Shima Restaurant @ Goodwood Park Hotel, Singapore (Nov 2020)

 To all Japanese food lovers out there, read this!

WARNING - This is an extremely poor review and may offend you who may like this place but I'm doing it because it is only fair to us consumers to know the truth of the unauthentic and horrendous food and experience that this fake Japanese restaurant is cheating our wallets of.

What you see on photogrid above is what you get for the $250 Omakase teppanyaki menu at Shima restaurant. Given this is one of the oldest Japanese restaurants in Singapore that pride themselves on authenticity, I figured let's give this menu a shot since there was a 1 for 1 promotion. I initially had doubts about coming here but my conscience told me to just try it out and sadly, it turned out to be the worst Japanese meal of my entire life.

Yes you read that correctly, it was the worst Japanese meal I have ever had. And quite frankly not just the worst but this restaurant is a cheat and a fake. What they served during the $250 Omakase course is not Japanese food but ordinary food made to look like it was Japanese and sold to you at that premium "Japanese" price. There was nothing Japanese about this meal and I felt cheated and robbed not just of the experience but my money as well.

Unlike most reviews where I would present the photos of my meal and then do a simple conclusion, I'm going to go into detail with what went wrong on every dish and then talk about the experience as a whole at the end of it.

Piu M @ Orchard Plaza, Singapore (Sep 2020)

 

Piu M is a small hole in the wall type of restaurant on the 4th floor of Orchard Plaza. The owner/chef Jun Matsubara is a friendly and chatty one man show. He serves home style Japanese-Italian food (i.e. his food can be replicated at home) and a variety of alcohol to accompany it. The whole atmosphere of the restaurant is a very cozy and relaxing one; one could almost say it's almost like you're eating at someone's home especially since the food served looks simple and has that "home feel" to it. Anyway, let's have a look at the pictures of my two meals here shall we:

Sushi Kenji @ Cuppage Plaza, Singapore (Aug 2020) [ CLOSED]

 

Sushi Kenji is one of those "hidden gems" that skyrocketed in popularity and now even has a loyal following of fans. If I'm not mistaken, Chef Kenji-san has spent a number of years in Singapore, most notably serving in Sushi Hashida and Sushi Jiro before setting up his own shop. When I read that he's located on level 6 of Cuppage Plaza, my initial reaction had me going "what? who sets up a restaurant on the top floor of Cuppage Plaza, who even goes all the way up there?" Well there you go, he does! Anyway, he has two course menus - $88 for a nigiri only and $128 for sashimi, nigiri and 2 more side dishes. There is also an ala carte menu but at the moment, this is just for adding on additional pieces to the course menus. Since it was already so difficult for me to get a reservation here, I decided to just go all out with the $128 course. Shall we have a look at the photos?

Mott 32 @ Marina Bay Sands, Singapore (Aug 2020)

 

If you're a HK fan or a dim sum lover, you'd probably heard of Mott32. This post is a combination of 2 visits and will be focused on their Dim Sum and signature apple wood roasted peking duck. So let's get straight into it! I've been wanting to try Mott32 ever since they opened in Singapore and in case you're wondering, yes it was an instant hit when the Hong Kong restaurant opened their Singapore branch right in Marina Bay Sands. I recently got the opportunity to dine here thanks to the phase 2 of the circuit breaker measures in Singapore and I instantly loved it when I tried their dim sum. In fact, I loved it so much, I came back for the peking duck just a week later. So let's look at the photos!

Bistrot Etroit @ Orchard Plaza, Singapore (July 2020)

 

Bistrot Etroit was started late in 2019 by chef-owner Doi Yasunori who comes from a background of french cooking as such his tagline for his restaurant is "french cuisine by a Japanese chef". He had a pretty slow start and the circuit breaker measures in Singapore due to the coronavirus pandemic didn't help either. However, it seems like social media like Instagram and good word of mouth soon turned his small 7 seater restaurant into one of the hottest deals in town. For $88, you get 6 items including an A4 Wagyu steak. Before I carry on, lets look at the pictures:

Tempura Kondo てんぷら 近藤 @ Ginza, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

I suppose if you're reading this now, you'd already have some knowledge about Tempura Kondo and its reputation for being a local favourite, more specifically to the middle aged and elderly folks, and not to mention it also has two michelin stars. The lunch courses here are especially popular since they're priced reasonably at 6500 and 8500 yen which is a lot cheaper compared to the big names like Sonoji, Fukamachi, Motoyoshi, just to name a few. Anyway, this is my first time here and I ordered the latter since I'm a big eater. For that course, I was served 12 items, not including dessert and miso soup.

Sushi Sho Masa すし匠まさ @ Roppongi, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

This is my third or fourth visit to Sushi Sho Masa and honestly, it keeps getting better. Even though he's one of the more high profile disciples of Sushi Sho, I've always been rather curious as to why his tabelog score is much lower than the other disciples when he serves one of the most unorthodox sushi meals you can get in Japan. I don't know of any other place that will serve 50+ items in one meal. Anyway, long story short, this time round I broke my all time record by stomaching a good 64 items or so. 

Haramasa はらまさ @ Yotsuya Sanchome, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

My first visit to Haramasa back in 2018 left a very good impression. I was very impressed with the creativity of many of the dishes and looked forward to my second visit here. This kaiseki restaurant is known to be one of the more modern and creative ones, relaying heavily on stronger tasting ingredients like truffles, shirako and spices to make their dishes more impactful. I had the privilege of sitting at the counter seat this time and was able to witness Chef Hara making some of his claim to fame dishes like his truffle infused rice among others. I actually think meal was better than my first time here because the dishes I hoped to eat again were actually served again and there were some new ones that left a lasting impression. Lets have a look at the photos:

Crab Taifu @ Ningyocho, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Crab Taifu is a ramen shop located in the Ningyocho area. The shop's claim to fame is its strong and thick tonkotsu-based crab flavoured broth. The noodles if I am not mistaken is also homemade; it had a very nice chewy and springy texture that complimented the strong tasting soup. Anyway, just like any typical ramen shop, it's small with only a few counter seats so if there's a line outside you'd better eat up, finish up and get outta there lol. Anyway, lets have a look at my bowl of crab tonkotsu ramen which I added extra quil eggs and extra pork slices:

Tagetsu 日本料理 太月 @ Omotesando, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Chef-owner Mochizuki-san

 Tagetsu is a 1 michelin star kaiseki restaurant that is relatively easy to book (for now) and is conveniently located in the Omotesando area. It is in the basement of a building and too bad there is no lift so you need to climb down the stairs. I decided to come here because I read of the good cost performance lunches priced at 5000 and 8000 yen. You can also order the dinner courses during lunch time but that's going to raise the price of  course. Anyway, for this particular visit, I reserved the 8000 yen course and this is what I got:

Takumi Shingo 匠 進吾 @ Aoyama Ichome, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

This is my third visit to Takumi Shingo and quite frankly, it keeps getting better and better each time! Located at the side of a small building in an estate, this is one of your typical high caliber restaurants in Japan that is randomly located behind someone's house lol. Just like Sukiyabashi Jiro and Sushi Sho Masa, this is a sushi ya which I try to come back to whenever I'm in Tokyo. I simply love the  experience of being served a variety of sushi and tsumami dishes. This is actually a specialty of the Sho related restaurants and though a number of chefs have gone to open their own stores. I've only tried 3 of them so far - Takumi Shingo, Sho Masa, and Sho Saito. For this particular visit to Takumi Shingo, I ate about 34 or so items. Let's have a look at the pictures! (I'm not gonna name all of them though)

Selsalsale @ Ebisu, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Selsalsale is a Japanese-Italian fusion restaurant located in Ebisu known for its high cost performance and good food. I read that the chef never trained at any high caliber restaurants but is very creative. There is only 1 dinner course priced at 6500 yen for about 10 dishes (in reality 13). Even though it does not have a Michelin star, it has garnered very high scores on tabelog and seems to be loved by many locals. When I posted this on Instagram, quite a few Japanese reached out to me and made comments like "oh you know this place? I like it!" and "I love coming here", stuff like that. Anyway, I came here with two of my local Japanese friends (if you're reading this, thank you so much for making the reservation for us!) and thought we'd have a lovely dinner with a bill that doesn't blow a hole in your wallet....so I thought...before I get to that, let's take a look at the photos!

Sushi Ryusuke 鮨 竜介 @ Ginza, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Looking for a high quality sushi meal in Ginza at a very affordable and reasonable price? This is the place for you! Sushi Ryusuke is located in the basement (with a rather narrow staircase and entrance) of a building in Ginza. He entered the sushi scene together with rivals such as Sushi Arai but unfortunately seems to be overshadowed by them and never truly got the recognition he deserves. This is rather odd to be because my lunch here was easily better than a lot of other sushi yas in Ginza area such as Ishiyama, Kyubey, Tokami etc. These kind of deals are pretty hard to find lol. Anyway, let's take a look at the pictures!