PaiGu

I discovered Fukuichi after dining at my favourite ramen place in Singapore¹. Since my discovery, I have been there three times. It is among the priciest Japanese places I have been to in Singapore; if it weren’t for the fact that I have yet to discover a reasonably-priced quality Japanese restaurant in Singapore, I probably would not have returned to Fukuichi so many times. Alas.

The sashimi here is good, and the fish is supposedly air flown from Shizuoka, but at these prices, I’d rather go to Fish Mart Sakuraya. What I come for are their non-traditional stuff, like the seared maguro maki rolls and the almond crusted prawn tempura.

Their baked prawn is very tasty, but even more memorable is their grilled black cod with miso paste.

On the less memorable side, their Japanese-style yong tau foo was plain boring. Chicken karaage and tori katsu were standard as well.

Their dinner set bentos are very good value, and I’m told the grilled eel is remarkable.

For dessert, ice cream mochi is on the house, although I did try their peach ice cream, which had a Ferroro Rocher filling. The dessert looked more special than it tasted, but worth trying once.

The prices are quite steep, usually at $60+ per person, excluding alcohol. If you stick to the dinner set bento, you can get away with under $50 a person. The ambiance is a little casual given these prices, but service is consistently attentive. A decent place to splurge on once in a while.

Rating:

1. Sanomaru Sapporo Ramen at TripleOne Somerset [↩]

J Dee’s Market Grill is like a cross between a cottage and a sports bar. The wooden benches and counter, the fish tank, and the random street signs hold a certain charm.

They boast the best burgers in town but at $12 a burger, they’d better be good. We settled on chicken fingers, poutine, salad, and a cod sandwich.

The chicken fingers were made from fresh chicken breast, and were tossed in a thin breaded coat with light seasoning. They were piping hot and absolutely delicious. Not oily or soggy in the least.
The poutine was made with what seemed to be beef gravy, on a bed of thick-cut fries. The fries were delicious, but the dish would have been even better if they hadn’t used cheddar cheese strands.

The side salad was your average garden salad, but the homemade sauce, in my case honey dill, was surprisingly good. The Guinness-battered cod was tender but bland, although the tartar sauce was one of the best I’ve had. The burger/sandwich was too large to eat together, so I had to eat each half separately.

For dessert, apple crisp was the featured special. The apple was heavily doused in syrup and cinnamon, with a generous serving of vanilla ice cream on top. Presentation was a bit shabby, but the taste made up for it.

Rocky road mud pie was nothing more than chocolate ice cream cake, with loads of almonds and a very yummy chocolate crust¹.

Service was attentive, and the food arrived quickly, although that may have been because the place was practically empty at noon.

Rating:

1. The crust tasted like an Oreo crust even though the menu said “wafer crust”. [↩]