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?

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: