Hi there,
Lately have been having this cravings for sushi, and have been buying supermarket ones back home to curb that cravings, when I was given a proposal to dine at Itacho sushi one day by my husband, I was more than happy to accept this one time offer. Come on, How can a wife say no to her husband right? 🙂 What’s more, I can get to do a review on it, Yohoo! even better!
This will be my second time to try out Itacho Sushi, the first time was in Plaza Singapura when they just opened their restaurant there so this will be my first time at their Ion Orchard outlet. Their pricing is rather steep actually, since the price you see is actually translated to 1 pc. yup. 1 pc and unlike Sakae sushi or Sushi Tei where they will serve couple on 1 plate, you only get one.
You can see from their banners that their sushi is as low as $0.40, however after checking out their menu, I am still wondering which sushi actually cost $0.40, as even tamago which is egg sushi is priced at $0.90. Bean curd Inari sushi may be???
The good thing about this 1 pc system is that you can try out more varieties of sushi since you won’t be stuffed with the same thing twice, but the down side is that the cost does add up if you have wandering eyes for food, the picture just look so tempting, that you will feel like pinching yourself if you didn’t order it 🙂
Itacho Sushi is actually a HKG chain of restaurants opened by this entrepreneur called Ricky san who was being trained in Japan for many years in cooking. With his blessings, Itacho Sushi began to compete with the big boys like Sakae, Sushi Tei & Genki sushi etc..
However, I think they are slightly different from the rest, for a start as I mention to you, their sushi come in 1 pc per plate, they do not have conveyor belt kind of servings. Their sushi is also handmade which gives the rice a nice texture, as it is not from machine. It seems like they are trying to bring in the correct food culture to sushi lovers?
So there we were, queuing to wait for our tables, mind you, I really hate to queue for food, usually I will just skip it unless it is really good. So after around 20 mins wait, we got to sit at the counter and see the sushi chef preparing the sushi for diners.
Every seating comes with an instruction of how to eat sushi, you know the very very wrong way of eating, whereby you dip the sushi rice into the soya sauce first is a big NO NO here, you are not supposed to see any rice grain in the plate of soya sauce & you are taught to turn the sushi upside down, so that the sashimi will dip into the sauce instead.Â
Also every sushi comes with wasabi in it, so if you do not want any, you have to tell them during your order.
As for the ordering part, you get to take your sushi orders on these order sheets, it can be really mind bloggling, as each individual color sheets stand for different categories of food.
One thing I didn’t like about the order system is that the order sheets do not indicate the pricing, so it is kind of a troublesome thing, to have to make sure you are ordering the right thing and compare it back to the menu.
I started with some sushi that consist of shrimp roe & crab roe, I had this first in Japan and love this sushi so much, so the last time when I was at their Plaza Singapura branch, I saw it and promptly ordered it, it was heavenly, melt in your mouth texture. However, when I am at this Ion branch, the roe does not taste as good, and the distinct creamy texture is lost, so I was a bit disappointed by it.
Next we have Tuna! That’s the order of the day, as they were running very good promotions on maguro, tuna, my husband as usual other his fair share of it.
More tuna..
Next Itacho live shrimp ($1.90) & Ika (Squid) ($1.60)Â – not as sweet but still fresh.
My husband also ordered a mini negitoro don, which is minced tuna with spring onions on rice. As what the name state, it is mini. And I have to reiterate, it is really mini! It is literally an ice cream scoop of rice with some minced tuna and spring onions, I will only give you at most 2 mouthful to finish it. So $4 a scoop, you can decide if this is really worth it.
Tuna with spring onions temaki ($4)Â is about the same, the seaweed was crunchy so that was good, other than that, nothing much special abou it.
However, I was quite surprise that their grilled sushi fare much better this time. I had the grilled salmon belly sushi (and also scallop sushi with spicy salmon. Both was equally good, the flamed sushi added a smoky flavor to it and taste even sweeter.
The appertizer Spicy Conch, is one of my favorite, it is a kind of shell fish which was being marinated with a spicy sauce, mixed with cucumber cubes, it gives a very savory crunch to every bite. A must have in every order. Kind of clear the palate in between sushi.
Service was a bit slow as it was very crowded that day. The chef was all the while busy making the sushi, and you can tell they do segregate their chefs, e.g. we suspect one of the chef was trainee chef as he was only allowed to make a certain kind of sushi, that way they can control the quality of the sushi.
They usually have pretty good promotions, like 50% on selected sushi, or Yellowfin Tuna feast where you won’t feel the pinch order it. We also took this opportunity to have our belly full of tuna sushi.
I ordered a tuna salad, which was lightly flamed tuna slices on salad drizzle with a sesame dressing, the tuna was good, the ebiko which is flying fish roe was fresh and crunchy but I did not enjoy the salad greens, because they were very chunky and tasted slightly bitter, a dish that felt like being clumsily put together, I think if they have used mesclun greens, the dish will taste so much better.
Overall I still like Itacho Sushi, but I feel the Ion branch was not as good as the Plaza Singapura branch, may be it was really busy that day, so the food quality was a little off, nevertheless I will still be back as their sushi is still better than some of the big boys out there, you can be the judge to whether they are really better than sakae sushi or sushi tei, as of now, I will still keep my faith in them.
Oh they also have this rule that, for reservations, you will require to spend a min of $50 per person, so please take note when you call in to make your reservation, make sure your belly is empty & your wallet is full!
Restaurant Reviews : Itacho Sushi (Ion Orchard)
Locations : 2 Orchard Turn, #B2-18 Ion Orchard – Tel :65098911
Other Locations : 68 Orchard Road #02-35 Plaza Singapura – Tel : 63378922
Other Locations : 200 Victoria Street #B1-05 Bugis Juction – Tel :63378911
Happy Dining!
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Cheers,
Dawn