Japanese Food

Your creamy chicken pie with chunks of chicken thigh and shiitake with a creamy sauce. While this is good, I personally prefer button mushrooms over shiitake.

Gotta say that the pies are Kemono’s strongest suit. The buttery, flaky pie crust is something that makes it stand out. I prefer the Wagyu Beef Shabu Shabu Pie for its tender, flavourful beef cubes and the shimeji mushrooms in a flavourful sauce.

Using hormone-free and antibiotic-free chicken that’s boiled for 12 hours, it results in a rich and nutritious soup that has gotten the consistency right. Although there’s no MSG, I wished they could add a little more salt and flavouring as it was a little bland for my palette.

500 grammes of goodness. Not for the faint hearted as lamb has a gamey flavour. But I say this is still within the flavour threshold for many. The ribs are well-seasoned with a blend of herbs and spices, and are perfectly cooked that the beautifully falls off the bone. So soft, tender and tasty.

If you aren’t a fan of fried chicken, then get some roasted chicken from @kemonochicken - a healthy Japanese chicken joint. Treat yourself to big, tender pieces of roast chicken leg or have a whole chicken if you have a village to feed. 🍗 Trust me, you gotta get the pies and lamb ribs when you’re ordering this. 🥧🐑

Huge pieces of fresh chicken leg that’s roasted to perfection. It’s tender, juicy and flavourful. While he cooking of the meat is on point, the seasoning could’ve been stronger. More herbs and spices would’ve made this a perfect this.

You can check out @onkeitonkatsu at Paya Lebar Square (01-85). A sister concept to @keikaisendon, treat yourself to a fairly affordable tonkatsu dinner since the weekend’s here.

Think of all the tonkatsu combinations that you can and they have it - Tonkatsu, chicken katsu, cheese tonkatsu, mentaiko tonkatsu, miso tonkatsu, curry katsu, ebi katsu and fish katsu.

All sets are served with a choice of Hokkaido white rice or multigrain rice, shredded cabbage, tonjiru soup, pickles, tonkatsu sauce and green tea. So here’s what we had.

Cheese Tonkatsu Set ($21.90++ for 120g/$23.90++ for 160g). Breaded pork loin cutlet with a cheesy mozzarella centre. As the camera took awhile to eat, we didn’t experience the stringiness of the mozzarella but I’d say it’s relatively decent. Only the pork loin option is available for this.

The good part of the katsu here is the crispness of the freshly made panko breadcrumbs yet the pork cutlet itself isn’t oily at all.

As a fan of Japanese curry, I added the side of Curry ($3.80++) which was fairly decent.

Mentaiko Tonkatsu Set (Pork loin: $21.90++ for 120g/$23.90++ for 160g). Essentially a piece of breaded pork cutlet topped with pure salted cod roe that gives it that umami kick. Although a favourite among my fellow Singaporeans, mentaiko isn’t something that will catch my eye.

As for the cutlet itself, there’s room for fine tuning. Ideally, pork loin should be moist and tender owing to its greater fat content. Ours was slightly tough and dry. We had this before their official opening and I believe they have since addressed the issue.

Thank you @onkeitonkatsu for hosting us to this tonkatsu dinner.

You can check out @onkeitonkatsu at Paya Lebar Square (01-85). A sister concept to @keikaisendon, treat yourself to a fairly affordable tonkatsu dinner since the weekend’s here.

Think of all the tonkatsu combinations that you can and they have it - Tonkatsu, chicken katsu, cheese tonkatsu, mentaiko tonkatsu, miso tonkatsu, curry katsu, ebi katsu and fish katsu.

All sets are served with a choice of Hokkaido white rice or multigrain rice, shredded cabbage, tonjiru soup, pickles, tonkatsu sauce and green tea. So here’s what we had.

Cheese Tonkatsu Set ($21.90++ for 120g/$23.90++ for 160g). Breaded pork loin cutlet with a cheesy mozzarella centre. As the camera took awhile to eat, we didn’t experience the stringiness of the mozzarella but I’d say it’s relatively decent. Only the pork loin option is available for this.

The good part of the katsu here is the crispness of the freshly made panko breadcrumbs yet the pork cutlet itself isn’t oily at all.

As a fan of Japanese curry, I added the side of Curry ($3.80++) which was fairly decent.

Mentaiko Tonkatsu Set (Pork loin: $21.90++ for 120g/$23.90++ for 160g). Essentially a piece of breaded pork cutlet topped with pure salted cod roe that gives it that umami kick. Although a favourite among my fellow Singaporeans, mentaiko isn’t something that will catch my eye.

As for the cutlet itself, there’s room for fine tuning. Ideally, pork loin should be moist and tender owing to its greater fat content. Ours was slightly tough and dry. We had this before their official opening and I believe they have since addressed the issue.

Thank you @onkeitonkatsu for hosting us to this tonkatsu dinner.

It has everything that the Signature Kaisen Don has with the exception of additional slices of raw scallop. I found the scallops to be fresh and quite sweet. Taste wise, the scallops rather decent for the price you’re paying for.

They specialise in kaisendon (seafood bowl) which means raw seafood topped on rice in Japanese. The affordable price point is a plus when you want to satisfy your Japanese cravings on a work day.

You’ll get a wide array fresh seafood that’s chopped into cubes. It’s then marinated with a mildly flavoured signature sauce with spring onions that doesn’t mask the taste of the seafood itself.

So what’s inside - salmon, tuna, meikajiki, abalone slice, scallop, amaebi (sweet prawn), octopus, ikura (salmon roe), tobiko (flying fish roe). It’s then topped with colourful chukka wakame (seasoned seaweed salad) which adds a greenish hue to the presentation. I like how they are generous with the ikura.

Thank you Kei Kaisendon for hosting!

Don’t know what to have this weekend? Why not treat yourself to some shiok tonkotsu ramen from Kanada-Ya? 🍜

My favourite ramen of the lot. I like the sweetness and the leanness of the pork collar chashu. Good for those who prefer lean meat and wanna feel less guilty about eating their ramen. I like the ajitama egg here as it’s pretty sweet and flavourful.

It’s raining, it’s pouring. Time to tuck in to some piping hot bowl of truffle tonkotsu ramen from Kanada-Ya (if only we have 24 hour ramen shops like Ichiran). Only limited portions are available each day. And I was absolutely keen to try this as I never had this in London although they say it’s London’s favourite.

Perhaps they introduced this after I left the UK for good. It’s not a cheap bowl of ramen considering the price for a bowl starts from $25++. Pictured here is the regular bowl of noodles ($27++). So what goes into this aromatic bowl of noodles? Rich and creamy tonkotsu broth infused with black truffle oil. The chashu is marinated with black truffle and beyond that, there’s black truffle jelly topped on it. You get three stalks of asparagus and a block of nori (seaweed) as your greens if it’s the regular version.

When the bowl reached my table, I could smell the distinctive taste of truffle which I very much love. Once you dig into it, you can taste nothing but truffle. Absolutely luxurious and luscious for a truffle and tonkotsu soup base lover like myself. You can’t have this every day but do give yourself a treat once in awhile. So I recommend that you should try it at least once.

If you’re looking to have ramen during this CB period, they’re open for takeaway and islandwide delivery.

One of the first tonkatsu specialty restaurants in Singapore. Tonkichi serves anything cooked with Panko breadcrumbs since 1993.

My preference for tonkatsu is always rosu katsu (loin) as the meat’s juicier and fattier. The US kurobuta rosu katsu set came with rice, cabbage, pickles and miso soup. You’re also given a pestle to grind the toasted sesame seeds to be mixed with the sweet and sour tonkatsu sauce. Carb lovers would love the fact that the rice is free flow (as with most katsu places). We added on a bowl of curry ($5++) as I was craving for Japanese curry.

Opting for the premium option was certainly worth it as the meat was more tender with a larger proportion of the fat in this deep fried delight. The tonkatsu wasn’t too oily and the exterior was crispy. The curry was not too sweet and had the perfect blend of spices that’s perfect for non-spicy eaters. We loved the curry so much that we wanted a second helping.