Japanese

The moment I stepped into this pastelly- pink shop....... I smelt THE TRUFFLE!!!! How could I resist not ordering the truffle wagyu beef don (~$13.90) right?
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Truffle smell was very strong and portion was alright, beef was very tender and very minimally charred. Sweet sauce was Super yummy and caused me to finish all the rice hehehehe 🙃 Onsen egg wasn’t as float as I hoped it’d be though. Overall pretty worth it for the price!

Set within The Plaza at Beach Road, this uni (sea urchin) centric restaurant is bound to be music to the ears of uni lovers. Prices are on the higher side, but the quality of uni, along with the other fresh seafood, justifies this to be a worthy special occasion splurge. Their signature is a heftily priced The Uni Bomb ($99), which pairs three types of uni with specialised condiments, along with a shot of Japanese gin or sake. Thankfully, there are more affordable options. The Uni Chirashi Set ($28.90, including a side salad, miso soup and green tea) sees a bowl of rice topped with generous portions of creamy sea urchin, which got Burpple Tastemaker Casey Tan's stamp of approval for being ridiculously value for money. You can also add on five slices of salmon sashimi for $6.90. For more variety, consider taking Burpple Tastemaker Wei Zhi Chiang's advice to get the Uni Tokusen Sashimi 7 Types (from $38 for one person). Apart from uni, the platter also includes various ocean-fresh sashimi including salmon and a luxuriously thick slice of otoro (tuna belly).
Avg price: $40
Photo by Burpple Tastemaker Casey Tan

Tucked away on the first floor of Sunshine Plaza, District Sushi serves up some seriously delish AND affordable Japanese — $10 Bara Chirashi Don anyone? Considering the amount of fresh seafood that the rice bowl comes topped with, this could possibly be the most value for money version we've tried. Along with cooked prawns, the fish cubes are chunky and fresh, and tossed in a slightly sweet marinade (nothing a trickle of soy sauce won't fix, says Burppler Muriel A). You might be tempted to upsize to the Premium Bara Chirashi Don, but the $10 portion should satisfy regular appetites. If you're not into raw seafood, you'll find equally tasty $10 bowls in the donburi section: both the Salmon Mentaiyaki Donburi ($10) and Aburi Duck Teriyaki + Onsen Egg ($10) have our nods of approval.
Avg price: $10
Photo by Burpple Tastemaker Wei Zhi Chiang

If you find waiting months for a seat at lavish omakase palaces tiresome, this well-kept secret that only requires two days' advance reservation is where you can go to enjoy an omakase that specialises in aged ingredients. Located in Fortune Centre on the second floor, the 12-seater place is run by Chef Aeron Choo on her own, who has spent many years learning the art of aging ingredients. Expect unique creations like aged egg yolk in red miso as well as beautifully aged eggplants and red scorpion fish sushi, one of the more unusual fish option available here. The food comes highly recommended by our Burpple community, perfect for impressing your date or celebrating a birthday over a memorable meal. The nine-dish Omakase Set ($68) is a preview of her prowess in the kitchen. Sit by the counter and watch as she works her magic; you won't want to miss anything she does! Pro tip: If you're celebrating a birthday, don't be shy to let her know. She might just whip up a hill of seafood chunks, drizzled with mentai mayo (like what she did for Burppler Dex Neo)!
Avg Price: $80 per person
Photo by Burppler Raine Liu

MIND BOGGLED.
It's a scallop but had the distinct taste of oyster.
This is a fine example of Chef Aeron's style of sushi.
So when dining at Kappou Sushi Tapas Bar, a 12-seater restaurant tucked away on the second level of Fortune Centre, be ready to embrace a world of new tastes.
Furthermore, because Chef likes to describe what goes into the making of each course of her omakase, including how she ages her sushi, you'll learn a lot too.
Do note that dinner here can stretch over a few hours as she has only one assistant and time is needed to prepare each course.

By the good folks behind Standing Sushi Bar and Tanuki Raw comes this Donburi-focused stall. Located in 100AM, Salmon Samurai serves a great Salmon Bowl ($9.90) with fresh salmon brought in on a daily basis and only prepared a la order. There are four ways to have your salmon — raw, poke, grilled or mentaiyaki (our Burpple Community's favourite). The latter sees smoky yet creamy mentai sauce flamed to perfection — just like the stellar scallop mentaiyaki available at Standing Sushi Bar. Choose to have your salmon over a bed of udon, brown rice or salad and ask to top up with half an Avocado ($1.50), Onsen Egg ($1) or Ebiko ($1) if you want more flavour, although the bowl is satisfying enough on its own. Pro tip: Complete your donburi with a side of Salmon Miso Soup ($2) — Burpple Tastemaker Justin Teo praises it for being great value, considering it comes chock full of soft salmon chunks and mushrooms.
Avg Price: $15 per person
Photo by Burppler Dex Neo

It's the dry form of ramen. Something different I must say. A lot of carbs to me but it's nice.

The staff is nice enough to replace the onsen egg to the custard egg for me. Good service. But the shop is rather small, so be prepared to queue a little.

Worth a try.

~$15 including GST + service charge

Went to support my friend's event opening at Foch road and tried the off menu kyodai don which encompasses all of their mains. Their mains are consist of some of the more staple foods in Japanese cuisine, namely - salmon, beef and tempura, as well as a more local take on Japanese food like roast pork and garlic chicken. I was honestly blown away by the food quality and I think it might even give the food at bigger establishments like MOF and Sushi Tei a run for their money.
Waiting time might be slightly long for a hawker store, but rest assured that the wait is worth it.

So if you're feeling adventurous and looking for some great food in one of the heartland locations of Singapore, please check them out!

Taking over the exact same space from that infamous western food stall that committed suicide by social media, Don. serves up high quality and absolutely appetizing Japanese ricebowls. And it's worth every penny of the low, low price of admission.

I was a bit apprehensive when I ordered this beautiful bowl of mentaiko salmon don ($9.90, extra $1 for miso soup) as I absolutely abhor over cooked salmon (which is an all too common occurrence with Japanese food peddlers). However, the sublimely sous-vide'd at 43 degrees Celsius strip of salmon straddled the thin pink line between raw and cooked, managing to achieve a nice color on the outside while the inside had a texture much like aburi salmon.

The supremely soft salmon just fell apart when I tried to lift it with my chopsticks, revealing the vibrantly pink interior. The torched mentaiko blanketing the top of the salmon was added adequately, bringing its much-desired stellar salty creaminess to take up the heavy responsibility of flavoring the salmon and complementing its mild brininess without being overbearing. The perfectly cooked japonica rice was drizzled with an absolutely ambrosial teriyaki sauce, and when paired with the creamy liquid gold that was the 75 degree egg's yolk, it transformed the otherwise pedestrian pearls into creamy, luscious and utterly umami grains of glory. I do wish, however, that the rice was served hotter.

Also, after browsing through all the various photos of the same don others have had, I feel kinda cheated as I realized that my serving of salmon is an absolute dwarf compared to what many others have had.

However, the don was so good, I'm more than willing to overlook that particular annoyance.

Saw people talking about this new place that's now in the spot where The Western Co. used to be on Burpple and since it was so near the office, decided to just pop by for dinz! 🍴

It seems the sous vide is a hot favourite with the young hawkers and I'm not complaining! The generous portion of beef (I counted eight slices 👌) was nicely done and tender, though a little under seasoned. But that was made up by the saucy bowl, with rice topped off with furikake, pickled shredded vegs and a wobbly egg that would make gudetama jealous. 😂Heard good things about their other bowls too so looking forward to heading back soon!

A new entrant to the hip hawkers scene is this little coffeeshop stall specialising in Japanese rice bowls with a modern slant. $9.90 gets you a hearty bowl of sous vide mentaiko salmon (with the perfect, succulent, semi-raw texture), onsen egg, and furikake-specked Japanese rice. Love the addition of pickles to refresh the palate.

Hiroshima Oysters - I think this is what everyone comes here for. At $1++ a pop, it was a steal, too. Party in my mouth! You can slurp it with Tabasco Sauce, but I just squeezed lemon over it.

Queue started coming in at 6:30PM (they open for dinner at 6) & within minutes, it was really crowded. Also, the waitstaff kept speaking to me in Chinese which REALLY stresses me out. Like, please, stop. I don't even know what oysters are in Chinese.