Chicken Katsu ($8.90). Baby, you are all I need.

We had the Salmon Maru ($5.50) and Crispy Lobster Roll ($2.10). The former was sushi rice wrapped with a thin slice of fresh salmon while the latter had a piece of delicate ‘lobster’ meat on top of the sushi roll.

I am not the biggest fan of eating raw fish.

Just the thought of it will probably send many people into a food coma, but not me. I only like it when my partner enjoys it, and this is the only reason why you see the plate of Kajiki Sashimi ($5.50) on the table. I hardly eat sashimi, but considering the fact that it’s only five bucks, I thought that this was a pretty reasonable price for four thick slices of the swordfish sashimi.

For meat lovers, you probably will want to go for the Ichiban Gyu Steak Gozen set ($24.90). There’s Wafu beef with Ichiban’s house special sauce, black pepper shiromi don, half grilled salmon with ponzu sauce, chawanmushi, appetizer, miso soup and fruit.

Half grilled salmon (comes with the set)

I can’t believe I am saying this, but Ichiban Boshi at Esplanade is actually a good option; cozy settings and decent food, and most importantly pricing is affordable. This is probably what I’d call ‘cheap and good food in Singapore‘ when you are craving for Japanese food and budget is a concern. It can be also due to the fact that I went to Ichiban Boshi with zero expectations, and it turned out to be better than what I’ve expected.

By the way, can someone explain to me what’s the difference between Ichiban Boshi and Ichiban Sushi? I know that both restaurants belong to the same management, but does the menu or prices differs a lot? Which Ichiban Boshi outlets do you go to, and is there a difference in the quality of food? I want to hear from you!

Now, I need to check out Sushi Tei!

Restaurant Review
Ichiban Boshi Esplanade
8 Raffles Avenue
#02-14 Esplanade Mall
Tel: +65 6423 1151

Come to think of it, I have been using the word feast very frequently, for a lack of better word. I mean when you are having a scrumptious seafood platter, tasty prawns, big crabs, fresh sashimi, gigantic clams – you can’t possibly say, oh I have a normal dinner can you?

We started with Tung Lok’s signature Seafood platter ($68, portion for 4), it had everything you wished for: cold crabs, sashimi, oysters. Okay maybe not, it would be perfect if there’s lobster too. Under our persuasion, we managed to convince one of us who never like oysters to give it a shot – the thing with oysters is  you either love or hate it. The scene of her slurping down the cold raw oysters? Priceless.

How can a seafood platter be without sashimi? The raw fish was generously sliced, and ready to be savour. But the wasabi that came along with it was quite disappointing.

Luckily, we also had the Wasabi prawns ($24) which was excellent; fresh crunchy prawn balls coated with a thin layer of wasabi mayo sauce. I like how the wasabi provided the subtle flavor without the choking sensation.

The Roast pork shoulder ($24) was gorgeous in every way, beneath the char-grilled surface was the tender pork shoulder. I wouldn’t go as far to say it melted in my mouth, but it was pretty close. And having some fats once in a while won’t kill you.

This was the dish that all of us were there for – Singapore’s famous Chili Crab ($45 per kg). I was sexcited by the thought of dipping the deep-fried mantou buns into the thick spicy-sweet gravy. But the crab failed to impose its aura with the less-than-satisfying chili gravy which just wasn’t good enough. None of which, I should note, makes this the chili crab to die for. Maybe the mantou, but definitely not the crab nor the gravy.

I’m always a chili/salted egg yoke crab person, so I’m afraid you probably will not get a very fair rating about the Black Pepper crab ($45 per kg) from me. I’m happy to tell you that the others felt it was much better than the chili crab, however it was too salty for my liking. But then again, I’m not a crab-lover, so what do I know?

It was my first time having Steamed Razor Clam ($8 each) with garlic, and it was big/huge/enormous/gigantic! The vermicelli absorbed the essence of the sauce, and it was pretty rewarding to dig out the clam meat. Fine, I exaggerated – what I merely did was just to fork it inside my mouth.

* * *

This is part of a series that I’m doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.

Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.

Tung Lok Seafood
1000 East Coast Parkway
2F Marine Cove
Tel: 6246 0555

One of the reasons why I hardly blog about Japanese food is because I always have difficulty in remembering all the mind-boggling names. I heard of Standing Sushi Bar a while back when it just opened, and the first question on my mind: “are there seats inside?”

The catchy name certainly helps to pique the curiosity of most people, and I found out that the theory of stand, order sushi and eat only applies to lunch where there are no seats. For dinner you can sit down comfortably (although it’s kind of cramp) and enjoy your sushi.

There was six pieces of the California roll ($6) each; since the others were saving up their stomach for the other courses to come, I had the lion’s share of it. There’s just something about California roll that attracts me; this is the kind of thing I could keep eating and still never get enough. Okay fine, that’s just an excuse – I’m a glutton.

SSB’s owner Howard made the selections, and he chose a platter of five nigiri sushi for us; Maguro ($2), Sake Toro ($2), Hamachi ($4), Aburi Hotate ($4), Shime Saba ($3). I particularly enjoyed the scallop which had a tangy sauce to further enhance the sweetness of it.

And how can we do without Sashimi? The Chef’s special ($25) will definitely delight all the sashimi fans out there; I bet you are already salivating at the prospect of putting the thickly sliced, fresh sashimi with a pinch of wasabi into your mouth.

I was particularly intrigued by the Anago nigiri ($6) when it arrived on our table. The long and slimy salt-water sea eel looks so tantalizing with a coat of sauce, and there was the challenge of gobbling it up with one bite.

I have mentioned it before, but girls seem to love their Salmon a lot. And the Salmon Yuzu Yama-mayo yaki ($15) will be the perfect choice; the fish crumbled at the lightest touch and it was tasty with the appetizing sauce, but I would prefer it to be slightly more charred on the surface.

Besides all the raw nigiri sushi and sashimi, there was also some cooked food available and we had the Mix Kinoko Foil Yaki ($10) which by all accounts, wasn’t cheap for just mushrooms, but I have to say it was delicious. There was the special-sauce-which-the-chef-absolutely-refused-to-divulge that is supposedly the success behind the three mushrooms.

And we also had the Tori Karaage ($6) which was quintessentially fried chicken wrapped with seaweed. After having so much raw food, it was nice to have some sinful, deep-fried food for a change.

Standing Sushi Bar has a pretty value for money set lunch, so if you are working in the area, check them out, but you have been warned – there’s no seats during lunch.

* * *

This is the first part of a series that I will be doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.

Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.

Standing Sushi Bar
1 Raffles Place
#B1-02B OUB Centre
Tel: 6533 7078

The best of everything. The sashimi platter ($120) was the highlight of our meal and we started with a bang; there’s tuna, pink prawns, hirame, uni (sea urchin). Every slice was so fresh, I could see the glitter in my dining companions eyes. While I’m not a big fan of “raw fish”, it’s definitely a feast for the eyes and treat for the palate to have it prepared so exquisitely.

The Sakura set dinner ($58 per set) which included appetiser of assorted braised vegetables Japanese style, spicy dynamic oyster, sushi roll. For sashimi there’s tuna, salmon and oyster, and this was followed by a steamed dish of chawanmushi, with a deep fried tofu from the land behind. The two mains would be grilled chicken and wagyu beef burger, if that’s not enough, there’s hot udon served with kakiage. And finally rounding off the meal with a chef’s special dessert.

The four of us ordered two sets to share because there was so much else to order from the ala carte menu!

Fortunately, the assortment of sashimi from the set menu came early, and an innocent question “more sashimi?” led to the fantastic sashimi platter you saw on the first photo.

I love eggs, all kinds of them; fried, half boiled, scrambled, sunny side-up, poached ones, anything – except steamed eggs. There are bits of chicken, crab stick, boiled prawns, ginko nuts, and shitake mushroom within the Chawanmushi.

The deep fried tofu and cheese wrapped with soy bean skin is up next, at first sight the sticky cheese looked promising, but upon tasting there wasn’t much wow – the cheese’s not enough and the whole taste was subtle, bordering on bland.

Our first main course of the menu came piping hot, the grilled chicken was served on a hot stone which was specially brought back from Mount Fuji, to ensure the meat retained its optimum temperature – while we took photographs!

Umami’s rendition of wagyu beef burger came in the form of two “meatballs”, while there was nothing spectacular of its appearance, the meat was sure tasty!

Hot udon served with kakiage was the last item on the Sakura menu before dessert. The tasting portion of the menu covered a variety and was decent, there’s two other set dinners at $88 and $128.

And now it’s where the real dinner starts, our selections from the ala carte menu.

A simple deep fried dried cuttlefish ($8) brought us back to the appetiser stage, and prepared us for all the food coming.

I enjoyed the Grilled cod wrapped with lettuce ($16) tremendously. The fish was lightly grilled on the outside and tasted good on its own. But it’s when we wrapped it within the lettuce, Korean-style, and the crunchiness of the lettuce supplemented and enhanced the freshness of the cod.

Clearly, the spicy dynamic oyster ($16 for 3) was everyone’s favourite. Befitting of its name, it had us on first bite in the Sakura menu and we ordered again. The tangy sauce was oh my god, so good! We slurped down the delicious oyster, and did not waste a single drop of the sauce. The best oysters in Singapore, and no, it’s not raw.

The comprehensive sushi menu made it difficult for us to choose from, but in the end for the love of salmon, we went for the Avocado salmon roll ($12). An elongated plate with eight pieces of makis, was indeed value for money.

A whole chunk of it, right in front of our eyes. The scared foie gras ($33), grilled with teriyaki sauce. Oh-oh-oh! Lightly grilled on the outside yet retaining a soft pink within, I swallowed it down – gulped, and wish that time stood still at that moment.

We were all excited by the Japanese beef – Umami served top grade wagyu! A sizzling sound signal the arrival of something magnificent, the marbling was so rich & dense that the meat literally melted in our mouth. I looked around and tried to speak, but no words came; I just allowed myself to quietly finish the meat, and inside I was secretly hoping there was more of this. It’s like totally God’s gift to mankind. Our jaws dropped when we heard that it’s a current promotional price of just $38 instead of the usual $60.

My previous encounter with Kurobuta pork was enough to tell me it’s good stuff, so when we browsed through the “from the land” menu, I immediately ordered the Braised kurobuta pork belly ($12).

“Eeekk!” The girls exclaimed when it was served. The fatty layers were enough to scare off the others, but not me. One bite of the braised pork belly, and one sip of beer, what more can you ask for?

The Rolled omelette with truffle oil ($8 for 5 pieces) was also one of Umami’s signature dishes. You like Japanese omelette? You will like this.

Like what the manager Nigel had mentioned, although the US Black Angus beef ($38) is great, but it’s not in the same league as the Japanese wagyu; the former is like human while the latter is god. The Angus tasted ordinary considering we had gone to heaven with the wagyu – the marbling was just not the same. But it’s not that the Angus wasn’t good, but because we had tried the wagyu first.

And finally after a very long and satisfying dinner, desserts came in the form of home made kurogoma brulee ($6), and home made custard pudding ($6). The former was a sesame version of creme brulee that I didn’t quite take to, but I love the home made custard pudding!

Umami has been around at Liang court since April and I have to admit I did not notice their presence previously when I went to Liang court. The very posh and club-like entrance made it rather intimidating for diners to step in, and they are currently making changes to the front decorations. There’s a current DBS 1-for-1 promotion for their $18 and $25 set lunches.

My appreciation to Lynda from DBS, Cherylene & Seema from Eurorscg, and the Nigel & his staff from Umami for the wonderful dinner. My third and final restaurant with DBS Foodster will be at Xin Cuisine, Holiday Inn Atrium, you can find out more information about the DBS Indulge Series here.

177 River Valley Road
#01-26 Liang Court
Tel: 6333 1166

Tanglin mall will be always remember for my fond memories, while the starbucks and mac there are your best friends during mugging.

“I’m suddenly craving for Japanese food.”

And I want everything from the new menu, maki, katsu, mackerel and of course, your favourite sashimi. The Ebi maki was delicious; fried ebi temperua wrapped around with soft white sushi rice. Juicy, tender, and crispy, I love to eat katsu; every bite was so good. The grilled mackerel was much better than what I’ve before too, and as for the sashimi, it’s all yours my dear. Memories, are the stuff that life is made of.

Read about my previous visits to Tetsu here, here, here and here.

Tetsu
163 Tanglin road
#03-18 Tanglin Mall
Tel: 6836 3112

It’s a love-hate relationship with Dempsey; you either rave about the place, or you hate it being overcrowded, over hyped, and over priced. I used to be the latter, but that was before I paid a visit to Dempsey, and you ought to admit, despite the crowds there, there’s still plenty of places to check out, and who could resist the lush atmosphere?

The first dish is always of utmost importance; how the meal will eventually turn out – depends on this humble appetiser. You may think its not a big deal, but according to scientific researches done by Dr. Bradley, the first dish will usually dictates the mood for the upcoming dishes; humans are emotional creatures. Almost everybody else felt that the Rock shrimp tempura ($15) was ordinary, but I on the other hand, totally love it! It was a shrimp rendition of my favourite sweet & sour pork, and I wiped the whole plate clean since everybody was saving their stomach for the rest of the food.

Without further ado, let me introduce to the one-that-you-have-been-waiting-for, Sashimi of course, Mango sashimi ($29) to be precise. There was mango, avocado wrapped together with three kinds of fish in thin rice paper.

The Carpaccio ($25) was delicious. Thinly sliced, laid in the pool of savoury yuzu sauce; it was squeaky-fresh – it seemed to be swimming in the plate.

When we dine out, people usually want to try out some of the restaurant’s signature dishes. And the Tuna pizza ($22) was one of them at Zento. If skinny pizzas are your kind of thing, then this would be it. Raw fresh tuna on top of the oh-so-thin dough, crunch, crunch, the pizzas were gone!

I always have a thing for prawns, especially deep-fried ones. Naturally, I like the Volcano ($25) pretty much, with the focus in the middle of the futomaki. But some didn’t take quite well to it as they felt that the freshness was gone after the deep-frying process. Alongside the shrimp tempura, there was smoked salmon, avocado and crabstick too.

The combination of seven skewers ($48) was the perfect showcase of the different ingredients, and of course, it’s for sharing! Most of them were pretty decent, but if I were to choose one, I’ll go for the separate tasty foie gras ($15) instead.

The sushi rolls had fascinating names like fantasy, rainbow, and even monkey roll. But we had the Green river ($30) instead. Toro, eel, avocado and plum paste, with seaweed powder on the outside.

After the rounds of appetisers, yes, all the food you saw were just starters to warm us up. The first main course was the Roasted marinated duck breast ($48), and it was indisputably the best. The first impression of the duck was from a conversation when we saw the photo of it in the menu.

“Ah! they served char siew rice here too!”

The photo of the duck in the menu looked exactly like char siew rice! Anyway not many places serve duck, and do it well; the duck meat was done just nice, retaining the tinge of pink beneath the charred skin.

I love prawns, baby! Big, big prawny prawns. The Jumbo shrimp tempura ($42) was dazzled with the sweet and slightly sour pineapple sauce, and there was wasabi fried rice alongside too. Jumbo in size, great in taste, and a huge hole in the pocket too!

We weren’t expecting any surprises from the chicken since it’s a done-to-death item. And the Roasted spring chicken ($38) turned out to be what we expected, just chicken.

Besides the duck breast, I also enjoyed the Chilean seabass ($45). The miso-infused flavour was subtle, bordering on bland, but it actually enabled us to taste the sweetness of the fish.

I could almost hear the cat say, “purrfect!”

Every main course at Zento is paired with different types of rice, the same goes for the Rack of lamb ($45) which comes with almond raisin rice. Lets just put it this way, for the price, we’ve had better elsewhere.

We pointed to “the most expensive main course” on the menu, the Wagyu stripped loin ($75). We had it done medium, but it came slightly more at medium rare.

“Do you have stomach for more?”

It was towards the end that this simple question was posed to us,  Well we were glad that we did, otherwise we would have miss out on the amazing Crunchy spicy tuna handroll ($12). It was O-M-G. Instead of the typical seaweed roll, they used soy paper as a substitute, maybe we shouldn’t call it a substitute because it’s definitely a better option than seaweed. The soy paper simply dissolved when it touched our mouth; every bite was so good!

Most of the folks were stuffed by now, but how can we say no to desserts? So another dessert-holic and me tried most of the ones available; we started with the Coffee parfait ($12). It was frozen custard made with cream, with ice-cream texture minus the melting part.

We lamented about the quality of the chocolate within the Chocolate lava cake ($16). It could/should have been better. Nonetheless, you can’t go wrong when there’s icy cold vanilla ice cream together with the warm chocolate lava.

Dyana, the co-owner of Zento advised us against ordering the Green tea creme brulee ($12) but we decided to try it anyway. The taste was, forgettable, which explained why I couldn’t recall how it tasted like.

There was a period of time long long ago where the fried ice cream at the old Tiong Bahru food centre was in the rage. They called it the Tri colour fuzzes bomb ($14) here. and rightfully so. Underneath the crispy fried skin was cold ice cream. I was fascinated by the fact that the ice cream didn’t melt during the frying process.

* * *

Zento was quite unlike any other Japanese restaurants that I went to before, stepping inside you probably won’t know it’s a Japanese restaurant until you see the menu. Contemporary and chic design, with bold and innovative creations in their menu. My appreciation to Hungrygowhere.com for the invitation to the food tasting session, and Dyana for her warm hospitality.

Zento Asian Global cuisine & Sushi Bar
18B Dempsey road
Tel: 6474 0378

Hands up if you always ordered unagi when you stepped into a Japanese restaurant! I know there are many suckers, okay, fans of the unagi, so how about Unagi maki ($8)? You are aroused already.

The trio of appetisers that we started with, namely; Kawa ebi karaage ($8), Fugu Mirin Boshi ($10), and the Renkon chips ($4) from top to down. There are times where you don’t feel hungry, nor do you feel full; you just need something to bite, your mouth just feels itchy, popped a mouthful of the deep-fried river shrimps, done and done.

I enjoyed the dried puffer fish the most, I mean how often do you get to eat puffer fish, in Singapore? It was chewy and I just finished up the whole plate while nobody’s looking. I would order this again.

The fanciful name of Renkon chips actually referred to the lotus roots, pardon my ignorance, I just Goggled on it. Well I was never a big fan of lotus roots since we usually met when my mom prepared lotus root soup; the soup was delicious, but the lotus root was bland and tasteless. But here, they deep-fried the thinly-sliced lotus root, giving it a extremely crispy and fragile texture. Instead of potato chips, why don’t you have some Renkon chips?

Yay if you are a big fan of sashimi! The dream starter for all the sashimi fans out there; to begin with some greens and have your favourite sashimi to go along with. We sprinkled the wafu dressing on top of the garden salad with sashimi ($9.80), but who cares about the healthy greens when there are sashimi?

Lemon wedges are a god-sent item which should always be present on every table. With a squeeze of the wedges, the precious drops of lemon fell onto the fish hire ($14.50) and watch the transformation; the beautiful lemon dew came into contact with the golden-brown crispy crust and sank into it, with the fillet fully absorbing everything until death-brings-us-apart.

And oh did I mentioned this was the new-kid-on-the-block.

We used to have the rosu katsu(it is still available). Now we have the cheese katsu roll ($16.50) instead. Hello, are you reading? Creamy, melted cheese with crispy fried katsu, who wouldn’t want it? And they added in carrots and asparagaus to make it “healthier“. But if you asked me, give me more cheese, more cheese! Heck the eat-healthy-approach, we are here to feast, to gain calories and put on weight.

A whole fricking fish. You wouldn’t believe it, I didn’t. The fish was big, no huge, no gigantic! Okay, I’m exaggerating, but still, it was quite big. As much as I don’t really fancy Japanese food, but I like their soya sauce; it’s like a completely different level from the normal ones we had.

When I was young as a kid, my mom would always tell everybody I LOVE fish, well I like steamed fish, but to the extent of loving it, I like to associate myself with the more dangerous creatures like chicken and duck. Oh yes, the name – Tai Kabutoni which was boiled red snapper head with sweet soya sauce ($28).

This was fantastic. The Yaki Niku or the beef tenderloin ($16), if I may, had the melted-in-the-mouth consistency that you wouldn’t believe. I put one into my mouth, and it was melted away, so I kept on putting more slices and more slices in until everything was gone.

The sacred ritual was performed first; we bowed to the green wasabi signalling our intent to eat it, and mixed it with the finest soya sauce you can find on Japan-land. Stirred until there’s a milky brown appearance, and we are done. Carefully picking up a slice of that oh-so-thick salmon sashimi, we dipped it into the sacred sauce, and placed it into the mouth. My dear, this is what they called, Sashimi.

It’s a waste to dip the crispy crust of the katsu into the curry since everything will turn soft and soggy. But the one-fascinating-aspect of the Japanese curry – it was sweet, not spicy, not spicy at all. And you know I sweat when there’s intake of chilli into my body system. The katsu curry rice ($16.50) was the perfect solution for people like me who want to eat curry but don’t want to sweat.

I LOVE this.

I know there’s nothing special, but it’s always the simplest things that make us the happiest isn’t it? Hire Katsu sando ($5.80), I always think that sandwiches and burgers are the same, except sandwichs always come with the healthy-tame ingredients like tuna, eggs, while burgers come with the meaty beef, chicken. Since this was a breaded pork loin enveloped between bread, I proclaimed this as the katsu burger!

Ice cream always makes me happy, just the sight of it was enough to give my spirits a much-needed lift. And what’s more we have not one, but three different handmade fruit sherbet ($4.80).

The good thing: the strawberry sherbet was handmade, but the yuzu ice cream’s not. Still, the Yuzu ice cream on strawberry sherbet ($5.80) did nothing wrong with its pairing; the slightly sour and tangy yuzu flavour going well with the sweet strawberry sherbet.

* * *

My appreciation to Racheal for the invitation to the food tasting session, and I tried sake for the very-first-time! The new and improved menu was definitely a sign of good things to come; the enormous menu with colourful display of the photos made it much easier for making a decision.

Read about my previous visits to Tetsu here, here, and here.

I always dread to blog on Japanese food; since I’m not a big fan of Japanese food, nor am I knowledgeable about them. It is on special occasions when my friends craved for Japanese food, then will you see Japanese-related posts here.

The prices at Tatsuya, are incredibly not cheap (at least for my standards); we went for their affordable-and-value bento set lunches instead. The sashimi bento set ($28.90) was immediately on the agenda since my friend’s a big, big fan of sashimi. Pardon me, I can never understand the rave about sashimi though, eating slices of raw fishes didn’t exactly appeal to me; but having said that, the salmon sashimi was remarkably fresh.

I always enjoy eating Japanese rice; the white pearl grains are so soft, and seriously, I could step into a Japanese restaurant just to eat their rice. Be it steamed white rice, or garlic fried rice, give it to me!

The sushi bento ($30.90) was visually-appealing with all the delectable and pretty-looking of sushi; I started with the tempura first, the deep-fried vegetables were pretty all right, I’ve never like my vegetables fried. It was the prawn tempura that really got me going.

Without paying attention to what was what, I took up my chopsticks, steadied my pair of shaky hands, and grab the nearest sushi; delicious, I ate another one, then the next, until I finished the row of six sushi.

The same for the fishes, I’ve a hard time differentiating which fishes were there, with the exception of salmon and tuna; so I took up my chopsticks once again, dipped them into the wasabi-infused soy sauce, and carefully placed it into my delicate mouth. Yum! The fish, with the sticky sushi rice, was exceptionally fresh.

We chose to sit in the interior of the smallish restaurant; an elongated space with at most twenty seats, there’s room at either the counter bar or by the side. Naturally, sitting at the counter bar provides the full Japanese experience, with the chefs and staffs conversing in Japanese, and seeing the chefs live in action. But somehow it does gets a little overwhelming and noisy after a while.

Since I already gotton my full Japanese experience, the next time I will probably choose to sit outside in the tranquil al fresco environment instead! Tatsuya’s bento set are very value for money, given that it will probably cost double or triple the money when you order ala carte for dinner.

Tatsuya Japanese restaurant
22 Scotts road
Goodwood park hotel
Tel: 6887 4598

The first of the many to come, Wan Hao Chinese restaurant at Marriott hotel.

Now what can I say? I totally love roast pork belly! The dish is often an indicator of the standard of a Chinese restaurant; Wan Hao’s rendition was nicely done – crispy top with a thin-and-nice layer of fats. “One cube definitely wasn’t enough”, I protested! But hey, there’s still thirty more dish to go!

Although I couldn’t exactly tasted which seven spices were use, but the combination was seductive to the palate, the Seven spices sea perch fillet.

And just before you are thinking Chinese restaurants are boring and served the usual-you-know-what food, the Hokkigai and salmon sashimi would certainly prove you wrong! Just look at the thickly-and-generous slices of the fresh sashimi. It-is-to-die-for.

For the tasting at Wan Hao, only Catherine of Camemberu fame and myself was present among the five of us. And she absolutely loved the Jelly fish with cucumber. Tangy and Q, it was a refreshing appetiser.

Like the no-smoking campaign slogon which asked you to say ‘No‘ to cigarettes, I could never say no to roast duck. My interpretation of a good roast duck: crispy skin with a layer of fats and tasty duck meat. This one had it all, and say it with me, Oomph-la-la!

Vermicelli with pork fillet. There wasn’t anything spectacular but this is just one, good, comfort food, which stood out among the delicacies we tried.

Beef tendon with white radish

In my humble opinion, Wan Hao has the best Ha Gau among the four places that we tried. All of them used top-quality fresh prawns, but what made the one here stood out was the the skin; some places would do it too thick, and some too thin – it was done perfectly here. Bravo!

I actually preferred the spring roll filled with smoked duck meat to the roasted duck. The smoked duck meat lived up to its name – the very smoky taste within the crispy spring roll.

While some people found that the addition of fish roe to the top only served as an adornment; I thought that it’s fine so long the tiny orange eggs wasn’t in excessive to overwhelm the taste of the siew mai.

I ain’t a big fan of asparagus – the word alone put me off; but I had to try this translucent pretty-looking asparagus dumpling, which tasted decent.

The sea perch fillet with garlic appeared squeaky-fresh; it seemed to be flipping on my plate! The golden mushrooms and tofu were integrated with the sea perch, and I love it!

I knew it was close. I could smell it. The strong alcohol scent. You can smell it from far away. The drunken prawns were as suspected, very strong in liqueur taste; the prawns were big and fresh. I must emphasized, the quality and freshness of the ingredients at Wan Hao was really what set them aside.

Bean curd sheet filled with shrimps

The presentation of the Scallop and asparagus with spicy XO sauce was faultless. Succulent and juicy scallop.

The mere presence of duck shreds greatly enhanced the flavour of the congee. And not to mention there’s sliced fish maw, squid too! All the natural goodness in the bowl of Congee.

It was sensational. Tender, let me tell you, the whole experience: the chewing and swallowing, we couldn’t speak. There was a lump stuck in my throat; I just allowed myself to quietly finished the meat, and inside I was secretly hoping there was more of this.

I was struck in awe of the flavour and texture of the meat, this was certainly my most memorable and favourite dish of the meal. And I couldn’t bear to speak of its name, Kurabuta pork, all the way from Americaaa!

The meal was a late boomer. Just when I thought that the few dishes in front were all good, it got better and better. Or maybe they were saving the best for the last, either way, the Chilli prawns with crispy buns had the “made in Singapore” brand stamped all over it. Spicy, fresh, with the mini mantao bun to dip in to the sauce, it was a superb interpretation of prawns done in our local favourite Chilli crab. A Singapore classic.

I could not, believe how tender the meat actually was. It literally melted in my mouth – I know this phase sounded exaggerating and often over-used, but trust me, it’s true for the Beef tenderloin with black peppercorns. Oh my! I would gladly go back another time just for the kurobuta pork, chilli prawns, and the beef tenderloin alone.

All right, back to the basics. Not many places can do a mean version of the Ee-fu noodles. All of us agreed that this one was just right in terms of the oilyness and bite. Not too oily, not too dry, just exactly how we liked it.

For the first time, I was actually sorry to see the desserts coming – for it signalled the end of the wonderful meal. But Wan Hao dessert did not disappoint as well, the first to arrive, the Lemongrass jelly with lime sherbet was equally pleasing in aesthetic senses. Very refreshing, and a fine finish for us.

There was a big fan of the mango pudding among us, and he was right! I took a nibble without adding in any milk for the original taste; even eaten alone the smooth and creamy texture of the aroma mango was evident.

If you know me, you must know that I’m an anti-durian person. For the sake of sharing with everybody, I popped one durian mochi inside – the mochi was very sticky, the smell of the fabled durian king of the fruits wasn’t very apparent until I took a bite of it, and that’s when I say, Shit!

I love egg tarts, and I always questioned the fact why Chinese restaurants always do their egg tarts in mini sizes. And like the manager of Wan Hao put it, the small bite was just right, anything bigger it would be too much. Crisp golden brown pastry with equally good egg fillings.

* * *

I must admit, I’m impressed with Wan Hao Chinese restaurant. The freshness in the quality ingredients, with the management’s emphasis on this, plus the service of the staff, were all top-notch. I’m not talking about their good service because it was a tasting session, after we finished our meal, we went down to their bakery; the staff was very knowledgeable about their bakes and was very professional.

The 31 items which we tried for this tasting session was half of their weekend brunch buffet which had 70 items, priced at $55 per head. For the sheer quality and variety, the sum is fair, will I be back? Definitely, See you there!

I entered the Marriott hotel on an empty stomach, and I left with a full one; I’m a happy man. My appreciation to the folks from Wan Hao for hosting us, and Cuisine & Wine Asia for the invitation.

Read Catherine’s review on Wanhao here

Wan Hao Chinese restaurant
320 Orchard road
3F Marriott hotel
Tel: 6831 4615

Wan Hao is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

Welcome to LIC Food event II at Tetsu!

Having the experience of organising my own food outing event at OChaCha previously, this time LIC decided to have the second one at Tetsu. The response has been overwhelming, in fact i think its crazy given its a Tuesday night since people have to work and study. A whopping 51, yes 51 friends joined us for this one.

There will be more thoughts about the event in the next post, The Afterthoughts on Tetsu food event. For now, lets go back to LIC main task, food review!

LIC went for a visit to Tetsu previously, there won’t be repeated pictures, so please take a look at my previous review.

I missed this out the last time round, Tetsu has got many media write-ups which you might find familiar while reading the various newspapers and magazines.

The fresh ingredients awaits to play with our taste buds.

Appetizers

To kick-start our multi course meal, we clear our throat with the warm green tea, follow by the Kami Tofu, Kajiki Takaki, after which we have the Yasai Takiawase, salmon sashimi and the consomme soup. All in good time, read on!

Just a note, for our multi course meal dinner, we have everything done in sampling size, which means to say this is not the real size which you will get in a set. I requested for sampling size so that we can actually try out a lot more variety of food.

Kami Tofu

The Kami Tofu, or century egg with tofu, starts off our multi course meal. The tofu is done delicately with the century egg, petite in size, but suffice for the first appetizer.

Kajiki Tataki

Seared swordfish with special sauce is rather light in taste, but coupled with the special sauce it does brings out the flavor of the Kajiki Tataki, not too fishy and taste fresh. But i do find that the special sauce is slightly on the heavy side.

Salmon/Hamachi Sashimi

Hamachi Sashimi is fresh according to feedbacks from most of our guests. A dip with the wasabi completes the fresh salmon sashimi.

Consomme Soup

Some of you might wonder how come it is consomme soup we are having since initially the menu that i put up states miso soup. After some discussion with Tetsu head chef, Kent, we agreed that it will better to have a clear soup than miso soup since the dishes behind are all quite heavy.

The clear soup with wakame, leak and tamago tastes bland, but it helps to clear our palates and prepared us for the main courses to come.

Yasai Takiawase

Daikon, carrot, pumpkin, snow pea with yuzu flavour sauce makes up the Yasai Takiawase. This appetizer is also a healthy way to start our taste buds working, but some feedback find it ordinary, nothing fantastic.

Sushi roll

The sushi roll with salmon, tuna in double layer within the sushi is actually not on the menu. Complimentary from Tetsu, i also find out about the surprise after i got there. The salmon and tuna meat are mixed together, being a fan of both fishes, the sushi roll works magic for me.

Kushi Age style

Soft Shell Crab, Ebi, Hire Katsu, and Hotate from left to the right respectively. Without a doubt the star of the show, Tetsu is renown for their Kushi style Tonkatsu and Tempura, and it certainly hit home, albeit feedbacks its rather dry, but nonetheless still very good.

On my previous visit, i had my Tempura done in Kushi-Tem which i find its slightly disappointing, and like what i suspected, done in the Kushi-Age style the tempura really shines. Or maybe its just my personal liking, either way you got to try them both to find out.

Kushi-Age: Soft Shell Crab

The soft shell crab is nice, i admit i am lazy to shell crabs so i don’t relaly eat crabs often. But hey this is a soft shell crab, done in the Kushi-age, i finish the whole smallish crab.

Kushi-Age: Hotate

The Hotate or scallop is also done in Kushi-Age style, fresh air-flown from Japan.

Hire Katsu (fillet katsu)

Like what i mentioned before, there is the choice of either the Rosu Katsu (pork loin) or the Hire Katsu (fillet katsu). Pork loin is fatter than fillet katsu in nature, which makes it more tender than Hire Katsu. But because with more of our guests from the fairer sex, we decided on Hire Katsu which has a leaner cut, if not we will have our girls screaming fats!

Famed for their Katsu, the Kushi-age style (skewered with breaded batter) certainly lives up to expectations. The breaded style of the katsu is really good, the panko crumbs on it is very light which gives it a melt-in-your-mouth feel.

Kushi-Age: Ebi

Actually for LIC, my personal tempura will always be the lovely fried prawns. I really find that the Kushi-age style for the Ebi is much better than the kushi-tem style which i tried before. Kudos! Just that you can’t really get enough by eating one ebi, i know prawn isn’t as tasty if its too big, but how about a few more ebi? Sounds great right!

Kushi Tem: Lotus root, mushroom, Green capsicium

The tempura batter had nice texture, but again it wasn’t that seasoned enough, so i think the common reaction its quite bland. Nevertheless the batter is very light, not that oily and it didn’t leave any oily aftertaste that mediocre tempuras do.

And just to answer some common questions asked, why isn’t there tempura sauce to go along? I only manage to ask the chef at the end of the session that he actually meant to want us have the kushi tem together with the udon. My apologies for this mistake.

Hot udon

Taste is personal and unique to every each of us, some find this to be really good and finish the whole bowl (you know who you are), while some wondered at the unevenness of the Udon.

Goma Ice cream

We have the goma black sesames ice cream to end off our food outing. Again there’s a difference in opinion for the ice cream, but for me even though i do not really fancy black sesame i find it to be acceptable.

Total bill is $1,530 for the 51 of us, with the cost at 30 bucks nett per head. I think the conclusion of the food is more or less the same as what i mentioned in my previous visit, but i think for this menu that we are getting at 30 bucks, its a very reasonable and worthwhile deal, many thanks to Tetsu, Food Junction and Pris for supporting me in organising this event.

There will be more of LIC afterthoughts on this food event, please watch out for the next post!

Tetsu
163 Tanglin Road
#03-18 Tanglin Mall
Tel: 6836 3112

Tetsu Japanese Restaurant is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore