I like Japanese food, it's something that I've always enjoyed since I was a annoying little tart. Started out with only the cooked food but over time I have started to enjoy sashimi more and more. Whenever I go out with my parents I always try to psycho them to eat at a japanese restaurant. Haha. Too bad my mom doesn't really appreciate sashimi like my dad does. So when mom is not around, dad and I will always have our boys night out and go eat japanese food.
My family is quite stuck in the mud, we normally find a place, and continue to patronize it till we find that it's too expensive or the standard has really dropped. So we were patronizing this japanese restaurant at East Coast Park called Sento, later on they changed their name to Waraku, which would be more familiar for most people. Sadly their food standard has dropped and prices have also increased significantly. Luckily we've found another japanese gem, closer to home in fact! Yesterday I went back to Megumi Japanese Restaurant with my parents to savour their japanese cuisine.
Megumi Japanese Restaurant is located at upper east coast road, in between Pasta Fresca and Big Fish. It's a small homely japanese restaurant that serves all our favourites and more. Apart from their comprehensive menu where you can have your standard fare of sushi, sashimi, bentos and what not, they also have their specially imported fish. The types of fish may vary but you have a wide choice, a lot of which I have never tried before!
Last night dad was pretty greedy, think he made mom a little angry by ordering so much, partly because he always complains that he's fat and needs to lose weight. And who else to complain to other than.... Mom! Haha... Anyway it's quite common that my dad will say he doesn't wanna eat so much and end up ordering more than we can handle. Haha.
First up we had saba shioyaki (grilled mackerel). It's a very oily fish, eat bite you take you can taste the fish oil oozing into your mouth. It was quite juicy, with the fish oil and some lemon juice, yet it is a plain and simple dish that doesn't require much seasoning to taste good. Mom found the fish flavour too much for her liking though.
Next up was the Sankai set. This is a platter of assorted sushi and sashimi that is available from Mondays to Fridays (Not available on the eve of public holidays and public holidays itself). This included salmon, tuna and tako (octopus) sashimi, as well as inari (beancurd skin with rice). The last time we ordered this I think we had hamachi (yellow tail) instead of tako, so I guess the sashimi can vary from time to time. The sashimi here is very fresh, don't really know how to describe it to you, you just have to do a taste test for yourself!
Dad ordered zaru soba noodles for himself. I'm not sure whether it's more authentic, or if its following a certain style of japanese cuisine, but some restaurants actually give you a raw quail's egg to crack into the dipping sauce. Megumi is one such restaurant, I've only seen this at one other japanese restaurant in Singapore so far. The noodles here have good texture, more chewy I guess (which I prefer), not like the soft mushy types you get at Sakae or Sakura. Dipping sauce is unique tasting due to the egg. Very refreshing and good for hot days. They normally eat this kinda stuff during summer in Japan.
Mom chose the Ebi and Zuwa Gani Ishi Nabe. Wah damn long and "cheem"(complex) name ya? Basically it's a prawn and crab rice dish in a hot stone bowl. It's sort of similar to the Korean Bibimbap, or closer to home, the claypot rice dish. The prawns are done tempura style, light and juicy. Crab meat is also shredded inside the rice, along with pickled vegetables, seaweed and what not. My mom likes the bits of rice that get stuck to the sides of the bowl, tastes just like the rice in a claypot. Nicely flavoured and not too salty like bibimbap.
And lastly, I opted for the shoyu char siew ramen (soya sauce based soup). Rich shoyu broth and ramen noodles topped with lovely char siew slices, naruto (japanese fish cake), bamboo shoots and vegetables. The char siew here is soft and sort of melts in your mouth, maybe because of the marbling. Noodles are done
"al dente", a term normally used to describe spaghetti noodles. Very yummy and very satisfied after the meal!
Meaning of Al denteClick on the above link to find out what
al dente means.
Anyway, Megumi serves good food at decent prices. Service is also good, the staff are pretty friendly. Not much on their dessert menu though. The tea served also has a unique flavour. You can taste a sesame flavour in the tea, which not commonly served at japanese restaurants. Expect to pay about $15-$20 per person when eating there, although the uncommon types of sashimi can easily set you back $20-$30 per plate.
Megumi Japanese Restaurant77 Upper East Coast Road #01-03
Tel: 6243 0700
Opening Hours: 1130-1430 and 1730-2230
Above is the teriyaki beef and chicken bento. It is served with some seasoned seaweed and coleslaw. The beef is tender but do note that the sauce is quite salty. I think this applies to most of their beef dishes. Their chicken dishes tend to be pretty good though. Rice is soft, a bit sticky and fluffy, which is good compared to some other places over here.
The next bento was the tempura and tofu bento. The tempura was decent, two pieces of prawns and some vegetables. Guess you can't really go wrong with tempura in terms of taste unless you over-fry it, leave it out for too long or get something thats gone bad. The tofu was supposed to be agedashi tofu, but I think they served the wrong kind of tofu. Kind of looks like the kind of tofu they use in yong tau foo which they stuff fish paste in, which is more firm like tau gua (is there a english term for this?). Also served with rice and coleslaw.
My brother said these kinda drinks were around since a long time ago but honestly I've never seen them until recently. Was pretty fascinated after watching those japanese anime and drama so I bought one to try. It's a peach soda by the way. Nice stuff!
