This Japanese izakaya bar is located on Wyndham Street in Central. With the approach of Halloween, the neighbourhood has become busy, but surprisingly, we are the only table on the night, even till when we finished dinner.
We are seated at the dining area with a robatayaki open kitchen at the back. The place has dim lighting, using dark wooden furniture, with different Japanese cultural decors like posters and lanterns to recreate an izakaya atmosphere.
After ordering our drinks of Lychee Soda ($65) and Large Sapporo Beer ($78), the meal started with Snow Crab Handroll ($58). The crab meat is mixed with tobiko and spicy mayo, and with sushi rice, wrapped in a crisp nori sheet. Decent in taste.
Next, we have a number of skewers. Yaki-Tofu ($68 for two) is a dried tofu that has been grilled to golden brown, brushed with special sauce during the process to infuse with taste, then sprinkled with some bonito flakes on serving. The texture is good but a bit salty.
The Sweet Potato ($76 for two) included two pieces of the vegetables, not uniformly grilled to the same degree so each piece ended up showing different colours. The taste is nice though, having good sweetness and also not dried out.
Tebasaki are Chicken Wings ($96 for two), with a crisp skin, juicy and moist flesh. Seasoned with shichimi powder and sesame helps to bridge the lighter taste of the meat with flavours. Quite nicely done.
The final skewer was Sunagimo, which are Chicken Gizzard ($76 for two). With a bouncy and nice bite, the gizzard was seasoned well, and also did not feel dry from the grilling. This was my favourite among the four.
Trying their robatayaki, we had Whole Squid ($158). The marinade is decent, with a bit of grated ginger on the side as condiment, the squid is quite tender and not rubbery. It was only lukewarm in temperature however so affected the enjoyment.
Then comes Ebi Furai Maki Roll ($108). The deep-fried prawn was used to prepare a maki roll, and on the surface the roll was coated with tobiko, giving a fun poppy texture. Taste was ok, but the presentation was a bit lacklustre though.
Finally, we had Slow Braised Pork Ramen ($128). With soy dashi, the ramen was of appropriate bite, with large pieces of braised pork soft bone, bamboo shoot pieces, and soft-boiled egg. The hot soup was comfortable to the stomach.
There was not much service, as we had to order through QR
code, and throughout the night the staff did not come to check in with us, despite
there are no other customer. The bill on the night is $1,063 which was
expensive considering the food we had. Not my place.
