Nara was actually a chance encounter..longchong and i went all the way to novena to try Matsuo Sushi at Goldhill Plaza (which wasnt open during the public holiday dammit) so we grudgingly settled for this oh but what a blessing in disguise! Having tried both I conclude that I would rather pay abit more for better quality fare and not having to queue outside in the hot sun (for Matsuo has a notorious long lunchcrowd queue and there's no indoor waiting area and of cos no reservation policy for lunch)!
Nara is actually quite a small and quiet restaurant and it was quite dark inside. it wasnt crowded at all (thank god cos the seats are quite close to each other) and hence the waitress was rather attentive.. as I was dying for the chiraishi at Matsuo, it was a brainless choice for me to choose to have it here as a substitute instead..
this is one of my first few encounters with the chiraishi don - which started off this craze to check out all the chiraichis in all the famous jap restaurants (nogawa here i come ) so you can imagine how good this was (actually, i thought so until i found an even better for value one which i will blog about soon, if i can bear to share the secret place ) ..
the chiraishi don appeals to me for its colour and presentation in a sturdy lacquer box. i do prefer the fish to be thickly sliced (unlike the chopped up ones in en dining or shin kushiya) as i still stand by my opinion that the chopped up ones are the ends and bits and pieces of spare parts the restaurant needs to get rid of (ok ok Tatsuya's was an exception).
there was salmon, tuna, yellow tail, swordfish, octopus, fish roe and some other species i couldnt identify. what was interesting and different from the other chirashis i tried is that this came with sweet beancurd (which i really really like!!) and pink sugar. it was a sweet lovely addition to the rice and fish.. although i wish there was some tamago in the don!
the set came complete with a seaweed appetiser (as captured in the corner of the above photo)miso soup, yellow and purple pickles, some mushroom appetiser and chawan mushi(the other appetisers as captured in the photo below). oh, i was tempted to choose the sashimi set too but apparently the rice was the normal rice and not the Japanese sticky rice as in the chiraishi so i opted for the latter
longchong had this, and the salmon was really smooth and sweet..oh well to me teriyaki sauce makes all the meats very tasty, and as long as the fish is not too bony i won't have any complaints..she was quite happy with her fish though the meal wasnt very filling...we went off to starbucks after the meal and she had another bagel (which the waiter got wrong and so she had double servings of bagel haha)
oh yes, the ever so generic water melon that came with this meal was accompanied by a super sweet rockmelon !! oh it was REALLY SWEET, much sweeter than the rockmelon soup at iggy's, oh why do the fruits from Japan in Isetan cost so much!! their exotic squarish watermelon and champagne grapes, oh i really do wanna try those peculiar and exotic fruits!
Nara Japanese Restaurant
167 Thomson Road
Goldhill Centre
Tel: 6256 6568
Daily: 11.30am - 2.15 pm, 6pm - 10.15pm
1 comment:
Matsuo has much better quality for raw.
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