Izakaya Nijumaru

Alvin organised a little Itadakimasu session last Saturday!

So the nine of us (Alvin, Christopher Pang, Dave, Jacob, Chin Ser, Boh, Nicholas Chui, Mark and I) made our way down to Izakaya Nijumaru at Cuppage Plaza.

For the uninitiated, Cuppage Plaza is between Centrepoint and OG. A dinky little shopping center that looks a bit run-down from the exterior and spooky from the inside as the shopping centre seemed rather deserted. There were a few ktv outlets, food reflexology outlets but the highlight of this shopping centre was the food. Japanese restaurants littered the shopping center. On Level Two where Izakaya Nijumaru was, there were 2 other japanese resturants that looked fabulous! Complete with dim lighting, tatami mats and low tables (in one restuarant), it looked like an ideal place for a romantic date. Of course, assuming that these places were more pricey, we went straight to our location: Izakya Nijumaru.

Alvin had previously called up to make a reservation for the 9 of us so we were quite happy that all 9 of us could sit together without being seperated. We were seated in the main restuarant although I believe that there was a seperate outlet for more resturant space in another outlet some distance away. The place looked quite nice. Japanese paintings, calenders and a fairly impressive sake and beer collection lined the wall and the refrigerators. (But then, I'm a non drinker. Won't really know how varied their selection is) The bad thing about the restuarant was that there were at least 3 air-conditioners which made the place cold cold cold! But I gather that the reason behind it was because they had a open kitchen for grilled food items so the air-conditioners helped improve the ventilation. Still, too much cold air means the food gets cold easily! :(

Now, let's talk about the food. It was a Saturday night so it was good that the resturant still offered bento dinners at affordable prices. Prices for the bento sets range from $14 to $20.

Majority of our party of 9 ordered the Izakaya bento ($18) in order to sample the variety of food available. In this bento set, there was a piece of grilled saba, tempura, fatty 3-layered pork (buta bara), sashimi, rice and miso soup. Pretty good selection for a bento and rather value for money as most Japanese resturants do not offer bento sets at such reasonable prices for dinner, particularly on a Saturday night.

Mark got the sashimi set ($14) which consisted of salmon, maguro and kanpachi/hamachi ( I can't tell the difference), miso soup and rice. There was also a little bowl of stewed daikon and pork. He enjoyed his set well enough although I would have preferred more salmon sashimi as I was a salmon fan.

For me, I ordered the unajyu set ($20) which had unagi lying atop a bed of rice, the same little bowl of daikon and pork, some appetizers of daikon and miso soup with rice. For this price, I was offered a choice of either sashimi or tempura so being the sashimi fan that I was, I picked the sashimi. The food in general was value for money although the unagi was a bit disappointing. I've been too spoilt by succulent thick unagi from Japan at Kaddoman (Grand Plaza Park Royal $25) that I end up comparing every other unagi bento I eat to Kaddoman. What I didn't like about the unagi was the fact that biting into into the unagi, I could feel the little bones of the unagi under my teeth. The unagi skin also could not be seperated easily with my pair of chopsticks. In the end, I gave up and just bit into the unagi directly.

In addition, we ordered a seperate platter of sashimi (Sashimi moriawase $38) being the greedy people that we were. It came with 5 different types of sashimi- Salmon, maguro, ika, kanpachi and hamachi. One of the sashimi was even decorated into a little flower! Top marks for presentation here!

All in all, Izakaya Nijumaru is a restaurant that offers food that is value for money. With the exception of the unajyu, the rest of the diners enjoyed themselves immensely. Some even ordered for extra bowls of rice to complement their Nijumaru bento! If you would like to get some Japanese food at an affordable price, particularly for dinner on a Saturday night, drop by Izakaya and I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

Warning!
Their menu only has Japanese characters. The alternative is the romanji characters that tell diners what the food is in English letters but still Japanese romanji. If you can't understand Japanese menus, stick to the word bento.

Additional stuff:
The service staff is quite friendly. The matronly waitress spoke to us in Chinese and was patient even though we took some time to decide what to order and she even thanked us when we passed the bowls of rice and miso soup to those sitting inside for our party of 9. When one of our group ordered sake but didn't know how many people were going to share, she gave us 5 cups to share among ourselves even though only two or three people ended up drinking the sake. ***** for the service!