Chirashi Don (S$18.90++)
Assorted of freshly imported sashimi served on a Japanese rice bowl
Available on Mon to Fri from 12pm to 2pm at @SouthpawBarNSushi
Lunch Set comes with freshly prepared miso soup.
The rice was quite flavourful and well mixed with seaweed.
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Southpaw Bar & Sushi
Address 🏠 : 11 Cavan Road, # 01-04 Cavan Suites, Singapore 🇸🇬 209 848
Tel ☎️ : 9101 1941
Open ⏰ :
Mon - Fri : 12pm - 2pm, 6pm - 11pm
Sat : 6pm - 11pm
MRT 🚇 : Lavender (EW11)
Note 📝 : seat 💺 12 at counter
Back here again! I actually did try their Omakase (it’s AMAZING, basically a food journey that builds up the whole way through for a satisfying finish) but… was legitimately too distracted by the food to take photos. Whoops. Anyway, here’s their wagyu bowl ($18.90++) instead, which is every bit as delicious as everything else Southpaw serves.
The experience of getting this is great. Sit down at the counter, and you can watch the chef just take out a legit chunk of wagyu that gets carefully flame-grilled to really bring out its flavour. Then the slices are arranged on a bed of fluffy, steaming rice, all topped by a soft egg that just oozes out to coat everything when you poke it.
Needless to say it was very, VERY good. I always appreciate their attention to detail; like how the spring onions were soaked in water beforehand to give them a slightly milder flavour that complimented the meat perfectly. This is definitely a real standout dish – just make sure you go earlier in the month because they actually can sell out of it.
This time for their straightforwardly delicious sake set meal for $17.90++ A good helping of fresh salmon, some just lightly grilled to bring out the flavour, all set on top of fluffy seasoned rice.
Add some ginger, actual grated wasabi and clear mushroom and spring onion soup (a welcome change from the typical miso usually served) and you have yourself a fantastic lunch.
Though there’s only 12 seats at a counter, I’d suggest sitting close to the door if possible - you get a better view of the action that way. Today when I went, they were getting a huge salmon delivered and it was actually pretty entertaining to watch it get broken down.
Next thing on the list of food I have to try here is the Omakase!
In an area where nearby cafes charge easily $18-20++ for pasta and beef bowls, Southpaw is an understated gem serving up fresh, great tasting and genuinely delicious lunch sets that in my opinion are the best at their price range.
This is the sashimi unajyu - at $26 (including GST), every part of it is just mouthwatering perfection. The chef is fantastic, and its roots as an omakase place show through as he carefully puts together each bowl with huge attention to detail.
If you're coming here for the first time I'd recommend the chirashi bowl, which is just a beautiful work of edible art. But if it's avaliable, the wagyu is also seriously good. Anyway, definitely go visit! I'm honestly surprised it's not packed every day, with the kind of food they have.
This jiggly jelly dusted with green tea powder was rather invigorating and refreshing with the chilled gelatinous sweet jelly and the slightly bitter and grassy green tea revitalizing the tastebuds and cleansing the palate.
The clam miso soup was light and delicate but packed full of sweet clammy flavors with a savory taste of the sea. The warm broth was a comforting and hearty dish that helped wash down the rich decadent flavors of the cold seafood from previous courses.
The thin slice of foie gras, perched on top of fresh raw scallops, was seared with a blowtorch so that it charred and beautifully caramelized while its lovely juices emanated out of the lobe and coated the entire sushi with its oily richness. The hotate (scallop) had a mild refreshing sweetness with a springy yet tender bite, and a silky and buttery texture that beautifully melded together with the rich, creamy, smoky and umami goodness of the opulent foie gras which immediately disintegrated on the tongue into a delicate fruity sweetness and a subtle funkiness.
Uni – sea urchin roe tediously derived from cracking open little spiny urchin shells and carefully extricating the tiny and fragile morsels of gonads attached within the inner sanctum of this shellfish with the precision of a surgeon. The shiro uni a.k.a. murasaki uni imported from the Miyagi Prefecture feeds on wakame (seaweed) and carries a more delicate flavor with a saltier finish as compared to other uni varieties found in Japan. The uni sushi that Chef Kenny placed on my platter was loaded with generous amounts of the highly-prized pale golden lobes. The buttery uni glided on silky and velvety on the tongue and gave off a delicately sweet taste, brimming with umami and laced with a briny taste of the sea as the creamy roe melted in the mouth.
Lightly grilled then doused in sesame sauce and sprinkled with bonito flakes, this aburi salmon flaked with barely a touch and melted in the mouth; smoky, creamy, savory, nutty and sweet – a myriad of decadent flavors.
The botan ebi is a Hokkaido specialty that usually surfaces in Japanese restaurants during their fishing season from October to May. Two plump and juicy deshelled shrimps were laid over a nugget of rice with their tails still attached. The shrimps were so fresh that the tails glided off with just a light tug, without the shrimps even budging from the position they were laid to rest in. The botan shrimps were succulent and soft, yet supple, with a sweet viscosity like syrup balanced out by its characteristic clear and sparkling notes.
Nestled on a tiny pile of rice and cupped within the confines of a strip of nori, each little orange sphere of omega-3 oil was as fresh as it gets, its membrane so thin that it dissolved from the warmth of the tongue, surrendering the deluge of the rich juices encompassed within, without the need of even biting into it. The juicy ikura (salmon roe) exploded in the mouth, releasing all its lovely salty fatty juices with a tinge of a refreshingly fruity and sweet tang from the yuzu that it had been incorporated with.
The horse mackerel is a small, silver-skinned, strong-tasting fish packed with omega-three acids, DHA and EPA, but can slightly turn people off with its potent flavor of the sea. The horse mackerel in Southpaw was served topped with spring onions and grated ginger so that their spicy sharpness cuts through the fishy taste for a brighter flavor. The flesh was a beautiful gradient of pastel pink to terra cotta red and had a firm al-dente texture with a slightly oily mouthfeel and a rich oceanic taste that lingered on the palate.
During winter, the olive flounder puts on a luscious layer of fat under its skin. Only a skilled chef is able to remove the skin while preserving that layer of fat beneath. This layer of fat can easily be seen especially when it is cooked. Southpaw lightly grilled the hirame to bring out the flavors of the fish, and the slick sheen glistening on its surface is indicative of a fatty and oily fish sliced with expertise. The hirame in the sushi assortment slightly differed from the one in the sashimi platter as the flesh from the aburi hirame sushi came from the area around the fish's fin called the engawa, prized due to its limited quantity (only eight servings in the entire flounder) and the slightly crunchy and chewy nature of the top muscle which in the process of mastication, releases glycogen from the muscles, turning it into simpler sugars as it mixes with the saliva in the mouth. It was thick and buttery in the mouth but quickly melted into a rich, oily and smoky combination of viscous juices with every chew.
The leaner meat found around the spine of the bluefin tuna is called the akami, which is the portion served when it is simply stated as “maguro” in restaurants. This cut of the tuna is usually a deep crimson in color due to the presence of iron rich myoglobin it its muscles which helps the tuna propel through the water at speeds of up to 70km/hour. The iron rich myoglobin gave the tuna a taste and texture almost like very rare filet mignon – smooth and velvety with a mild succulent sweetness, but without the metallic aftertaste.
The sashimi platter consisted of six varieties of sashimi; geoduck, ika, hirame, aburi shiro maguro, and otoro, beautifully plated and served with Southpaw's special soya sauce brewed with sake and mirin. The sashimi platter was served with a small chrysanthemum flower, a stalk of mint leaf flowers, and radish flower bulbs. Roy recommended mixing the chrysanthemum petals, the mint leaf flowers and radish flower bulbs into the soya sauce to create a floral, mildly minty and slightly sharp multi-dimensional dipping sauce for the sashimi. The contents on the sashimi platter change with season, so there is always that element of surprise for the diner.
The thin slices of salmon belly sashimi were each topped with spring onions, lumpfish caviar and candied bonito flakes, with truffle oil drizzled over. The salmon sashimi was fatty, creamy and tender, and the way that the salmon was sliced ultra-fine and paper-thin further added to a melt-in-the-mouth texture. The lumpfish caviar gave off a juicy pop of saltiness that perfectly brought the sweet bonito flakes, the evergreen freshness of the spring onions and the musky and earthy aromas of the truffle oil together with the silky and creamy salmon belly in creating a refreshingly complex flavor and texture profile.
Roy recommended pouring a splash of The Ten 2008 #3 Light Highland’s pale champagne colored liquid into the empty oyster shell, as the single malt scotch whisky will intermix with the lingering oyster juices to create a uniquely gorgeous amalgamation that cannot be recreated in bottled whiskies. The fresh, grassy and floral notes of the whisky suffused with the briny salinity left in the shell came out tasting like liquid sunshine at the beach, summery and sparkling with the floral, grassy, briny and salty flavors playfully dancing on the tastebuds.
The two appetizers were served together, beautifully plated to whet the appetite. It is an ingenious culinary decision to present both the light and juicy Scottish Loch Fyne Oyster along with the rich and creamy Monkfish Liver together, for contrasting textures and flavors that helped in opening up the palate.
Sequestered along a row of shophouses on Cavan Road, it is easy to miss the sliver of the shopfront occupying a narrow unit. The obscure entrance is simply furnished with an automatic lock door and a small glass panel featuring several bottles of whiskies on rows of wooden shelves. The nondescript shopfront gives no indication to the gastronomical treasure trove that awaits within Southpaw Bar & Sushi, where the passion and dedication towards the art of gastronomy is almost palpable.
