We decided to have a bowl of unagi with rice at the Man Man outlet in Clarke Quay Central today and we were surprised to find the restaurant rather empty on a weekday at 12.30 pm, even as the office crowd is largely back!

We ordered the standard hitsumabushi set, which came with pickles, seaweed miso soup, a very generous serving of condiments (seaweed, spring onions and wasabi), a container of dashi soup stock and of course, a bowl of rice topped with really well-grilled unagi! However, we were EXTREMELY surprised as the entire unagi rice bowl was covered in a layer of spring onions when it was served, to the extent where you couldn't even see the grilled eel underneath. We scooped out most of the spring onions and placed them on a side dish, although you can see some remnants in the picture. If you are very averse to spring onions, you should definitely highlight it to the staff so that the unagi rice bowl isn't served to you with a dense layer of spring onions covering it! 😰😰😰

The spring onions aside, the unagi was awesome as the exterior was really crispy and yet it was only lightly charred; on the other hand, the eel meat was soft and pretty sweet from the marinade, which is exactly how we like it to be.😁

The restaurant staff will suggest to eat it in 3 ways: (1) eating the unagi and rice as it is, (2) adding the seaweed, spring onions and wasabi to the unagi rice bowl before eating and (3) pouring the dashi broth into the rice bowl to create something akin to a porridge mixture, before eating it with the unagi. (3) was really interesting and the broth was light and yet after mixing it with the rice and eel, it became somewhat sweeter! After trying Man Man twice, we decided that (3) was the way to go, although you may want to go with (1) or (2) if you like your eel more crispy.

For such an excellent bowl of unagi with rice, it certainly does not come cheap and we paid around $29++ for the entire set. If you are a big eater, the restaurant also has a large hitsumabushi that costs $39++, although it comes with double the serving of unagi. That being said, lunch here was rather excellent and we will be back for more! 😋