Koh Grill & Sushi Bar

In a nutshell
Fudz: Koh Grill & Sushi Bar
Cuisine: Japanese
Location: 435 Orchard Road Wisma Atria Shopping Centre #04-23 Singapore 238877
Note: Opens at 1130hrs and does not accept reservations. You queue if you want to eat.

The story

We crave freedom when we are in the middle of a terrible project. Okay, it was not terrible. It was hellish. We would look at each other, nod empathetically, pat on backs and say things like, "we will eat something good after this."

My inmates and I decided to go for Japanese food after breaking out of prison. Japanese food is usually a safe bet... unless you're one of those queueing up for Sakae Sushi. Nobody can help you.

Ashley raves about the Shiok Maki. Online reviews rave about the Shiok Maki. I think the people eating hokkien mee at Wisma Atria's Food Republic (where Koh Grill & Sushi Bar is) rave about the Shiok Maki too.

It took about 15 minutes just to get the server's attention to take our orders. What are 15 minutes when we had been eating prison food for months?

It took more than 45 minutes for three of the bento sets to arrive. These sets consisted of udon soup and sushi. I wasn't sure why it took so long. We checked on their statuses after the half-an-hour mark and the waitress could not give a reasonable reply. The rest of the team were already more or less done with their meals. All the sushi orders were nowhere near done.

And when they came, they looked like this.

Check the bottom right maki. They look like they had just met with an accident.

I'm not particular about how my food is presented as long as it still looks appetising. BUT this is a Japanese restaurant specialised in sushi. The picture above is a blasphemy to Japanese cuisine that prides itself on presentation as well as taste. Why did it take so long for them to make sushi that look like these? I think I can do a better job on the plating if I were in a sushi buffet, picking sushi for myself to eat.

They need a lot more skilful sushi chefs then. If they can't make the presentation decent, the least they can do is to serve up a lot quicker than 45 minutes.

Taste-wise, it's all good.

Shiok maki come in either ebi or eel

The one with ebi

I suspect that it tasted so good because it was heavily doused with mayo mentai cream. The downside was that the salmon and ebi drowned in the sea of mayonnaise. They could swim when they were alive. Now that they are cooked, they could not beat the cream flood.

Tofu with century egg and roe

Cha soba with quail egg

It was a good meal despite the long wait and bad service.

I wish restaurants will teach their servers NOT to stack patrons' plates on the table in front of them. I wish they do not have to 'transfer' leftovers from one plate to another while stacking them. Hawker cleaners can do that because they need to clear the tables fast for the next customer.

Then again, I found out that Koh Grill & Sushi Bar does not charge customers' for service, only GST.

Mitsuba, Not Mitsubishi

In a nutshell
Fudz: Mitsuba by Yurine Japanese Restaurant
Cuisine: Nihon
Code: Touristy, casual
Location: 6 Eu Tong Sen Street #03-88 Singapore 059817
Dial: +65 6227 0388 (So you can remember its unit number)
Interweb: https://www.facebook.com/Mitsuba0388 (So you can remember the number to call)
Email: NA
Damage: $40-$80, depends largely on your exquisite tastebuds and love for sake
Taste: Fresh and hitting almost close to 'home', which is the land of the rising sun
Ambience: Simple tables and chairs, leaving little to imagination.
Service: Forgot some of our orders in a table of eight and looked pretty much unapologetic. Servers converse more comfortably in Mandarin, which is totally fine but I don't know about people who don't speak the language. We don't go for non-Japanese servers who warble in Japanese tongues anyway.

The story
It started with a Whatsapp group chat created by IH.

Lunch or Dinner, the title reads. At Mitsuba.

I went through the list of chat participants. Hmm, hrm, hmmm, erm hmm, they are people I know... but we have nothing in common except that we work in the same department. No recent common project. No particular upcoming birthday from one of us. Nobody has a promotion at this time of the year. No one strike the lottery last weekend. We would have heard.

Still, I was afraid to ask why. Why us. Why a sudden lunch invitation at a... Mitsuba? It sounds like a company that sells pens. A rival of Mitsubishi, perhaps.

I was in a loop that I did not know what the loop was about. The only action left to do was to say 'yes!' with as much vigour as electronic texting can convey.

Like how stories go, mysteries unravel themselves when you have the courage to live through the passage of time. You don't have to do much. Someone in the high order will get tired of your ignorance and will hand the answers to you on a sushi platter.

If you have heard of Chef Peter Teo, I don't have to tell you why we went to Mitsuba. Back in the Wasabi-Tei days, we would return to the small squarish restaurant regularly for our weekly dosage of yummy chawanmushi and verbal abuse from Chef Peter. He knows the secret ingredients in those cute bowls of steamed eggs that make people come back for more... and understands that humans are masochistic by nature.

It's almost unfair to bring up his grouchy days now. Chef Peter is nothing like what he used to be, temper-wise. On the other hand, his sashimi servings are still the same as what they used to be - fresh and generous slices of raw fish goodness.

Sashimi that makes you shimmy

If you're a fan of sashimi, the above makes you a happy child for about 48 hours before you start craving for more again. For some of us, the effect wears off after 15 min and I'd suggest that you check yourself into a rehab.

The dope aka the chawanmushi

There are good and bad chawanmushi. There are exceptionally divine chawanmushi. Here is one. The piping hot steamed egg is flavourful and it melts like hot ice-cream over your tongue. The texture is so smooth, you roughly know how much hard work is put into a simple dish like this. $5 well-spent.

One half of my sushi and udon teishoku set.

The second half of the sushi and udon teishoku set, which is well... the udon.

I like raw sushi and I like udon. It did not take me too long to decide on the sushi and udon teishoku set, priced $24++. I had the best udon in my life at Melbourne so this did not come across as to die-for.

However, I am extremely happy with the sushi. I'm about to show you how large the fish slices are over the small dollops of perfectly vinegared rice.

Do not ask me to name the fish. I know there's the yellowtail, swordfish, salmon... and you can figure out the order yourself. I know you can.

I was very full after the chawanmushi and udon but I still tucked into these sushi with great relish. We don't have to always listen to our stomachs, especially when you're eating healthy food like fish.

I used to dislike wasabi. Now it gets exciting whenever I swallow a chunk that shoots some green puffs into my nostrils. I wrote this proudly in the list of Signs That You're Growing Up.

Japanese cucumber doused in sesame sauce

Part of a salmon set - salmon sashimi that are oilier than the slickest cowboy in the old west.

Gyozas or pot stickers - with cute 'hair' sticking out.

Salmon don - they almost put a whole salmon on the bowl but thought better of it.

Chirashi bowl

Overlooking the Singapore River

The window seats are a treat... but the rest of the restaurant is pretty dim.

On the whole, Mitsuba is a straightforward Japanese restaurant with no fuss, save for the swanky location. The prices are reasonable for the quality and quantity.

You can catch glimpses of the famous Chef Peter behind the sushi counter too. He looks well and we are glad that he has not given up on us yet.

It could only mean an eclipse, right?

In a nutshell

Fudz: Sun With Moon Japanese Dining & Cafe - Dinner Menu

Cuisine: Japanese

Code: Smart

Location: Sun @ Wheelock, 501 Orchard Road, #03-15, Singapore 238880

Dial: +65 6733 6636

Interweb: http://www.sunwithmoon.com.sg/sun-with-moon-wheelock.html#

Email: info@sfbi.com.sg

Damage: $30-50

Taste: Many more steps closer to Japan than Sakae Sushi

Ambience: Wood, bamboo, spacious, orderly, neat

Service: The service staff replenished our water supply diligently. We didn't wait long for our food to arrive as well.

The story

I don't get to see Audrey often. The few precious times I did, they always involved good food and tete-a-tete sessions. Wholesome and lovely girls attract these things. I'm speaking from personal experience and I've lived close to 30 years. More wholesomeness and loveliness from her than me though.

We met for tea on a Monday afternoon. I need to visit Brunetti about 231875 more times before it warrants a post. The sweet selection will take me a few years to cover, thanks to my lack of a sweet tooth*. To counter toothless people like me, they offer 'cronuts'. Their poster of cronuts shouted suicidal cries like, 'Eat me! Eat me!'. I'll grant their death wish another day. 

We hanged out at Brunetti until Sebas could leave the office. Tea-time usually stretches till dinner-time. This way, you can never go hungry. My free tip for you today. You're welcomed.

Sebas wanted Japanese food. Specifically, he wanted Japanese food from Sun With Moon. I visited SWM twice before. Once at Wheelock and the other time at Central. All I remembered was their tofu cheesecake in a cage and it being pricey. Oh, and the cha soba. I usually order cha soba during my first visit to a Japanese restaurant. It's my litmus test to gauge how good a Japanese restaurant is with the quality of their cha soba. Only because fresh sashimi is likely to burn a hole in my wallet. Cha soba is a more economical litmus paper than sashimi. Like what my lecturer used to say, we work with what we have.

This time round, I had a better look at the dinner menu and I tried not to look at four digits next to each item to make my choices. Here are my choices:

Beef steak with foie gras

Beef steak, medium rare. Done exactly medium rare on a hot plate, topped off with a thin slice of cooked apple and foie gras. A twirl of tomato-sauced spaghetti and five potato balls to fulfill the carbohydrates category. One stalk of broccoli to represent the greens. Every single item on the hot plate was delicious. The potato balls, which were likely frozen processed food before being dunked into sizzling oil, became exquisite fried balls of delight.

I'm not an expert in the field of foie gras but I think it's supposed to melt in your mouth. The same desired chemical reaction like candy floss. This one didn't but it was still enjoyable. 

My biggest drawback of the night: The picture on the menu was deceptive. It looked like a big hot plate piled with food but it turned out to be pretty small. I should have placed my thumb in my photo to give you a scale for comparison but I didn't. Now you have to take my word for it. I tried to chew really slowly to make the meal last but I polished off the entire plate within 15 minutes. My friends know how slowly I savour my food. This was a rare phenomenon.

I eyed at Sebas' soup. It looked really good.

"It's really good," he said. Audrey concurred after taking a few spoonfuls. This couple is the most encouraging people you can ever meet.

I ordered it to make my still-hungry-spoilt-brat of a stomach happy.

Salmon cheek soup

This soup was so rich. I was so happy with the slices of radish, carrots, mushrooms and all kinds. It definitely took many salmon cheeks, bones, tails, whatever to boil for many hours. It is tough to pick meat off a salmon cheek though. If you eat the local Chinese fish head bee hoon soup often enough, you should not have a problem with this. I kept thinking about all the omega fats I'm absorbing from this bowl of soup as I ate. Good fats are hard to come by.

Seared tuna on a bed of spinach

Sweet and nicely done. The dark sauce complemented the spinach and tuna very well. This was another good recommendation from Sebas. To throw you more fool-proof recommendations, Sebas had chirashi don and Audrey had the restaurant's special rice bowl, kamameshi. See the restaurant's website for pictures.

Prices are a bit steep if you don't usually pay more than $20 for a meal. Portions are small but I guess I have a bigger stomach to satisfy than most people's. 

I have since struck off my first two experiences with Sun With Moon. You can buy good cha soba from supermarkets these days.

Third time is a charm, I'm sure. 

* Speaking of teeth, calcium and bones, I lack deep-set clavicles as well.