Japanese

Garlic tonkotsu ramen ($15.50) 🍜 9/10

I was expecting the usual faint hint of garlic oil when I ordered this but I was greeted with a blast of pungent garlic with each rich spoon of soup. At the bottom of the bowl, I found crunchy slices of raw garlic that I happily chewed up with the other rice dishes here. Highly recommended if you're a garlic fiend like me!

On top of the soup, I was pleasantly surprised by how amazingly tender the tonkotsu slices were. I mean, swipe to look at how the meat just falls apart!

Truffle mushroom pizza ($18.90) 🍕 6/10

The price isn't not bad for a 12" pizza ('large' size in Domino's) and the mushrooms were fresh and juicy.

However, I wasn't impressed by the crust because it tasted too bready and not flaky/crusty enough. That was a dealbreaker for me.

Aburi mentai don ($15.80) 🍣 7/10

I find that it's hard to get torched mentaiko wrong -- these bowls of flamed salmon and mentaiko mayo were certainly very enjoyable. Especially with the bursts of tamago and cucumber.

However, I think the bowls could be much more satisfying if the salmon slices were thicker.

Beef steak jyu ($14.90) 🥩 8/10

These chunks of beef were quite worth it for the price. Not only do you get roast beef on top -- underneath the pink slices of tender beef was some sukiyaki beef (beef strips with onions), which added to the overall flavour of the rice.

I must say that some pieces of beef are inconsistent because I could bite through some slices but others needed a bit of pulling/sawing to bite through.

Singapore's ONLY muslim-owned Japanese izakaya just opened late last year! Since izakayas are usually a casual bar with plates of bar food, there are no prizes for anyone who can guess why halal izakayas are rare.

I've posted a collection of photos of some of the many dishes I had there, but I want to highlight a few favourites -- the butter garlic clams and the thicccc sashimi slices!

The sauce in the butter garlic clams 🐚 was thin but had such an umami kick, we ordered a bowl of plain rice just to pour the delectable sauce over. Yes, the mix of butter and garlic is simple, but they are the basic ingredients of so many dishes for a reason.

As for the sashimi 🍣, the slices were like double the size of usual sashimi slices and sooo fresh. I'd really recommend this place for its sashimi because it was so enjoyable biting down into these firm pink chunks 😍

Authenticity-wise, I doubt that the butter garlic clams are native to Japan but it was fun sitting in eatery which was decorated izakaya-style, and tasting the varied tapas-like dishes.

®️: 7/10

A highlight is the unagi eel and egg over rice, which features a splendid savoury-sweet sauce that coats the perfectly-seasoned sticky Japanese rice deliciously. Comfort food may sometimes be simple, but Ichiban Boshi gets it just right.

Crispy and moist inside!

This outlet at Jem is my family's go-to Japanese restaurant when we feel like having quality sushi and Japanese set meals. The sushi quality is consistent and so are the sets which offer a nice variety of quality donburis and sides.

I really like how chewy the tagiatelle is here without being too much, and the creamy creamy carbonara. It's pretty worth it even for the $13.90 version! Sadly, the mentaiko taste wasn't that strong and I could only taste a hint of the spicy roe behind the basic taste of heavy cream.

It also needed a lot more parmesan cheese to bring it's flavour to the next level, and the waiter gladly brought us a giant shaker full of parmesan.

For my first meal of freedom, I returned to my favourite sushi buffet place -- shin yuu!

It felt so amazing to take my mask off outdoors and to eat piping hot served food.

They have such fresh sashimi and delicious cooked beef for those who prefer meat. They have a modest range of well-made, small servings so you can sample many dishes quickly and decide what you like best. I've reviewed them before and gave them a 9/10 and I stand by it.

Waa cow is delivering island-wide for free if you order above $65!

I've previously reviewed their marina one outlet and their delivered bowls are just as good because rice bowls hold up pretty well in packaged boxes.

This time, I tried their truffle and mentaiko donburis and have to say that the truffle one is really mind-blowing! Each piece of meat was packing so much flavour, I had to close my eyes to savour each piece. Not only are the tender beef strips flamed to give you an appropriate amount of a bittersweet aftertaste, they also perfectly infused with hints of truffle.
When I add truffle oil to my dishes at home, it's somehow either too little or too much! Here, they managed to make the truffle just right -- not 'jelat' but oh-so-satisfying. And if it's not enough for the truffle-lovers out there, there is even a small dollop of truffle tartufata on top to really drive that truffle taste home.

I'm all for mentaiko and adding it to mayo and pasta, but the mentaiko naturally does not pack as big a punch as the truffle. I also feel like truffle blends better with meat as compared to mentaiko. However, if you're not a fan of truffle, you should definitely go for this instead -- the charred beef strips in the mentaiko donburi were as good as what I described for the truffle dish, and the mentaiko sauce was full of umami. | ®️:9/10 -- call me greedy but I just didn't get enough of that tender meat! 😅

This popular chain has outlets throughout Singapore and is a great place to go to get your fried food fix! I myself am a great fan of fried food so I naturally loved everything here (especially the ebi and the sweet potato). |

However, I felt that the fried stuff didn't taste piping hot, so the food could have been sitting there for quite a while and reheated instead of freshly fried to order. Despite that hunch, everything is definitely crispy, and I'm still in love with this bowl of comfort food! | ®️: 7/10 |

I remember the staff of this marina one outlet was really accomodating and friendly. The decor, as usual is also very quirky and colourful, making it a very interesting place to dine in. |

As for the food, the beef is mindblowingly good -- it is tender and full of flavour. They also give quite a reasonable proportion of meat to rice so you don't end up with too much rice at the end!
They are still open and provide free delivery services for orders over $65! | ®️: 8/10 | .

The sashimi here is fresh and they have quite a range of sushi, alacarte items, grilled meats, skewers, and rice dishes to choose from. |

The ambience here is also quite relaxed and classy even with their group booths and sushi trains. The prices here are a fair bit more expensive than the usual sushi tei or ichiban sushi, though. | ®️: 7/10 | .

Casual eatery with many Japanese alacarte options. The sashimi is quite fresh... But I don't really like the prawns in the fried ebi