I love an Izakaya dining experience because it exudes a charm that is irresistible - homey and earnest. While those in Japan are well hidden from the usual dining belts, ours are usually found in shopping malls or at least a district of Japanese eateries.
SUJU located at Mandarin Gallery seems offlandish at first and just like any other Japanese restaurant behind the cloth curtains. Enter and be greeted by nearly 80% of Japanese diners - it felt like a mini Japan and if anything, was a testament to its authenticity.
We made it a point to order a dish from each of its category of dishes to have an idea of their culinary prowess.
Homemade Tofu ($15)
Quivering bowl of goodness, tofu in its finest form paired with savoury beans and spring onions. With all the supermarket tofu I have eaten, this is absolutely godsent especially for its texture.
Miso Saba ($26)
A tad fishy but the sauce was such lovely marriage with the fish - a touch of savoury and sweet here.
Grilled Momo ($22)
Fried chicken can taste so good not in its junk food form and SUJU nailed it so well, the skin crinkled under pressure tasting just like chicken crisps and the meat was so tender, lemon juice just made it extra delicious.
Rice, is a celebrated staple in the Japanese cuisine and SUJU takes pride in their hand made copper pot cooked rice that is grown in "Iizuna" area in Nagona. Considered one of the special "A" class areas in producing rice, the grains are more flavourful when cooked in a copper pot. We had them in both broth and dry to get a better idea which tasted better.
Ume Chazuke ($10)
Plum made this an acquired rice dish though the broth was earthy and very comforting.
Rice and Miso Soup ($9)
Mentaiko ($8)
Mentaiko anything works for me, and having rolls of the yummy roe on a bed of pillow soft rice - double the love!
Roast Beef ($28)
None too spectacular unfortunately.
Tamago Yaki ($12)
Sweet and fluffy tasting straight off an obaasan's kitchen - humour aside, very homemade and inspires me to master the egg consistency. While the westerners fawn over the perfect poached egg, I say look within our Asian roots and find it in tamago yaki.
Yamakake ($23)
I have a thing for grated yam - a love hate relationship infact. This was like chirashi don without rice with a starchier finish.
Catarana
Iced pudding in roasted green tea flavour
The chef very generously threw in a dessert on the house in celebration of my birthday - and like all the other reviewers who say this looks like roast meat, I concur as well.
It was a pleasant visit with hits and misses - especially with a disclaimer that some fish are not available because of CNY, I suppose on a regular basis the fish would be alot fresher.
SUJU
Mandarin Gallery
SUJU located at Mandarin Gallery seems offlandish at first and just like any other Japanese restaurant behind the cloth curtains. Enter and be greeted by nearly 80% of Japanese diners - it felt like a mini Japan and if anything, was a testament to its authenticity.
We made it a point to order a dish from each of its category of dishes to have an idea of their culinary prowess.
Homemade Tofu ($15)
Quivering bowl of goodness, tofu in its finest form paired with savoury beans and spring onions. With all the supermarket tofu I have eaten, this is absolutely godsent especially for its texture.
Miso Saba ($26)
A tad fishy but the sauce was such lovely marriage with the fish - a touch of savoury and sweet here.
Grilled Momo ($22)
Fried chicken can taste so good not in its junk food form and SUJU nailed it so well, the skin crinkled under pressure tasting just like chicken crisps and the meat was so tender, lemon juice just made it extra delicious.
Rice, is a celebrated staple in the Japanese cuisine and SUJU takes pride in their hand made copper pot cooked rice that is grown in "Iizuna" area in Nagona. Considered one of the special "A" class areas in producing rice, the grains are more flavourful when cooked in a copper pot. We had them in both broth and dry to get a better idea which tasted better.
Ume Chazuke ($10)
Plum made this an acquired rice dish though the broth was earthy and very comforting.
Rice and Miso Soup ($9)
Mentaiko ($8)
Mentaiko anything works for me, and having rolls of the yummy roe on a bed of pillow soft rice - double the love!
Roast Beef ($28)
None too spectacular unfortunately.
Tamago Yaki ($12)
Sweet and fluffy tasting straight off an obaasan's kitchen - humour aside, very homemade and inspires me to master the egg consistency. While the westerners fawn over the perfect poached egg, I say look within our Asian roots and find it in tamago yaki.
Yamakake ($23)
I have a thing for grated yam - a love hate relationship infact. This was like chirashi don without rice with a starchier finish.
Catarana
Iced pudding in roasted green tea flavour
The chef very generously threw in a dessert on the house in celebration of my birthday - and like all the other reviewers who say this looks like roast meat, I concur as well.
It was a pleasant visit with hits and misses - especially with a disclaimer that some fish are not available because of CNY, I suppose on a regular basis the fish would be alot fresher.
SUJU
Mandarin Gallery
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