This place was recommended by nuanda after he read my post on
gyu kaku a while back. A small cozy, but a little cramp restaurant in cuppage plaza. as the name suggest, their speciality is grilled items, mostly on skewers, or many of us know them as satay sticks. they have a very comprehensive selection of bbq items, and the boss himself is at the kitchen grilling the food. nuanda thinks that the boss looks like a japanese surfer. so if you see someone fitting this description, that's the boss.
Brown tea is served free, unlimited refill, but if you order the cold brown tea, which is exactly the same thing except that it's chilled, it's $1 per glass.. just a note in case you feel that $1 for tea is too expensive. but since you are there, be prepared to spend. The restaurant has small tables and chairs and you sit very closely to the people on the neighbouring table, very typical of japanese restaurant. but the good food will definitely make up for the squeeze.
Lots of photos.. click on the photo to see a larger version of it.
Asparagus with bacon, australian wagyu beef, bacon with golden mushroom, japanese shitake mushroom, sausages. sausage seems a little out of place although it tasted well, not very jap. i prefer the beef at gyu kaku, the rest of the items above were very good. oh couldn;t comment on shitake mushroom, cos i'm not a mushroom fan.
Chicken skin, quail's eggs and chicken ball (tsukune), foie gras, scallops with prawns, lamb chop. crispy part of the chicken skin was good, but i dun really like to soft part cos it feels very fatty, foie gras was quite good, not very oily, and the taste wasn't too strong, at $6.50 for a stick like that, i think it's worth it, i do not eat foie gras often to know whether this is high quality or not. lamb chop was absolutely delicious.
Squid with bacon, chicken wings, chicken with apple, tako ball with mayonnaise, cod fish. chicken wings were crispy on the outside, warm and tender on the inside. chicken with apple is really very good, you can taste the sweetness from the apple in the chicken cubes, tako balls were unlike the ones we have at pasar malam ot food courts, this one is filled with meat, like a huge delicious meat ball.
Raw cabbage, garlic rice, pot rice (kamameshi), tofu with unagi, cold cha soba. cabbage is served before the food, you eat it raw with the miso sauce provided, squeeze some lemon into the sauce so that it's doesn't taste that salty. 5 of us finished 3 bowls of cabbage! the pot of rice was quite expensive, $22, a little like chinese claypot rice, i dun really fancy this dish. tofu was good esp with the eel.
Containers like this are provided for you to place the "satay sticks" after eating the food. the more sticks you see in there, the more satisfying it feels, but i means a longer and bigger bill.
When we were there, this staff by the name of yingjie was serving us, and i just have to commend on her service, full marks!! explaining the individual items, explaining all the dessert so that we know which one to choose, telling us about the boss, and a little on the history of the restaurant, giving us a feww cabbage cos we really liked it. btw this place has been around for 14 years. so if you happen to be there, you might wanna ask for her, actually the other staffs should be equally good i guess.
We were looking at this funny cutlery places on out table, there was one for each person, and even after thinking for a while, we couldn't figure out with it's for, so we just had to ask. it's for you to remove the items from the skewers without using your bare hands, wah it was quite cool, you can remove the meat and place them on your plate before eating them with a pair of chopsticks.
Finally, it was time for dessert, and we chose the grilled mochi with ice cream. fantastic choice, the presentation was astonishing!! look at it!! it's like an artpiece, the moshi was really soft and chwey with the skin a little charred from the grilling, but inside it the ice cream remains cold and together with the sweet dressing, it was fabulous.. must try..
address: 5 Koek Road #04-05 Cuppage Plaza
contact: 67342492
ambience: 7
taste: 9
service: 9
value for money: 8
overall rating: Wonderful food with equally wonderful service.
This place is small and cozy, tucked in a place where there's totally no crowd, you can have a nice meal peacefully, the restaurant is clean and the ambience is really nice. brightly lit, warm and friendly staffs. and of course, the food was good.
Yakitori, chicken was tender and a little crispy on some parts. must have it immediately when it's served, very nice when it's still hot from the grill.
Agedashi tofu, this one is normal, nothing special, just like anywhere else.
Deep fried oyster, i didn't try this cos i dun like oyster, but from the expressions on their faces, i think no need to try.
Curry rice. curry is nice and thick. i find it slightly better than average, didn't made me feel that it was really fantastic though.
Saba fish. so so...
California maki, never miss this if you are there, there were 6 of us and we had 4 orders of this. something special, they addes a bit of soft shell crab in this, so you get something crispy inside the roll...i do not have photos of the california handroll, or ordered that by mistake and it's as nice as the maki.
