Mentaiko always hits the spot.
After navigating the labyrinth which is Chinatown Complex Food Center, I’ve found @sutachi.sg.
Sutāchi is a Japanese-Italian food concept, providing restaurant quality food at hawker centre prices. On the menu, one can find a selection of rice bowls, noodle bowls or even bar bites that go well with the nearby craft beer stalls. What caught my eye was the salmon mentaiko pasta.
The pasta was definitely a looker with its vibrant pink hues of the salmon, golden runny yolk and that torched brown mentaiko. Couldn’t wait to dig in! After mixing everything, the spaghetti dish oozed with goodness as one could smell and taste the char of the mentaiko sauce. The salmon chunks were light and cooked well. Overall, it was a well-balanced dish in terms of taste and intensity as eating something this creamy, didn’t make one feel too glutted.
I’d definitely back for my mentaiko fix or even try the gyu donburi next!
A new stall in Chinatown Complex Food Centre, with Japanese Italian concept specialising in grains and noodles. The wagyu beef was cooke well but I hope they can improve their miso soup as it was too salty. $7.50
Sutachi is a brand, spanking new Japanese food stall that’s opened up right next to Smith Street Taps at the second level of Chinatown Complex. They feature lots of bar bites (think truffle fries, edamame, grilled half shell scallops and so on) to go with the alcoholic libations next door. Talk about location, location location!
However, if you’re in the mood for a proper meal, Sutachi does serve up proper ricebowls and pasta. Featured here is their $19.50 Foie Gras Gyu Donburi, which sees and entire cut of steak cooked to a perfect medium rare, sliced up and rested next to a gargantuan slab of foie gras upon a bed of warm, sticky short grain rice.
The beef is almost certainly a cheaper cut like round or flank, but Sutachi managed to handle what they have expertly. The beef is very lean, but it’s surprisingly tender and juicy considering the absolute lack of fat on the bovine. The better part is that there’s so many thick slices of beef to maximize and extend the duration of your culinary enjoyment.
However, they almost completely ruined the fatty liver. Anyone can tell with one glance that it’s obscenely overcooked, which is why I’m baffled as to why the guy manning the cooking line didn’t. A few seconds more, and the poor foie gras would’ve probably caught fire.
It’s not that everything was terrible, but when the main motivation for ordering a $19.50 donburi turns out to be badly overcooked, the disappointment is real. Until they can figure out how to perfectly sear that gigantic, gorgeous glob of foie gras, my advice would be to go for the much cheaper gyu donburi at $7.50, as the beef is excellent and well worth the moolah.
