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| Outside of Restaurant | Table Water |
However, once inside, you enter a traditional Japanese restaurant with wooden decor and floorboards. When I first arrived for lunch, the waitress wasn't even sure if they could fit one diner, even though the restaurant wasn't even half full at the time... Anyway, having confirmed that it was possible, I was then asked to sit in a spare seat.
By sitting at the bar table, you get to see the sashimi chef at work in front of the vast display of fresh seafood:
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| Sashimi Chef |
All of their lunch sets (either $20 or $25) come with a complimentary appetiser and salad:
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| Salad and Tofu Appetiser |
Interestingly, the salad came with a wasabi mayo sauce, although a few of the salad leaves looked a little limp. The tofu, topped with tenkasu/agedama and laver and immersed in a sweet soy sauce, was much firmer/denser than the usual silken tofu that I am used to.
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| Wagyu Beef in Potato Nest Lunch Set ($25) |
A "potato nest" brings to mind a potato lattice bowl-like structure, similar the Chinese bird's nest dish, however this dish was more like cubed wagyu beef covered with mini potato fries (perhaps an upside-down bird's nest?). Unfortunately, the quality of the wagyu beef was lacklustre (slightly chewy due to sinew) and the sauce it was cooked in was way too salty - I ended up drinking at least half the bottle of water by the end of the main. The (half-bowl) rice portion served along the main was rather small and couldn't offset the saltiness of the sauce. Also, the fries (not crunchy/crispy, probably because they were pre-made in advance) were already well-seasoned with salt and seaweed so any fries that fell into the sauce were effectively inedible. Overall, this dish was disappointing.
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| Soft Shell Crab Hand Roll |
The hand roll had too much rice and contained 1/4 of a soft shell crab with a small bunch of julienne cucumber.
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| Black Sesame Ice Cream |
The black sesame ice cream was different from the artificial grey version usually served at restaurants - this one was more like crushed black sesame mixed into vanilla ice cream.
There seemed to be a lack of waiters today - only one main waiter with the occasional help from the original waitress during lunch hour. I had to ask the waiter to follow up on the hand roll and ice cream as the entire meal duration was approaching an hour - i.e. not ideal when you have a limited 1hr lunch break on a workday - and got a few stares as I was rushing to leave in order to get back to work...
Visit #2
Okay, this time I wanted to try the sashimi/sushi, which they are popular for, and also to see whether I could fit the entire meal, with additional time to walk to/from the restaurant, within my lunch break (second time lucky?).
In order to have some variety from my first experience here, I decided to try the red miso soup:
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| Red Miso Soup |
As restaurants generally supply white miso soup (probably more appealing to people due to its mild, subtle taste), this was the first time I've ever tried it. Aside from the distinct colour difference, the red miso soup has a more intense soy bean taste - sort of like adding soy sauce to the soup - due to the longer fermentation period.
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| Tempura Scallop Hand Roll |
Once again, the hand roll had proportionally too much rice so the tempura scallop disappeared among the rice and cucumber overload.
The highlight of the meal was the sashimi and sushi platter:
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| Sashimi and Sushi Platter Lunch Set ($25) |
The sashimi was super fresh (reminiscent of sashimi served in Japan) and the platter included a variety of nigiri, all with an unexpected/hidden hit of wasabi. The least satisfying nigiri was probably the prawn (not sure about its freshness... or maybe it was because it was barely/just cooked?).
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| Mascapone Cheese Mousse |
The mascapone cheese mousse looked like it had been (messily) scooped from a pre-made batch and topped with a malt (or soy?) powder. Fortunately it was light and airy, and not too sweet - a good end to the meal.
This time round, service was better with two waiters working despite the restaurant being at almost full capacity. Food was served quickly (although there was minimal cooking/preparation required to prepare the sashimi/sushi), plates were promptly cleared to make way for dessert, and the meal lasted under 45min (success!).
My recommendation is to stick to their sashimi and sushi. Also, if you're coming in a group, it's best to book ahead as they tend to be rather busy during lunch/dinner.
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