Yujin Izakaya

While on my way to Dempsey, a Japanese restaurant decked in bright red situated at a corner of the road immediately caught my eye. It really has this Izakaya vibe that is so evident even in the afternoon, imagine how vibrant it will be in the night. I knew I had to make a metal note of this place: Yujin Izakaya. Fast forward to a week later, which is now, I'm here at this quaint place for a new foodie adventure!

The Hokkaido Hotate Sashimi is super fresh and succulent, and has hints of sweetness. A good start to the meal.

Uzaku is wakame seaweed with pickled cucumber and unagi added. It is nice, especially the smokey flavours of thin slices of unagi–I actually prefer this kind of tiny bite-sized form of unagi. But I will prefer it if mozuku is used in place of wakame instead. I find the seaweed a bit on the chunky side.

Ebi Somen is a must try here. It is so rich in flavours and awesome on texture. The thin somen is thoroughly drenched in prawn oil, making it so smooth and full of goodness of the umami of the prawn. And coupled with garlic and spring onion for extra hints of pungent aroma to spice things up. The sautéed prawns are delicious: fresh, meaty and carries a light layer of char flavour.

Warabi Mochi is so good. Luckily, I changed my mind and decide to try out this dessert. The mochi is like refreshing sweet spring water in jelly form. And this refreshing taste is coated with the intense flavours of brown sugar and coconut cream for a real sweet ending. This combination actually works so well.

The place has this authentic Izakaya vibe, where friends gather at night, let loose and just have a relaxing and sort of, rowdy time. The walls are plastered with artfully done posters that feature old school manga style drawings. The service is very good, the staff being very attentive and friendly, cementing this restaurant as a place to chill out. I do love to go back again, especially at night time to try out the sumiyaki here and to really feel the izakaya vibe at its peak.

Overall: good but not great, unpleasant service. No need to visit unless you live in the area. Make a trip to better places, the food here isn't cheaper than the top tier places anyway. The chef was nice tho

This was ok but the crust was very lacking. Their glaze is good tho and it's only against a plain background (of rice) that you actually realise how intense it is when they Slather it generously. The sweet savoury sauce also works w the small bits of savouriness in the seaweed in salmon. But overall due to the lack of crust it's abit underwhelming esp with the price and the small size

Service:
No one smiles, the manager? comes across as cocky and the other staff seems new/awkward. Very understaffed too so it's stifling yet lacking, quite paradoxical.

Abit weird they force you to order such a huge portion instead of a 3++ skewer, esp when it's not very good. It's alright but weird w the ponzu? The mushroom wasn't top quality

Grilled eggplant. The black miso sauce was nice and thus was actually one of the two most satisfying dishes here. (The other being tontoro). It's really smoky as the msio chars too

Again it's good but not great, in exactly the same way as the tebasaki except there's even less crust on this

Wings were fine, the crust was crunchy but it could have been abit more tender and juicy.

Since the crust holds its crunch, feel free to remove most of the meat and dunk it in their shichimi, then clean the bone later. Their plain yakitori are underseasoned anyway