Japanese 🇲🇾

Intensely lemony broth with enough zest to cut through its slick meatiness. Decently firm noodles topped with slightly tough but still delicious pork slices and a soft-centred egg done right. They’ve expanded and reopened to Jaya One residents’ delight so yay.

You can get this both a la carte or as part of a rice set, but because I greedy, this was a side to my beef bowl main. The chicken is warm and crunchy, but lacks just a tad bit more seasoning so the Japanese mayo comes in handy to enhance flavour. Comes with a small bunch of sesame sauce-laden shredded cabbage.

Very decent beef bowl with nicely seasoned beef, moist bed of rice and an egg to cap it off. Good for easy lunches with a colleague.

Everyone who has ever frequented Jaya One at some point will likely have fond memories of Marufuku. This udon joint started out as a cheap and good spot for students, working folks and all, and stayed that way! They’ve moved to B1 from their old ground level store, but quality and prices have remained.

The simple, fuss-free house special sees taut udon doused in the lightest dash of dashi, topped with runny egg and spring onions. I like mine cold, with a few good scoops of chilli oil to take flavours up a notch.

Can never resist grilled eggplant, but this was a tad disappointing no doubt due to the overly sweet and creamy miso glaze. Would’ve much preferred a lighter glaze on those deliciously tender cuts.

Citrusy sake cocktail, done pretty well and potent too. Order two sake cocktails to get the second at 50%!

This new Japanese tapas-meets-Korean BBQ joint along Jalan Mesui doles out a pretty good deal. This platter comes with lamb char siew, chicken, squid and wagyu striploin, all at sizeable portions good to feed two to three. Liked the sweet barbecued lamb char siew and the fatty wagyu striploin best!

Ordering from the BBQ menu also comes with all the KBBQ perks — banchan, lettuce wraps and sauces. You can also choose to grill your own, or have the guys do the work; I chose the latter of course.

I really appreciate the details at Lucky Tora. The artisanal ice cream is served in an icy cold tin bowl, which keeps it cool and intact for much longer than usual. On flavour, this ultra creamy scoop delivers a rummy punch with sweet raisin bits. Even not-a-big-fan-of-ice-cream me quite enjoyed this treat.

Pretty yummy wagyu katsu, done to a dark and pinkish medium rare. While crunchy and tasty, the batter felt almost overpowering when trying to really appreciate the beef’s flavour.

The upside is you’re getting a good amount of beef, omelette and greens on a fat bed of rice — surely worth what you’re paying in this part of town. The dish also comes with a yummy curry mayo dip and miso soup!

Their Instagram post about the tsukune boldly claims you’ll be hard-pressed to order seconds. And after having it for myself, I can attest to that claim.

The minced chicken skewer is the definition of moist, almost melting in the mouth with every bite. It’s also packed to be dense with meat, so you don’t feel like you just paid 7 bucks for nothing. The raw egg and sweet shoyu dip is the cherry on the cake, adding a nice umami and buttery layer.

Saw this on the menu and I was sold. I only had this dish once when a friend made a Thai-inspired meal, so it’s super surprising to find it on a Jap fusion menu — not that I’m complaining.

The delicious deep-fried toast was redolent of prawn oil, with bits of mashed prawn folded into the little triangles. Would’ve liked the wasabi cream to come with a bit more kick, but I was more than happy with just the spicy lime (yuzu?) dip.

Torched salmon dressed in ponzu and truffle oil, on a bed of mash. Flavours work, and between the salmon and potatoes, there was a nice balance of textures. That said, this wasn’t “explosive” as the name hypes it up to be.