Sushi Tei @ Holland Village

This one's a two-storey building among the row of restaurants opposite the hawker center in Holland Village, and they don't take lunch reservations, so people interested in dining here can just do the walk-in.

Ground floor is the area where the sushi conveyor belt runs around the first thing that greets your sight immediately when you walk in - the lobster tank.

We were immediately led to the 2nd floor where the standard dining area is and I was surprised to find a nice corner with tatami style flooring.

When we got down to ordering, the nice colourful menu had many pages of different styles of Japanese Dining, such as Nabemono, Sushi, Makimono, Sashimi, and many more!

It took quite a long time for the food to be served, though. The wait was seemingly excruciatingly long for a hungry man, even though the restaurant only seemed 80% full.


Cha Soba - They put 3 ice cubes under the noodles to make it look like there's a big helping, but still left me feeling hungry after I had finished it. No quail egg here, too. $7


Nabemono.



Tofu Mentai Cheese - This one is a MUST TRY. The Mentaiko (明太子) is the spicy roe of the pollock fish, and can found in both Japanese and Korean fare. This one is tofu coated in mentaiko and topped with a generous helping of cheese. Try it yourself, bet you'll like it! $10.



Sashimi - The saving grace for this restaurant would be the fresh sashimi. Although I reckon we didn't really get a good cut of Maguro this time round (flesh was tearing apart at the lines), the Hamachi and Salmon were neatly cut into THICK slices and they tasted fresh and tantalizing! Good thing about Sushi Tei is that they allow you to make a choice from different combinations of sashimi, e.g 3, 4 or 5 slices at different prices. The different combinations also feature a wide array of selection for sashimi, even the rarer ones like sea urchin (Uni), amaebi and many others. 5 slices - $22

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The Shishamo here was disappointing though, as it was only served in plates of 2 pieces.

I spent about $28 per person.

Tampopo @ Liang Court

Decided to have our lunch at Tampopo at Liang Court today, and we were pleasantly surprised that the restaurant was not full as expected, and we managed to get a table immediately. Staff were courteous, as usual, and the menus were informative and full of pictures.





Jo had a bowl of famous Kyushu Pork Bone Black Pig Soup Ramen. This one's the specialty of this restaurant and is highly recommended by thehumblegourmet.



I ordered the Zaru Soba and was surprised to see that they had given me a big serving of buckwheat noodles.


Salmon skin is a MUST TRY here! The salmon skin is fried to a crisp, served with mayonnaise and sprinkled with spicy powder and sesame seeds.


Sashimi Mix Platter B - This one costs $35 and consists of Maguro (Tuna),Sake (Salmon), Tako (Octopus), Hamachi (Yellow Tail) and most of all, my favourite Mekajiki (Swordfish). The sashimi was extremely fresh, probably cos it was a Tuesday (any jap foodie worth his salt would know why). They were cut into thick slices, and for each fish there were about 3 slices. Wasabi was very good too - powerful, mind-blowing, nasal-clearing stuff!


Hokkaido Shishamo - Jo liked this alot!


Agedashi Tofu - Yummy stuff!


Uni and Amaebi Sushi - Uni(Sea Urchin) tasted soft and heavenly, and the amaebi came with the prawn head too! Sublime...

The overall experience was very gratifying, and definitely a place to come back and visit again in future!

I give it (8 out of 10).

Well Done!

I spent about $42 per person.

Tampopo can be located at the Ground Floor of Liang Court, right next to the main lobby of the Novotel Hotel.