Omakase & Aburi Sushi, Tatsuya's, Singapore

In return for a wonderful treat to the two-star michelin restaurant, Tokyo Birdland, in November, I took my friend to my favorite neighborhood restaurant.  Andy, my favorite chef there, created a number of delightful dishes making full use of the fresh Tuesday fish delivery and the bounty of the season.  Uni, kani, ikura and many other wonderful fish were featured and all prepared in new and interesting ways.  Not pictured were the dish of fresh ikura and crab & shishito tempura which I consumed before remembering to take their photos.

Baked Crab and Rice in Clam Shell

Clam Yakitori



Uni and Prawn





Seared Wagyu Beef





Scallop with Foie Gras









Seared Tuna



Japanese Restaurant Suju

I took my folks to Suju today, a Japanese restaurant I recently discovered on the fourth floor of the Mandarin Gallery mall down Orchard Road. It's not your typical run of the mill Japanese restaurant, if the prices on the menu are anything to go by. Their seafood was flown in direct from Tsukiji market in Tokyo, so I had high hopes for this place. It left a very favorable impression on my first visit a couple of months ago for dinner (food was exquisite, service was top notch), so much so that I decided my folks had to try it since they both love Japanese cuisine.

I ordered the chirashi don and the local daily special, which was raw squid with roe and okra. The raw squid was very fresh and tender, and my mom, who's not a fan of squid, actually liked it too. The chirashi don was excellent, and the fish was very fresh. My dad claimed his kurobuta pork tonkatsu was the best he's ever had. So I was glad to hear that they both enjoyed their meal as much as I did.

Anyway, this is not your typical Japanese restaurant. The meal was easily twice the price at any other Japanese restaurant in town. But you get what you pay for, and in this case, this is as close as you'll get to Tsukiji for fresh fish.

Japanese Restaurant Suju is at
333A Orchard Road, #04-05/07 Mandarin Gallery, Singapore
Tel: +65 6737-7764

Nogawa Restaurant, Concorde Hotel, Singapore

Mr. Nogawa is known as the man that trained some of the most successful Japanese chefs in Singapore. Ronnie of Tatsuya fame, is one of them.

After many years of hearing of Nogawa, I finally, finally, made a reservation and had the omakase sushi menu. The meal had a promising start with fresh gingko nuts lightly salted and grilled. I was pleasantly surprised by how tender and succulent the octopus starte was. I am also a fan of well-prepared pickles and these were crisp and crunchy with a little sour kick. Just the thing to whet your appetite.

When I was served the first piece of sushi (we sat at the counter), I was looking forward to a burst of freshness and flavour but became completely distracted by the rice. Sushi rice is meant to be firm but soft enough to provide a nice base to the fish on top. However, either there was not enough vinegar and mirin or the rice was a tad undercooked but the rice started to crumble the minute I put it in my mouth. Unfortunately, this rice texture continued throughout the meal and detracted from the array of fish served. Very sad.

As you can see, we were treated to beautiful Toro, Otoro and Chu Toro (?) AND very nice uni. Perhaps my palate has gotten used to Tatsuya's but the seared sushi did not even come close to Ronnie's version. It could be a case of the student surpassing the master here or I could have become brainwashed by Tatsuya's. I had stopped going for a while as they had become incredibly expensive after winning the award from the World Gourmet Summit, but after paying about $200 per person at Nogawa, I may just be dining at Tatsuya's more often now.

Nogawa has another restaurant at the Sentosa Golf & Country Club. Perhaps I should go there for comparison. It's hard to believe that I was so disappointed with the master chef. One must note that Mr. Nogawa was not there and we were served by Chef Kevin. Unfortunately, Kevin did introduce each sushi as most chefs usually do when serving pieces individually but maybe he thought we were sushi connoisseurs or we were too deep in conversation.

The first one of the year - Si Bon

Ok, I confess, it's been a really long time since I updated this blog with a new restaurant review. Not that I've been avoiding restaurants, on the contrary I've found quite a few really good ones around Asia and Australia. Guess it's a long drawn case of procrastination. At least I'm not the only guilty party here. As we enter yet another new year filled with endless choices of new restaurants to be discovered and new cuisines to be savored, I'll promise to be a bit more diligent about blogging. Note to D Girl - How about trying some video blogging with your new Mino, eh?

So we'll start of this year's blog with a quick review of a new Japanese restaurant on Sentosa Island, Singapore. Probably the only restaurant that prides itself on serving Kushikatsu (or Japanese skewered food), Si Bon is a fantastic escape from the everyday mundane Japanese meal experience. What do I mean by this? You first need to get across to Sentosa Island and head towards the Amara Sanctuary Resort, where Si Bon is located. As you walk towards the restaurant at the far end of the resort, the scenery changes to lush bamboo groves and stone footpaths reminiscent of a private garden in Kyoto. The restaurant entrance appears as you round the corner, revealing a small brick house within the groves of green bamboo. The converted chapel that houses Si Bon contains a very small dining counter for 12 persons, facing the chef's kitchen where food is prepared and cooked in front of the diners. This reminded me of some of the tempura specialty restaurants in Tokyo where the chef cooks each tempura in front of the diners and personally serves them. We were there for the set lunch, which consisted of 3 appetizers, followed by 8 skewers of meat, seafood and vegetables, then a choice of udon/soba, steamed rice or sushi.

The skewers were lightly battered and fried to perfection and served immediately. The chef would then guide us to the appropriate sauce type to dip as accompaniment. Each skewer was a mouthful of delicately arranged tender morsels lightly battered and fried to perfection, and bursting with freshness and flavor. My particular favorites was the prawn skewer topped with fresh uni, and the duck and goose combination skewer wrapped in a shiso leaf. We opted for the steamed rice as it was a specialty from Osaka. The fluffy nori flavored rice was topped with thin slices of Japanese cucumbers, prawns, egg and pickles and was a good way to end the meal. The dessert was Japanese green tea ice cream with fresh strawberries. I have to say service was excellent, the wait staff were super attentive (probably because we were the only ones there that day).