The Flying Squrriel

Happy Friday everyone!!

have a good chillax weekend.

I have always seen this place being posted up on instagram .. food really looked appetizing

so I met my friend and we ordered to share:

Chicken Karage

Hana maki

Negi-toro tataki

close up

Chirashi don

for dessert

Apple Crumble

Verdict: 2/2 of us will return

Overall, if I had to comment, I would order everything again. (maybe minus the chicken karage because it was just ok… and the apple crumble ) I loved it all, especially the chirashi don! be sure to dig deeper into the bowl as there is like their home made sauce mixed deep with the rice.

I think the best thing about sitting at the counter seat was being able to witness how the chef prepared food for other people .. it was like an artist at work using ordinary ingredients to make it aesthetically beautiful without compromising on the taste.

would return for:

1. Chirashi don
2. Hana maki
3. Negi-toro tataki

would want to try:

1. Uni Shooters
2. TFS signature roll
3. Spicy Maguro Maki
4. Foe Gras Aglio Olio

Damage: $30-40 per pax (inclusive of 2 alcoholic drinks per pax)

*disclaimer do not drink and drive

The Flying Squirrel

92 Amoy Street

62262203

Lunch: 1130am-3pm, last order 2pm

Dinner 6pm – 11pm (Mon-Thurs),
6pm-12am (Fri-Sat),

Kantanashi

Tried this place out as a quick takeaway since I had work

and I wanted to treat myself to something better

Entrance

took away the lunch set

lunch set

view of the whole set

salad with sesame sauce

seaweed soup

close up of the main

Verdict: 1/1 will return definitely!

1. This place was very different from the usual Japanese joints only because the style of cooking seemed to some extent quite home cooked

2. I ordered the most popular lunch set as recommended by the waitress, and it was really good! The chicken (ok can’t really go wrong with fried chicken) but quite a different take to the usual oyakudon ( chicken with egg on rice) with a fried twist. I like the “done-ness” of the egg yolk.

3. For a set it is quite extensive -> I couldn’t finish the whole set. Waiting time is just 20 mins..

Damage: $12

Katanashi
77 Boat Quay
Singapore 049865

Tatsuya

I always heard of how this place is very famous for their Japanese food
So now that there was a special occasion,
I decided to go and try it out

Entrance

Grated Daikon (Raddish) with Buri( yellow tail)

Assorted Sashimi (without prawns) [Scallop, Tai (sea bream), Maguro (Tuna), Salmon, Mekajiki (Swordfish)]

Assorted Sashimi (with prawns) [Scallop, Tai (sea bream), Maguro (Tuna), Salmon, Mekajiki (Swordfish)]

Crab Leg Tempura

Yuzu Chawanmushi

Palate Cleanser: Left is a seaweed vinaigrette

Close up of the left: type of Cod Fish

Assorted Aburi Sushi : Toro (Tuna), Ikura (Fish Eggs) Uni (Sea Urchin) and yellow tail, Salmon, Foiegras and Scallop, Anago (Eel), Tamago Yaki (Egg)

Close up of : Ikura (Fish Eggs) Uni (Sea Urchin) and yellow tail, Salmon,

Close up of: Foiegras and Scallop, Anago (Eel), Tamago Yaki (Egg)

Close up of Anago (Eel), Tamago Yaki (Egg)

Miso Soup

With seasonal mushrooms!!!

Sesame Ice-Cream

Green Tea and Red Bean Ice-cream

Persimmon

Verdict: 2/4 may come back I reckon.
I was really expecting some mind blowing kinda sushi … but nope .. I know they were renowned for their aburi sushi .. but some how, this place just didn’t seem to go down well with the rest of the family as well.
My bro and I concluded that the whole meal was really just .. to be fair it is above average, but I think what we felt that didn’t really make our bang for the buck was probably just there was no OOOmph to the main .. in paying this premium above other sushi restaurants, didn’t seem to deliver the quality. Perhaps the context that they were rushing off for some company event so we probably visited at the wrong time? but that being said, service was fair ..
Don’t think we will be returning here any time soon.

Tatsuya
22 Scotts Road,
Goodwood Park Hotel
Singapore 228221

Sushi Kuu

Been wanting to write up about this overdued place for some time ..

(Finally figured out how to work some stuff)

My dear friends brought me to this place to celebrate my birthday 🙂
Sushi Kuu

Chirashi(Assorted Mixed Raw Fish) Rice

Crab Cream Croquette

Close up of Crab Cream Croquette

Uni (Sea Urchin) and Black Truffle Chawanmushi( Steam Egg)

All the assorted sushi that we ordered

Sushi Boat from another angle : Sushis we ordered ( Salmon Sashimi, Raw Scallop Sashimi, Ikura(fish eggs), Sweet Prawn, Hamachi (Yellow tail), California maki, Maguro)

Spider Roll (Softshell Crab)

Aburi Salmon Salad

Crab meat Toufu

Steamed Buri (yellow tail)

Verdict: 4/4 of us will definitely return!
very rarely, all four of us agreed that we loved every dish that we ordered!
Super thumbs up 🙂

Sushi Kuu
#01-06/07 Palais Renaissance,
390 Orchard Road,
Singapore 238871

The disgruntled Chef

This is a very back track post! I do apologise for not being consistent with my updates! really been quite swamped with things on my end
But this post is pretty co-incidental with the ongoing seasonal celebrations 🙂

So troopie beaties had finally ended her last paper and we decided to go celebrate!!! (as well as late birthday celebration) so we headed down here to check out 🙂

From the outside

and so a peek inside:

from where we sat

love the environment here! it’s so sleek but yet quiet and cosy! nicely hidden away 🙂

Lemon Bitters

So then we ordered to share:

Seared Scallops with Sauce vierge and herbs

Close up

Grilled eel and foie gras with daikon, Kabayaki sauce and apple

close up

Crabcakes with Mayo and Ikura (fish roe)

close up

Roasted Miso Cod with mushrooms

Close up

and of course, a meal is never really full without DESSERT!!!!!! So for beaties, she ordered :

Churros with Hot Chocolate

and of course, my favourite :

Chocolate Foundant with Peanut Butter, Banana Brulee and Vanilla Ice-cream

OOzing Peanut Butter goodness

Verdict: 2/2 of us will definitely return here!!!

the nice ambience and all 🙂 we would be very delighted to return and try their brunch!

The crabcakes was just a dish I was looking forward to!! but I thought it was too ‘potato – stuffed’. The crab meat was slightly little for my liking.

The Foie Gras was quite an interesting dish.. it was quite a nice when eaten altogether ..and the sauce was went very well with the dish.

The Miso Cod was also very well done! It looks very under marinated but in reality, it is very flavourful! the mushrooms as well was very well seasoned.

The desserts were good to round off the dishes 🙂

The Churros were crispy on the outside, but nice and soft in the inside. Chocolate sauce was not too thick until you felt sick after eating a few sticks ..

The Foundant cake was really special! I never came across a peanut butter filled one and it was special for sure!!! the batter though was a little on the thick side. .. but the filling was just awesome 🙂

Can’t wait till the next time I am back here 🙂

The Disgruntled Chef
26B Dempsey Road,

p. s. by the way, Happy New Year!!!

Tomo Izakaya

Met troopie Yunners for some retail therapy before we decided we were both hungry and walked around restaurants before deciding to head towards Esplanade to escape the crow. We were walking around and decided to go with this Japanese place. I recognised the name to be where I brought troopie rah the last time. I decided to give it a second chance, and also because we were starving. ( what are the chances of walking into a same named restaurant with the same ‘group of friends’ just at different timings?”?? Amazing)

So we ordered to share:

Zaru Soba

Tuna and Sword fish (Meikajiki) Sashimi

California Roll

Spider (Soft Shell Crab) roll

Miso Pork in stir fried vegetables

Saba (Makeral) Fish

Verdict: 2/2 of us will return.

The setting of this branch is very different from the other! But we didn’t sit inside to have a look .. we were just directed outside instead.

I am not sure if it is because we were so hungry that we thought everything was good, (although the cutting of the Mekajiki (Swordfish) appeared a little weird at first, but still tasted good! Just wished it was slightly thicker) . Mackerel was nicely done, not too over cooked. The soba was not too soft, still tangy. The rolls, hmm.. I thought they were just average – nothing to say that they were super fantastic, nor you also can’t find fault with it as well. The pork and vegetables in Miso.. I don’t think I would order it again, because after a while it just got a bit too much for me personally. But for all the miso lovers, I am sure you will disagree with me. Service was good and fast.

well, we quite enjoyed the night and had loads to talk about. The ambience was very chillax and it was just nice to chill there and talk.
#30s before 30 🙂

Enjoyable evening overall 🙂

Tomo Izakaya
8 Raffles Avenue
#01-09 Esplanade Mall

Tamaya Dinning

finally met up with the gang 🙂 thanks to troopie Ali and beaties for organizing.

so decided to go down cuppage for Japanese dinner!
I wanted to bring them to Shinjuku Izakaya, but the place was quite full… so we headed to the terrace and settled for Tamaya dinning

So for appetizers, we had

Otooshi – pickled Tako (octopus)

and so we ordered to share between us

3 kinds of Sashimi – Tuna, Salmon and Meikiji(Sword fish)

Niku Jyaga (Beef and Potato Stew)

Buta Salad (Pork Salad)

Mentaiko Pasta

Chawan Mushi

after opening the cap .. close up

Oden

Tsukune Tare ( Minced Chicken patty with quail’s egg)

Tebasake (Grilled Salt Chicken Wings)

Verdict: 2.5/4 of us will return.
I think my troopers are not very used to this style of Japanese cooking. Then again, they mentioned they liked the Mentaiko pasta – that it was very buttery and creamy, as well as the niku Jyaga.

But I personally quite like this place …. one of my favourite place for oden, as well as the mentaiko pasta. 🙂

Will definitely return!!

and now.. DESSERT!!! 🙂

Tamaya dining
45 Cuppage Road
Cuppage Terrace

H Y California

my dear troopie plonks asked me out to celebrate my birthday! Blessed indeed to have friends that want to celebrate my birthday 🙂

because I had something on earlier in the day, she came down to Marina Bay Sands to meet me for lunch. I am so glad and thankful for her! 🙂 yesterday was such a crappy day for me – had to survive through a rude crappy interview, but really, am thankful she made the effort to come down and meet me 🙂

I was really craving sushi after watching this documentary on sushi.. Its called Jiro Sushi, about this sushi master in Japan who is 80 over years old, and awarded 3 Michelin stars! We have very much to learn from him, his attitude towards his work.. It is just amazing. “Even at my age in my work, I have not reached perfection” – Jiro Ono

ok.. so back to this place, we just walked in since we seem to only find this place around (that doesn’t do much damage to the pocket as well)

Entrance

Peek inside

This place is very nicely situated. The view is just fantastic.

View

Imagine this place at night!!!

ok.. so we just ordered a few dishes to share (because we are aiming for the desserts at this newly opened chocolate shop within MBS)

Salmon Sashimi

and we thought we try the fusion ‘singapore style infused Japanese sushi’

Crunchy Tuna Roll : Chopped Fatty Tuna, TEMPURA Crunch, Garlic Chip, Salsa & Chilli Sauce

Singapore Chilli “TEMPURA” Crab Roll : Snow Crab Leg TEMPURA, Iceburg Lettuce, Tomato, Homemade Chilli Crab Sauce

Verdict: 0.5/2 of us will return.
The sashimi was just ok .. it did not look very appealing .. the rolls, well for the tuna roll, we were expecting it to be slightly different. From the description, we thought the whole thing together would be like a sashimi and a little crunch to it? but .. it did not turn out as such .. it was overall mushy .. and just the sauce was disappointing as well.

The crab roll, hmm i would say is the better out of the two .. It’s quite an interesting experience to mix chilli crab sauce and Japanese snow crab together. I just didn’t think to use the rice paper roll was necessary. Should have just stuck to seaweed instead.

But nonetheless, am feeling so grateful and thankful she took the time and effort to have a meal with me to celebrate 😀

Marina Bay Sands
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands
L1-86, BAY LEVEL
10 Bayfront Avenue
Singapore 018956

Rakuichi Japanese Restaurant (Oasia Hotel)

So its one of those days when everyone will just ask each other what they want to eat. No one decides and every time we end up with “aiyah, anything lah, you all decide” . Then when you finally decide to go to the place, then settling down, then the pouring out of suggestions about where we should have gone instead comes .. -_-

We were deciding between korean food or this, but we decided to go ahead with Japanese food only because we have all bathed and don’t want to come out smelling like barbecued meat. This place seemed pretty new in the hood, so we decided to go ahead and try it.
I read on ieatishootipost and he seemed to give pretty good reviews about this place. So here we are.

Entrance

The wait to get served and have our orders taken was SUPER LONG (with no exaggeration at all – we waited around for 1/2 hr to 45 mins to get our orders taken)

Bah hu (pork floss) with pickled raddish and corn appetizer

Assorted Sashimi

My mum ordered the cod fish set. This is what all was accompanied with it:

Soft Shell Crab Tempura

Cod Fish

Chawanmushi

Wagyu Beef set

Assorted kushiyaki : from the top left clockwise – Gyu tan (beef tongue), Asparagus, wagyu beef, Stewed Pork belly, Chicken wings,

Spicy Salmon Aburi Roll

Spicy Tuna Aburi Roll

Verdict: 3.5/5 of us maybe will return for the sashimi. The sashimi is really fresh! and affordable as well! I reckoned we came a little too late, (+ the long and slow service), so they basically ran out of almost everything, including my favourite Sword fish belly 😦 . I will definitely return for the sashimi. I think it was really what was described in ieatishootipost.

Overall the kushiyakis, my sister and I ordered the gyu tan ( beef tongue). She felt it was too gamey for her, but I overall thought it was ok. It was not too over cooked until it became rubber. The pork belly was pretty interesting to me – I have not had it done this style for a long time .. and it was nice. Beef was tender as well.

The rolls however, I think the style is different from the kaiho sushi one. This one is really spicy, but I think I still prefer the one at kaiho sushi.

The set meals here are really quite worth your while. We were browsing through and they really include quite a variety of things inside each set. If I have to sum up this place in short, I think price wise is comparable to Sushi Tei and the setting is very family friendly.

Service however, really, its frustrating and just robs the joy out of your meals sometimes. It was so hard to get their attention even though we were seated near the kitchen to some extent… ZZz to take order is one thing, and we waited another good 45 mins for our first dish to come.

Rakuichi Japanese Restaurant
8 Sinaran Drive
#01-05 Oasia Hotel
Tel: 66596683

Tomo Izakaya

I met my dear Troopie Rah who was back on a short holiday. I have not seen her for…. close to 2-3 years? Its just amazing I think when you can just ‘lose contact’ with some friends until when you meet again to update each other, that there seems to be no awkwardness, but just talking like old times. I am very thankful for this special friend that I crossed paths with, because I think I would have failed my studies if not for her patience and kindness in helping me get through those shitty units in uni. She is truly a very intelligent and talented girl 🙂

Since she has not returned for a while, and was craving Japanese food, I thought I bring her to try this place that I have been also wanting to try. So we met and headed towards Clarke Quay (last minute troopie yuns could not make it in time 😦 .

Interior

This place is so nicely decorated. I feel as if I really stepped into the izakaya in Japan, but just not as crowded yet. We were talking and Rah mentioned how the skewers places she went to in Melbourne were just unappetizing and hard. I am so relieved and glad I brought her here 🙂

so again, in the order of our favourites for the night out of all we ordered:

Chicken MeatBalls

Do not underestimate this chicken meatball. This is really handmade and not processed – only because when we were working on it, we could actually bite on those small soft bones? although I kind of wished they added more sauce on it.. but other than that, our favourite 🙂

Pork belly & cabbage with miso sauce

This was another favourite of rah’s for the night. The dish was not too saltish, and was a very nice dish to ‘pick on as you talk’.. I also quite liked it, although not as much as what I am going to show next.

Meijiki (Swordfish) belly Sashimi

This is one of my favourite for the night. The fish is really fresh and I am biased because this is one of my favourite Sashimi around, and very rarely that I find the belly form of it! double bliss. Will definitely come back for this!

Salmon Sashimi

This was also not bad ( Because I greedily ate up the swordfish).

Bacon Wrapped in Scallops

This was just not what I expected it to be. But abit too overcooked the bacon, hence making it a little too tough to bite through.

Garlic Fried Rice

This simple dish looks so pain and ordinary, but do not underestimate its taste. The rice was really grainy, and the fragrance of the garlic permeates the whole rice, make it very flavourful although it didn’t have any meat on it.

Quail Eggs skewers

I ordered this only because I thought it would look like how it was in the menu 😦 But when it came, I expected it to be browner? this one just feels like the skewers were just rolling around the BBQ thing for 5 minutes? *:(

Diced beef with yuzu radish sauce.

I reckoned this was the worst dish we had for the evening. From the blur picture, The meat was just so dry and hard to bite through?

Verdict: 1/2 of us will return. I would rate this place as a maybe. If I am round the corner and really have a craving for grilled Japanese food, I would pop by this place. If not, I don’t think I will really return here unless its a gathering or special occasion. I wished I brought her to a better place instead 😦

Tomo Izakaya @ Clarke Quay
3A River Valley Road
#01-04 Clarke Quay
Singapore 179020

Ahballing

Eat what you can't cook.

Category Archives: Japanese

The Flying Squrriel

Kantanashi

Tatsuya

Sushi Kuu

The disgruntled Chef

Tomo Izakaya

Tamaya Dinning

H Y California

Rakuichi Japanese Restaurant (Oasia Hotel)

Tomo Izakaya