Japanese

Japanese dining outlet in West Coast Plaza. A bit pricey because even though I ordered the lunch special Salmon Ikura and a side of Tori Karaage with hot green tea, total damage came up to $32.

Food taste was normal, nothing to scream about. Was a bit surprised that the fried chicken side was more like a course in itself and not so much a side.

At 12.30pm lunchtime, place still has lots of empty tables so if you don’t mind the price and you’re in the mood for Japanese but rushed for time, this is a good choice.

Ordered Kotteri Tonkatsu, Spicy Yuzu and Black Garlic Ramen plus Guo as and chicken Karaage. For some unknown reason, the Spicy Yuzu was salty beyond comprehension. One server suggested that we should not have ordered standard broth but the diluted broth. Another told us the red spicy sauce was very salty to begin with. Look, it’s very simple. Don’t serve something unpalatable to your customers if you hope that they will come back. We had to add quarter cup of hot water into the broth in order to eat it.

And what’s this attitude? We ordered wrongly? The spicy sauce is the cause? There was no apology, just a half hearted offer to redo the bowl of noodles.

As for the black garlic and kotteri tonkatsu, both were very normal, nothing to scream about. For the side dishes, Chicken Karaage was nice but Gyoza was like something you can get from supermarket.

All for almost $90 including 3 cups of Ocha. That is not cheap.

Stall in Kopitiam selling Japanese Don. Ordered Wagyu Mentaiko Don $14. Meat was tender and the Mentaiko sauce gave the rice and beef added umami. Break in the onsen egg and the yolk covered rice became silky smooth. The slivers of shitake mushrooms rounded up the flavours in every mouthful

Must come back soon to try their other items. Support young hawkers.

This Japanese restaurant in Bukit Timah Plaza offers chirashidon, sushi, sashimi, ramen….the works. We were there to try their much vaunted chirashi dons.

Ordered their mini Chirashi Don, Spicy Chirashi Don and Sanshoku Kaisen Don. Price is average for a Japanese restaurant but you get very fresh and tasty sashimi, whether it’s chopped or sliced, and lots of it. I am especially happy with my sushi rice which to be had the perfect blend of tartness from vinegar and savoury from the salt. A little advice here for the new customers - the spicy bara chirashi Don packs quite a punch. Those who are not used to heat from chilli padi, please do not order or pick away the sliced chilli before eating. But it does impart a special spicy taste to the umami sweetness of sashimi.

The chawanmushi was quite normal but special mention for the creme brûlée. Although you do not get vanilla beans, at $3.90, this is a good dessert to end the meal, with the caramelised sugar imparting just a bit of bitter blending well with the flavours from the silky vanilla egg custard.

Can’t wait to come back and try the other items on the menu.

Another new outlet in Newest! From the name of the shop, I was guessing this is a Japanese donut outlet. But other than the name, I cannot feel anything Japanese about it and this is not your traditional deep fried donut.

Rather it is a baked puff pastry with different types of fillings inside, glazed with a sugary coating on the outside. They are smaller than your average donut and much more expensive than your average donut, at $3.80 a pop. Currently they have 5 different fillings - Signature Apple, Crispy Pineapple, Japanese Sweet Potato, Awesome Durian and Apple Earl Grey.

I tried the Crispy Pineapple and Awesome Durian. Legit fruit fillings inside small puff pastries, especially the Crispy Pineapple. The puff pastry was no longer flaky, mainly due to the time taken to reach home so please reheat before eating.

For those with sweet tooth, by all means please try this.

Ordered the Tsukimi Hamburg Don ($12.80) and a side of Foie Gras ($8). The rice bowl comes with a bowl of tamago soup (egg soup).

First of all, the hamburg Don was picture perfect. The impossibly orange colour of the yolk makes you want to dig in immediately. Nestled on top of a bed of grated radish, it jiggles as you shift your tray of food to take pictures. A small spray tube of soya sauce is given to you to add flavours to the egg yolk but my preference is to add as little as possible. Pour the hamburger sauce over the rice and break the yolk. Stir well with the rice. Enjoy each mouthful of rice with the hamburger.

Speaking of the hamburger, I wish it was a little more charred on the outside. The meat is cooked for sure but lack the burnt taste of hamburgers coming from grills. The meat is juicy though and tender enough but I can’t tell if there was Wagyu inside.

The soup was clear and had the umami from konbu or seaweed but basically still your egg drop soup. The Foie Gras was a small cut but thick, grilled nicely on the outside and still buttery on the inside.

But the dining experience was alas spoiled by a one centimetre sliver of plastic, sharp at both ends, found in my tamago soup. The waitress saw me looking at it, swoop down immediately and asked to take away the offending piece of contaminant, purportedly to show the manager, who came over and offered an apology. She said she’ll speak with the kitchen about it. But until the moment I left, she did nothing at all, just stood there fiddling with her phone. In the end, I got no explanation on how the piece of plastic got there. Disappointed!

Newly opened ramen place in West Coast Plaza. In fact some of the snacks in the menu are still not available. A lady there told us they are having manpower issues so they reduced the items offered in the menu. From what I can see there were 6 persons serving this small place. She must be referring to kitchen staff. Anyway, I ordered their Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen ($15.90) and for dessert 1pc Shiba Macaron with Yuzu Ice Cream (6.90).

The ramen was more al dente than what you would normally get when you order “hard” ramen. Their soup has a lot of flavours going on but not spicy enough and rather viscous. The good news is probably a lot of collagen in their from real bones used to boil the broth. The bad news is it gets a bit queasy in taste towards the end, like you drank a lot of grease. The two pieces of pork were very thinly sliced. They broke off as I grabbed them with my chopsticks. Meat was very tender so there was no need to chew. Overall, an above average bowl of ramen.

The macaron came in the shape of a Shiba Inu and a small scoop of ice cream. The ice cream was more like sorbet than ice creams but it has bit of yuzu fruit in it so it was fun to crunch through. The macaron with lotus buttercream filling was a little sweet for my taste. Visually pleasing, normal taste but rather expensive for the tiny serving.

There are lots of ramen places in the west these days. With half the menu still not available, I wonder how they are going to stand out in this rather crowded space?

Ordered Ebi Fry Karaage Bento and Karaage Curry rice for take away.

With the Ebi fry Karaage chicken bento, the fried chicken and fried shrimp were fried bark dry and so a bit tough to bite and chew. I liked the tofu in the bento, it has good soya bean flavour.

The curry in the Karaage Curry rice was rich in flavours. As good as any retort pouch type you can find in convenience stalls in Japan. But portion was huge and so felt a bit overwhelming at the end.

Decent and cheap Japanese Bentos from this place. For those who want a quick Japanese meal.

Used to work in Jurong and this was the go to place beside Jurong Hill Park, for a Japanese lunch.

Surprised to see that the restaurant is still doing well after 20 years, even though all the other establishments around the same area have gone to the pits. Sure it needs a new coat of paint but something tells me it’s not going to happen.

We ordered sashimi, tonkatsu don and grilled chicken set. Food still tastes good although prices have gone up a lot. The sashimi was fresh and thick cut, not the thin slivers of fish you get else where. The grilled chicken (salted, not teriyaki) was a little under cooked in some parts but mostly okay. The tonkatsu was crunchy with every bite and juicily tender inside.

I strongly recommend this old school Japanese restaurant for a simple no frills Japanese meal.

Mazesoba is slowly becoming popular in Singapore. Try this one. Comes with free hard boiled eggs at your table. Not too bad if you like your noodles dry.

Before any one complains about my title, this is what’s written on Takagi’s signboard.

They are cheap. The basic ramen (Takagi Ramen) is $6.90. It comes with ramen, two slices of Cha Siew, spring onion and basically nothing else. Come on for $6.90 in a dine in fast food restaurant, to me that’s a lot. I added a tamago and abalone slices for $1 and $2 respectively and made it into a set for another $3.90. You get a side and a drink. You actually don’t have to as the portion of ramen is quite decent.

Flavour wise, although they claim never to give you soggy noodles, it was a bit soft for me because I prefer my ramen more al dente. Also, it was a tad salty but I have been told before my preference is for very bland food. Special mention for the pickled vegetables that you can choose to add. It is spicy and salty. Would have been nicer if the soup was more bland. Or just add chilli oil.

This place runs 24 hours a day, so if ever you feel peckish and want to get a bowl of ramen, there’s Takagi all over Singapore.

Having lived in China close to 10 years, this is not really Chinese MaPo Tofu but a Japanese take on an ubiquitous Chinese dish.

Here they use a firmer type of tofu so it does not break when frying with the meat and bean paste. The final mixture is poured on a rice bowl instead of being served as a dish so the tofu is drier than what you normally get in China. Certainly less oily which is a plus. The numbness and spiciness is about the same so there’s that.

The Dan Dan noodles is fragrant but a tad dry, even as the noodles are cooked Al dente.

But the $12 for a combo of 1/2 MaPo tofu Don and 1/2 Dan Dan noodles is expensive for something so simple in terms of ingredient. And honestly, I’ve had better in China. Although this is my first try, I get the feeling the Michelin Bib Gourmand was unwarranted.

Will come again, but to a different branch to see if it’s better elsewhere.