Category Archives: Yakitori

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

 

 

 

Shirokane Tori-Tama Singapore

We were going to have a great dinner to unwind and meet up with the rest of the dolls for some easy drinking.

So mama brought me to her favourite yakitori place that she swears by.

Looking at the menu, its a unique concept that this restaurant specialises and prides itself in chicken related dishes , e.g. chicken liver, breast, heart .. etc … I meant it as its pretty rare to be able to find a chicken centered yakitori place around in Singapore (well to me that is) and Indeed quite an egg-perience (ok lame)

we ordered to share between the two of us

Chicken soup

and of course not forgetting

Chicken liver, Asparagus, Chicken with leek, Stuffed Chicken breast

I think what was the most amazing dish of the night was

yakitori chicken special don

yummers will be back for this special rice

Ratings: 2/2 of us will return here! For me personally for this special chicken on rice 🙂

Shirokane Tori-Tama Singapore
11 Unity Street,
#01-02 Robertson Walk,
Singapore

Shinjuku Izakaya

So our second stop ( and last stop for the night) we went across the road, into this Japanese style sliding door restaurant. It turns out to be a Izakaya – again the crowd is all Japanese (not complaining – i mean the best part is that you can just talk about your own circle of things without worrying and seeing a familiar face around) and the old lady that attended to us was very friendly and gave us table right inside. It was those table where you had to take off your shoes and enter! *mini gush Japanese moment!!!*

the whole menu was in Japanese( all the lessons paid off) and their english menu was pretty limited .. but good thing we have Japanese proficient people around, so we managed to get some orders rolling! I must say this place seem very close to Japan in terms of, what they offered on the menu, is really what you can find in Japan!!! and not very common in the Japanese restaurants around Singapore

Mini uni don and miso soup

Close up of the mini uni don

Potato Salad

All we ordered so far .. Spot the Oden? and the other exciting Japanese dish..

We ordered FISH SPERMs!!! yes! this is very unique to Japanese dinning! I tried it on my Japan trip and I mistook it as tofu before the Japanese traders told me it was actually fish sperm! it the one right at the top right corner, looks like toufu brain .. but it tastes heavenly! something different.. its very soft and goes well with the sauce!

Spot the Ika butter? andd!! the most authentic Japanese dish - Fish sperm

the ika butter was a disappointment to me .. the squid was tough .. I think the better Ika butter would be the one at Nijimaru instead.. but other than that, the other food made up for it

Blueberry flavoured and Mango Flavoured alcohol

this to round off the whole experience!
Would definitely come back when I feel like having a bit of a “i want to experience Japan moment”

Ratings: 5/5 of us will return to this quaint little joint

Shinjuku Japanese Restaurant
22 Cavenagh Road,
GF Hotel Grand Central,
Singapore

Food trail

We all decided we will unwind a little and embarked on a ‘food trail’ at Cuppage – its like Singapore’s mini Japan heaven ..  So i met one of them first .. while waiting for the rest to arrive, we walked around and found this small corner yakitori shop that only seemed to have Japanese patrons. So we entered (all the Japanese classes paid off) they had menus in English as well .. So while waiting for the rest to come from work, we ordered

Fried Pigeon eggs

Yummers! this was good! not too over fried and oily!  ..  My friends that came later ordered this and loved it as well 🙂

Chicken and Leek, Gyu (Beef) Tan (Tongue)

I thought the gyu tan was quite interestingly cut .. I was used to it being in cube or in a thicker cut .. but this place sliced it which is pretty smart and good. Usually the gyu tan if eaten in cubes, always have that tendency to be over hard and over cooked, this sliced up version was executed and I thought was well thought of.

Our friends arrived! so the party started. ..

Pork Belly with leek

This was also nice.. the fat and meat ratio balanced out well .. especially nicer when dipped in mustard they provided! 🙂

Tako yakitori

I ordered this and this didn’t really turn out to my expectations .. It was a little tough to bite and abit over burnt – like I felt i was eating rubber .. good try but I don’t think I will order my takos in this style of cooking again

Chicken Jagaimo

This was a chicken stew (usually its beef) so i thought give it a shot. Came out not too bad! not too saltish as well

Zou sui

My friend felt like eating porridge. It was rare because the more she ate, the hungrier she got.. so we encouraged her nonetheless! ahhaha .. and it all got polished off eventually (not by her though :/) so it was pretty good .. a little blend  but not bad ..

assortments of yakitori: special pork, chicken and leek, asparagus

We continued ordering more yakitori! and it all was good! I would return for the special pork, pigeon eggs, chicken and leek .
I think they were pretty short handed, as there was only 1 girl to attend to the whole shop, while the chefs were behind bbq-ing the sticks. It felt as if I was back in Japan and entering into the yakitori bar with all the smoke and OLs, salarymen chillaxing over a beer and enjoying their yakitoris.

This place has a limited sitting.. and most of the seats are around the bbq counter .. so be prepared to come out smelling like a yakitori stick yourself!

but.. we didn’t stop there and hopped on to another joint .. 🙂

Uma
150 Orchard Road
#01-26
Orchard Plaza
Singapore 


Easter Holidays #4

So my feast continues on 🙂 [ I know I sound so piggish .. but i mean come on! In Hong Kong theres barely any big groups of people that I can go out and meals with – that in ordering more food in varieties to try, and of course my great companies .. I super miss them and love them bits]

So its family time. 🙂

My brother has been very crazy over trying to find the best yakitori – he has his moments .. so hahah he managed to find the nicest ( and quite steep) yakitori place around that according to his standards are super good.  (of course, being one of the fussiest eater in the family)

KAZU
Seasonal White asparagus and pork belly
pick up sticks – how many have we eaten so far??
Bacon wrapped with Scallop and Prawns
Chicken Skin
Seasonal- BBQ salt sea bream
Shio(salt) flavoured chicken wings
Baked Scallop in its goodness
Beef with cheese 🙂
Ice-cream mochi

I super loved the white asparagus, I finally understand why the French can base an entire course just on White asparagus .. Its so sweet and juicy on its own .. and of course such delights when cooked simply is just so wonderful on its own 🙂

The Sea bream – was also a seasonal special. The most costly fish but I must say the skill involved in baking it to such perfection – totally not easy job. My family members are very particular about the way their fish is done. This totally passed their standards 🙂

I cant say theres a least favourite dish ( except the prawns only because I hate prawns so I stay away from them) but this place is always so fully packed! only 2 seatings (6pm or 8pm) and you need to make reservations at least a few days before to get a place.

The dessert is so pretty and special .. and not only does it look good, it tastes so memorably spectacular 🙂

This is a definite Hit for me 🙂 Always I trust my brother’s fussy tongue 100%. 🙂  But of course,  for such quality, be prepared for your wallets to bleed some love.

Kazu
5 Koek Road,
#04-05 
Cuppage Plaza, 
Singapore