Japanese

Stopped by for lunch and ordered the Mentaiko Salmon Don ($13.90), which came with miso soup and green tea. You really can’t go wrong with mentaiko anything, but the quality of the salmon was surprisingly good, and the onsen egg was a nice touch too. Another plus was the cheery and attentive service!

I’m a huge fan of chirashi bowls and read good reviews about the ones at Jin Fine Dining. Thanks to a very generous eatigo discount, I gave it a try on a Friday night.

The Jin Chirashi (salmon, tuna, scallop, sweet prawn, sea urchin, white tuna and salmon roe) was amazing, with fresh slices of sashimi on a bed of seasoned sushi rice (with mushrooms, seaweed and more). I don’t like salmon roe and was able to change it to salmon, which is my favourite! The usual price is $35 but with eatigo’s varying discounts, it can be a really great deal.

A new udon & tempura place has opened in the basement of Ion!

Just like another of my favourites, Tamoya Udon (Liang Court), you can choose from a variety of tempura to go with your udon.

I went with the Half Boiled Egg Udon with Bonito Soya Sauce (regular size, $7.90), which I ordered cold. The onsen egg went perfectly with the chewy udon! For the tempura, I got the Lotus Root ($1.50) and the Sweet Potato ($1.50). My lunch buddy ordered the Beef Udon in Tomato Soup which looked really good too.

Good quality and decently priced food - go give it a try!

Ishi is a recently opened Japanese restaurant in the same building as the Intercontinental Robertson Quay but is not technically part of the hotel.

I had the 7-piece sushi set ($48) from their lunch menu which came with a complimentary starter, soup and ice cream. It was not bad but I’m not sure it was worth $48. My lunch companion ordered the Chirashi + Chawanmushi set ($68) which seemed better value.

We also ordered a side of Tempura ($35) and though the ingredients were of high quality (there was eel tempura which I’ve never seen before), the batter was too thick for our liking.

Perhaps the omakase would’ve been a better choice?

Finally made it here and tried their signature Hitsumabushi (Medium, $35). The grilled unagi was crispy, with just the right amount of sauce. I preferred the eel here to Man Man’s because it was a lot more tender.

We also ordered the Salmon Skin Salad ($9) which was tossed in a sesame dressing. The salmon skin was thin and crispy, and actually tasted quite healthy.

Another plus? Uya takes reservations so you don’t have to wait in line for hours (ahem, Man Man)!

A new contender in the tendon space, Tempura Tenten distinguishes itself with offerings such as tendon with unagi (Unatendon) and truffle rice.

The Unatendon, at $19.80, is really good value. It comes with prawn, pumpkin, mushroom, green bean, seaweed, and meatball (with an oozing cheese filling) tempura, along with a pretty big slice of unagi. I picked the original sauce over the other two choices: yuzu pepper and spicy.

I’ve seen other reviews saying that the tempura was on the oily side, but I didn’t think so and was satisfied with the crispiness. However, there was too much sauce on the rice which made it a bit salty. Maybe a bigger portion of rice would’ve helped!

If tendon isn’t your kind of thing (although I don’t see why that would be), the restaurant also serves ramen.

All in all, definitely worth a try. Doesn’t beat the ever popular Tendon Ginza Itsuki though.

This new Japanese place along Tras Street has been open for more than a month, but not much about it can be found online, so thought I’d write something about it :)

Don & Tori’s menu consists mainly of donburi, maki, sashimi and yaki mono (grilled dishes). We ordered the Salmon Mentaiko Aburi Maki ($25, can’t go wrong), Grilled Japanese Eggplant with miso paste ($16, a bit oily), Chirashi Don ($25, good selection of fish but wish the portion was bigger) and the pictured Sakura Ebi Angel Hair Pasta ($32).

The pasta was springy and al-dente, and just at the right temperature (slightly cool). The sakura ebi, white truffle oil and caviar made the pasta very tasty.

All in all, a good place for Japanese food with lots of crowd-pleasers such as Truffle Gyu Don, Chirashi Don and flavourful Maki rolls. One suggestion would be to make the portions bigger to justify the prices.