Japanese!

New item - Unagi rice bowl, launch price at $10! Something special because the marinated eel is grilled first, before deep frying to give a thin crisp skin while the flesh remains soft and fluffy. The unagi is not "tempura-ed", which was good, as I felt would preserve the charcoal taste of the grilled eel. I found the marinate sauce a little too salty on its own, but perfect if taken with their japanese import rice (Hence the rice bowl 😅) The marinate sauce is not overly sweet for people who doesn't like their eel excessively sweet. Very reasonably priced for the quality and portion (grilled eel is not cheap! >

Tuna fair at Ikeikemaru - Liang court is one not to be missed! Starts on 9th April till 17th April, 50% off Maguro sushi and sashimi. Otoro from $6.80 to $3.80 a piece was a steal! Not forgetting the Chutoro from $5.80 to $2.80. My all-time favourite Negitoro gunkan at only $1.80 for 2 pieces! Half price but not half the quality. Perhaps we ordered right after the impressive bluefin tuna cutting session (A whopping 80kg giant), these plates were definitely among the freshest tunas we've eaten in Singapore. (Just look at the vibrant color of the fish 😍) Skip the salmon for now, dive straight in with the Tuna menu!

I am not me if I have not tried Kabe no Ana's new/seasonal pasta menu. 😂 Newest lunch menu ($13.90 for a soup, salad and pasta) features Tarako pasta with fresh Rockets and an Onsen tamago. Slightly different from their popular Mentaiko cream pasta, which tends to be creamier and heavier. This one had the saltiness from the roes and while runny onsen tamago bound the whole dish together. The generous topping of rocket greens added freshness and lightened the dish (Which I felt was necessary since the pasta was cooked with Bacon!!) 😂😂

[[Bangkok Mos Burger]] Rice burger filled with overflowing tender Kurobuta pork shabu shabu slices drenched in Goma sauce and sauteed cabbage. Dip the Japanese kurobuta pork slices or rice patties in the accompanying spicy chilli sauce and enjoy it Thai style! 😍

My long awaited Teppei Omakase reservation is finally here! A memorable and unique gastronomic experience at a price of $80++/pax. It was a 2-hour non-stop action where Chef Yamashita and his staff cooked and prepared an overwhelming 20-course omakase for about 30 of us. A lot of thought and effort have been put into creating the menu and many of us were having fun with both the Chef and the playful kitchen crew. The kitchen staff were sneaking wasabi into some dishes and feeding it to the unaware guests. Out of 30 spoonful of Edamame puree, 2 of them were wasabi disguised as the dish. And guess who's lucky today? Me. HAHA! But then the staff were quick to provide more tea and water after a good laugh at my suffering. (No harm and hurt intended though 😂) Did I enjoy myself? YES! But such quality food and experience really does come with a hefty price tag.

Tendon 8: 8 pieces of tempura over a bowl of Hokkaido rice. Super worth it with 2 huges pieces of prawns, japanese vegetables such as Lady's finger and eggplant and a huge chunk of fried mildly sweet pumpkin. They also included a fried gyoza tempura which was something quite unique served in a rice bowl. Tamoya's tendon may not match up to Ginza Itsuki's mainly because the tempuras are not fried upon order and were selected off their pre-fried tempura rack. If you are lucky, you may get freshly fried tempuras straight off the fryer! Then again, to avoid the super long waiting time at Ginza Itsuki, I will definitely return here for my tendon fix!

We reached early in the morning but there was already a queue! After about an hour or so wait, we finally entered the cosy restaurant but with great ambience! We were seated beside groups of japanese patrons who were raving about how tasty their tendons were! My vegetable tendon ($12.80) came with a cup of silky chawanmushi, free flow pickled vegetables and miso soup!! So worth it!! The vegetables were fresh, juicy and sweet, perfectly fried into aromatic crispy tempura goodness. Ginza Tendon Itsuki uses Japan imported rice to serve only the highest quality tendons! 😍😍 I never thought I will be addicted to deep-fried tempura dons!

New Year menu features the Japanese chewy mochi at $2.50. Loved the soft marshmallow-y texture of the glutinous rice cake soaked in rich dashi sauce. The atsu atsu tan tan (spicy) udon is cooked al dente with an onsen egg and spicy minced meat. It was the perfect comfort food on this rainy day. The soboro don (minced meat rice bowl) didn't look much but it was actually really well marinated and moist! 😊

What to do when you can't decide between meat sauce and cream pasta? Try this bolognese pasta with a heap-full of thick and creamy ricotta cheese! The end result when you mix in that scoop of ricotta is a flavourful meat sauce with an intensely rich and creamy consistency!

Beautifully torched just before serving! The piping hot, thick and creamy mentaiko sauce over crispy fried gyoza was just heavenly!! I had to resist the urge to lick every last drop of mentaiko cream on the plate!! Ordered and tried their home brewed Yuzu sake as well ($18/bottle). Really smooth and slightly sweet sake with distinctive fruity yuzu flavor was easy and pleasant to drink.

Back to Hana the second time for their Kaiseki set again! Soaking in the great ambience and enjoying the freshest and sweetest sashimis! It's great that they had slight variations in their weekday and weekend kaiseki sets so I got to try different types of sushis. Totally loved the aburi whelk sushi! (My first time trying it and now definitely gonna order it often.)