Standing Sushi

Shiro maguro (white tuna) and sake (salmon) sashimi

Standing Sushi is one of the best places to eat super good sushi in Singapore.  Their shiny new premises at Marina Bay Link Mall are a bit more difficult to get to than their now-closed outlet at OUB Centre, but I quite liked eating somewhere that wasn’t 2 feet away from the crazy hustle and bustle of lunchtime at OUB Centre/Raffles Place MRT.

The menu was very simple – sushi, sashimi, donburi, salads and maki – I don’t recall any cooked food.  One of the recommendations from the friendly waitress was shiro maguro –white tuna – something that I have not ever heard of before.

The chef served this sashimi style, marinated for 5 hours in his secret blend of sauces before slicing and serving on a plate with equally generous slices of salmon.

The texture is smooth with the same softness of fresh salmon sashimi and has a slightly salty taste (presumably from the marinade).  It was absolutely delicious and I wonder how different the texture and taste would be when the fish is served unadulterated and fresh.

Sashimi platter with prawn, squid, octopus, salmon, tuna and white tuna

We also had the sashimi plate and the sashimi salad.  Every piece of seafood, from the usual salmon and tuna, to the more unusual prawns and squid and scallops was wonderfully firm and sweet, needing just a little dip into our soya sauce with wasabi.

If you are looking for somewhere to eat fantasticly fresh seafood, this is the place to go.  It’s not situated in the main corridors so looks out for it – it’s behind the Four Seasons Gourmet Market.

Standing Sushi Bar
Marina Bay Link Mall
8A Marina Boulevard
B2-51 Marina Bay Link Mall
Tel: (65) 6634 7068

Opening Hours – Mon-Sat 11.30am – 9.00pm
Closed on public holidays and Saturdays following public holidays on a Friday

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Redemption at Inagiku

Seared swordfish and salmon roe sushi

In the need of redemption after our recent disastrous visit to Itacho Sushi, we decided to visit our failsafe Japanese favourite, Inagiku at the Fairmont Hotel.

It was one of those Fridays where we just wanted to eat top quality Japanese food and drink sake, so we chose the seasonal set – that way the decision as to what we would eat would be left to the restaurant and we could focus on the eating and drinking part.

(from left to right) Swordfish, tuna belly and salmon sashimi

To start with we were served delicate home made tofu followed by our sashimi – slices of mackerel, salmon, toro or tuna belly and swordfish.  Ah…the joy of really good sashimi – that clean taste, accompanied with that rich/buttery flavour of the sea.  It’s so hard to put into words just how good it is but let’s just say my faith in Japanese food is once again restored.

This was followed by our sushi dish – swordfish again, but this time seared lightly, tuna and salmon roe.  Seated at the counter, we got to watch the chefs make the sushi, from slicing to hand-moulding the rice, to arranging the fish on the rice, which I think helps you appreciate the skills required to do this.

Teppan-grilled Australian wagyu fillet steak

Australian wagyu fillet followed, perfectly medium rare and served with grilled vegetables and a delicious steak dipping sauce.

Final course before ramen and ice-cream was the tempura.

A little bit of everything, done to perfection, with slightly over-attentive wait staff (who were always on hand to top up our empty sake glasses) meant that we left very happy and slightly drunk.  Wonderful.

Inagiku
3rd Floor, 80 Bras Basah Road
Fairmont Hotel
Tel: 6431 6156

Brunch @ the Greenhouse @ the Ritz Carlton

Caprioskas waiting to be mixed

I’m going to attempt writing this post while trying to sober up from a food and cocktail coma from 3 hours of indulgence at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. There for a friend’s birthday, the festive atmosphere was surely enhanced with freeflow champagne and a choice of mojitos, caipirinhas, Bloody Marys and caprioskas (most of which were doubles). Aside from the drinks, the choice of food we had available was impressive.

“Buffet hack” – chawanmushi with caviar

The best thing about buffets is that you can have a little bit of a lot.  The ability to sample as many dishes as you can want appeals to someone like me who has difficulty making her mind up on what to order and often ends up with food envy for my friends and their choices.  The birthday girl added more choice with her “buffet hacks”, my favourite was her topping chawanmushi (Japanese steamed egg) with some caviar from one of the cold starters – perfect.

We all started with cold seafood.  I was focused on oysters, trying the eight varieties of freshly shucked oysters from France and New Zealand and then I spotted a tray of jamon de iberico, of which a small pile made an appearance on every plate I brought back to the table the entire meal.

The awesome roast pork with crackling

My favourite little things at the buffet were a four cheese tart with fig and walnut, the wagyu roast with the best Yorkshire puddings and gravy, the roast pork (mainly for the super good crackling I have to admit) and the very tart lemon meringue dessert.

Four cheese tart with fig and walnut

The four cheese tart came in a pastry shell that was just firm enough to not crumble and was a terrific contrast to the creamy cheese filling, which was the perfect partner to the sweet fresh fig on top.

Yorkshire pudding with wagyu roast

The wagyu roast was so tender – no matter if you sampled a more well done slice from the edge, or an almost blue slice from the middle – and the Yorkshire puddings were the perfect “mop” for the puddles of gravy that were generously ladled over them.

We finished the meal with a generous sample of the 50 cheeses on offer.  I have to admit, after a good camembert and brie, and a wonderfully tangy roquefort, the rest of the cheeses on my plate were there more for the fact that I could actually have that many varieties on one plate.

Lemon meringue

For a five-star establishment, the design and decor of the Greenhouse gives it a slight feel of a buffet in a cheap Caribbean resort – not helped by the live band playing songs like “Guantanamera” – and I think that detracts from the appeal of the whole experience, which is a slight shame, because the food is really very very good.  Perhaps I’m spoiled by the Raffles Hotel Bar & Billiard Room’s more personal serving of their food, along with the more sedate ambiance, but after all those cocktails, I’m sure no-one cared much, and also, for our boisterous birthday table, perhaps it was the best place to celebrate after all.  Happy birthday Chrissy !

The Greenhouse @ the Ritz Carlton Hotel
7 Raffles Ave
Singapore
Tel: 6337 8888

Sunday brunch: 11:30 a.m. – 3 p.m

Australia Day lunch from the Sydney Fish Markets

Cooked large king prawns

Such a famous name, such a fantastic array of fresh seafood, so disappointingly “grotty” – the only word I can think of to describe the place.

I do love walking around the Sydney Fish markets, looking at the amazing selection of fresh seafood, but I’d highly recommend taking away and eating it in the comfort of your own home, or taking to a picnic somewhere more scenic (of which there are plenty of options in Sydney).

Sydney Rock and Pacific oysters

Australia Day in Sydney was last Wednesday and I went with my dad to pick up lunch before I flew back to Singapore.

We kept the selection simple – fresh cooked large king prawns, a dozen Sydney Rock oysters and another of Pacific oysters, tuna and salmon sashimi, with some fresh damper rolls, lots of lemons and salad ingredients to make a fresh salad of avocado, roma tomatoes and cucumber on a bed of mixed leaves, dressed simply with a good squeeze of lemon juice and drizzled with olive oil.

Our deliciously simple salad

Nothing to cook (Pete did make his own seafood sauce of mayonnaise, tomato sauce, lemon juice and salt and pepper), just simply plated up and served with a nice cold bottle of prosecco for us to enjoy the sweet sweet flavours of the sea in front of us. Happy Australia Day !

Inagiku

My fab friend Bianca and I caught up on a Thursday night over sashimi at Inagiku.  Tucked away amongst the hustle and bustle of Raffles City, you seem to almost retreat into a cone of silence as you enter the restaurant.

Luckily there was plenty of space at the sashimi counter as I never did get a call back to confirm my reservation, so we happily sat and watched the expert sushi chef at work while we sipped our sake and caught up.

We were presented with a gorgeous selection of delectably fresh sashimi, from scallops to prawns, to toro to uni.  It seemed to almost melt in your mouth, bursting full of the flavour of the sea.

Bianca and I ended up getting quite loud after a few sakes, but despite the elegant feel of the restaurant, the ambiance is still very relaxed and the staff were ever attentive without being intrusive.

If we were still peckish I think we would have ordered two dishes which I had had previously there – flounder, and wagyu steak sushi, where both top sushi rice and are lightly seared with a blowtorch.  Absolute heaven in your mouth and I think what I will have the next time I visit there !

To make things even better, with the Feed at Raffles card, you get 50% off your food and 25% off the alcohol, which eases the pain on your wallet.  What further proof do you need to visit ?

Inagiku
3rd Floor, 80 Bras Basah Road S(189560), Raffles The Plaza
Tel: 6431 6156