Hi there,
I was at Yayoiken Japanese Restaurant at Liang Court during Christmas long weekend, while doing my grocery shopping there.
This Japanese family restaurant although has opened not long ago, it has already gained quite a lot of fans because of the good food they serve and the good price it cost. So when I reached there, they are already getting quite a lot of diners. It is located just right at the front entrance of basement, opposite the Hokkaido satellite shop so you can say it is quite a good location.
Decor is what you will expect from a family restaurant, no frills, with cosy sitting arrangements, this restaurant can sit over 100 pax base on my diners count, and they have large booth seats at the back where it looks like tatami seatings, with slippers available too.
At the entrance, we were guided to stand in line, so while you are standing famish and having to stare at the above window settings on some glorious food, you will probably be as excited as I was.
However one thing that bugged me was that the Japanese staff that works at the cashier (I suspect is the restaurant manager) told us to queue inside the tiny spaces with our stroller, which was really difficult to maneuver. I tried to accomodate but eventually gave up and told him we can’t fit in, they might want to rethink their house rules to this thou.
The queue was moving quite quickly actually, which is not bad judging how much diners there were. Once seated comfortably, the waiter and waitress promptly came over to take our order.
At the dining table, there are the usual soya sauce and worcestershire sauce condiments, they are all in their own restaurant packaging which is kind of cool, they also have a whole tub of japanese pickles to go with your meal – free flow, nothing to complain about it at all, salty and crunchy with a hint of sesame taste.
Their menu include mostly sets but also a few pages of ala carte dishes, mostly dishes from the sets, and doing away the rice, miso soup and side dishes. They also have kids meal like kids curry rice & hamburger set too.
Desserts and drinks section are not those fancy kinds which you can find at places like Waraku or Watami, but good enough, as the food is the main attraction in this restaurant.
We ordered one Hokke set, because I have tried at Ootoya, although it is nice, it is rather pricey, so seeing they serve this dish at $12.90, I was so tempted to order it which I gave in eventually. 🙂
Grilled Atka mackerel fish with fluffy meat, scoop in a spoon of grated radish with soya sauce and drizzle of lemon juice, heavenly.
The portion of the Hokke fish is actually quite large, you might want to check out any fish bones before you feed your child thou, as it has a lot of soft bones in it. The grilled bits and also the fish oil gave it a very smoky flavor, goes so well with japanese rice.
Miso soup is just normal affair, good that it is not overly salty, comes with some dry bean curd to give it some bite.
One of the highlight of the meal was the japanese rice they serve, they take pride in their rice, and also they have free flow of rice if you order their sets. Their rice is “super” fluffy and chewy at the same time, every grain is like a little pearly white morsels. Love it.
They also have this rice corner so that you can refill yourself if you want some more. I was sitting right next to it, and I see many diners went for second helpings. That is how good the rice is.
My husband chosed the tekka don with on udon which is tuna rice bowl with warm udon. I was not expecting much as I don’t fancy tekka don (tuna rice bowl) that much. But seeing the udon, I scooped out some for my son.
Seeing how enjoyable he was when he was eating the udon. I decided to give it a try, OH BOY, IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST UDON I HAVE TRIED!! I was so amazed by how QQ the udon is, not just al dente but it has a chewy texture that is so addictive. The soup is light and flavorful but the udon came in first hands down.
Udon comes with 2 slices of japanese fish cakes and a big servings of seaweed and spring onions. Sprinkle some chilli powder, fabulous!
My husband who can be quite noisy when it comes to his favourite tuna said it was good, so I leave it up to him to be the judge, and I trust it is good, chunky tuna on a bed of warm japanese rice with seaweed and spring onions. 🙂
I was a bit torn between ordering either the hokke set or the miso katsu set. So having the hokke set, I decided to order the ala carte miso katsu. The miso katsu comes with some fried potato cubes, broiled spinach, deep fried pork cutlet and also an soft boiled egg. The spinach was over cook thou, and the eggs was way under cook, so it is too watery to my likings.
The deep fried pork cutlet was good, and the miso sauce was flavorful, as it is quite salty, it goes very well with the rice. Compared this to the hokke fish, I think I might not want to order this again, because there are better ones at other japanese restaurant, and so far at Tonkichi, I think they still serve the best miso katsu. It cost $10.90 here so it is a good deal if you are not that fussy.
They also have bentos where you can buy back home if you don’t feel like cooking, might try it out next time when I do my grocery shopping there.
Overall, service was prompt, but that only lies in the local staff, which is rather strange to me, the local staff was very courteous and cheerful, however the japanese staff is quite stuck up actually, especially when I pay for the bill, the manager didn’t even said thank you, which is a big boo to them.
I was quite surprise given this dining place is at liang court, I expect better service as so many japanese diners patronise them. Come on it is a japanese restaurant, right? Japanese staff usually uphold that image, thing to ponder…, hopefully next visit will be better.
Oh well, there is always a first for everything, but really kudos to the local staff thou, they are really commendable, very efficient service and I caught one of the waiter telling the other waitress that he will his best to work fast and help her out. That was so nice of him.
Oh one more thing, although they have kids meal, they do not have kids cutlery, so my son was given big adult fork and glass plate, which was kind of scary when I let him use. You might want to bring along your own if you go there.
I will still go back there for sure to try out other dishes, hope the hiccups was due to the newly opening stress, and they can iron them all out. 🙂
Restaurant Reviews : Yayoiken Japanese Restaurant
Locations : Meidi-ya Supermarket, 177 River Valley Road, #B1-50 Liang Court Shopping Centre, Singapore 179030
Operating Hours : 10:00 ‒ 22:00
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Cheers,
Dawn