We decided to head over to Man Man for lunch today, as we heard that the restaurant is far less crowded on weekdays than on weekends! Indeed, the shop was less than half-full, although the restaurant still indicated that there was a dine-in time limit of 40 minutes??
We ordered the standard hitsumabushi set, which came with pickles, seaweed miso soup, a very generous serving of condiments (seaweed, spring onions and wasabi), a container of dashi soup stock and of course, a bowl of rice topped with really well-grilled unagi! The unagi was awesome as the exterior was really crispy and yet it was only lightly charred; on the other hand, the eel meat was soft and pretty sweet from the marinade. 😋
The restaurant staff will suggest to eat it in 3 ways: (1) eating the unagi and rice as it is, (2) adding the seaweed, spring onions and wasabi to the unagi rice bowl before eating and (3) pouring the dashi broth into the rice bowl to create something akin to a porridge mixture, before eating it with the unagi. (3) was really interesting and the broth was light and yet after mixing it with the rice and eel, it became somewhat sweeter! You may wish to use the extra bowl for method (3), in case it turns out that you are not a fan of the dashi broth!
For such an excellent bowl of unagi with rice, it certainly does not come cheap and you should expect to pay around $35++ for the entire set! That being said, lunch here was certainly excellent! 😋
The much-touted $30 fresh unagi. Is it good? Quite. Is it worth it? No. Okay the thing was definitely smoky and fresher. But I'll pay less for a slightly lousier fish. Worse, I thought this $30 can eat til shiok. No leh, the meat damn little. Other places have fleshier eel. The dashi that comes in this set was delicious, but irrelevant. I don't take wasabi so the fresh wasabi meant nothing.
If you are unsure what to order at Man Man then just go for the most popular choice on the menu - Hitsumabushi.
Hitsumabushi is a Nagoya speciality where grilled eel is coated with a layer of sweet sauce and placed over a bed of rice. There are different ways to eat Hitsumabushi.
Divide the bowl contents in a cross to obtain four equal portions. Simply place one portion of the eel and rice in a bowl, mix and eat it plain where you get to savour the original flavour. Add condiments and spices like nori, spring onion, radish and wasabi to the second portion and enjoy the taste and texture. Similar to the second portion, add the remaining condiments and pour the dashi over the third portion for a comforting bowl of ochazuke (rice soup) and the last portion is to be eaten with your favourite choice.
The thick unagi slices are char grilled to perfection with crispy grilled skin and tender juicy flesh. I like the second portion the most where I get to enjoy my favourite condiments along with the succulent and melt-in-the-mouth unagi. Prices are a little steep but totally worth the treat to ourselves once in awhile 》$35
Excellently grilled unagi with a slight crust giving way to moist insides. This is the place I would honestly come back to over and over again if I had the cash to spare. But prices seems to have risen since the last time I was here.
But all in all, a great dining experience and definitely not to be missed especially if you are a fan of eels
I can now finally understand the appeal of man man. It’s not your ordinary Unagi Don where the eels are drenched in sweet sauce. The unagi here are grilled to a crisp with just a slight coat of sauce.
I enjoyed all the recommended ways to eat this bowl i.e. original, with wasabi and with broth.
The queue is justified and it’s not that long a wait as they only allow 40mins dining time for the patrons now. 😅
My favourite unagi don in Singapore!! The eels were grilled in a way that the sides are crispy. Goes well with the caramelised soy sauce. Highlight was the fresh and real wasabi that we could grate from the stem!! 🤤
Loving the good old unadon from Man Man Unagi. Lending quote from my bf because I’m having mind block: “Your one stop station for unagi”
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Hokkaido Ikura Hitsumabushi $53.70++
Large Hitsumabushi $41.90++
24 Jun’19, Mon⛅️
📍Man Man Japanese Unagi Restaurant 鰻満 (Keong Saik Rd)
- Large Hitsumabushi 特上ひつまぶし🍱
Introducing unagi don to le mum~🤣
So yummy can~🤤
Probably cos it’s Monday, we only waited for 15min, heng ah!😜
Like how fresh the unagi was (freshly prepared, of course right), how on point the sauce was, eating them together with a bit of wasabi, surprisingly the wasabi wasn’t as pungent as I expected, I quite like it eh (even though I’m not a fan of wasabi)!
Eating the unagi with broth was also delish~ like fish soup rice (oops), but more flavourful than your usual fish soup that is~
Man Man is still my first choice (as of now) when it comes to unagi don~
Damage: $46.35
Coming back once again to satisfy my craving. The queue was fast during weekdays dinner time.
This time I got the special item on the menu that comes with lots of ikura.
Sadly this trip disappointed me a lot. The unagi was served cold, even though the taste is still similar.
Also because of hygiene purpose, they no longer giving raw wasabi, even the sauce and seaweed are packaged. Their cold tea was served in foam cup. Just hope it won’t be permanently like this, certainly bringing the quality down.$53.70++
