Friday, March 16, 2007

Yumeya Japanese Restaurant

Gyu Tataki

This rather small shop (33 Mohamed Sultan Road #01-01, 6887-0282) was located a couple doors down from Hakata, serving typical izakaya fare, albeit with a rather heavy emphasis on sushi. We ordered our usual (non-sushi) favorites, many of which turned out fine. They did a few things slightly differently from what I was accustomed to though, most notably the gyu tataki, which came slathered in a dark and rather sweet teriyaki-like sauce, and was loaded with black pepper. To my surprise, I rather liked it, especially when paired with those paper thin slices of onion on the side. The impressively tender meat sure helped too.

Yakitori MoriawaseOddly though, the black pepper streak continued into the yakitori moriawase, which they had listed in their monthly recommendations. It still worked (as did the bacon-topped daikon sarada), but just interesting to see them take this tack. While I may not necessarily come scrambling back, I wouldn't be kicking and screaming if anyone dragged me here.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hello,

perhaps you'd like to try Yoyogi japanese restaurant at the end of mohd sultan road too. they've got good quality food with fairly generous portions.

hujan_batu said...

Tad bit off topic, but can I suggest you try this Italian place down Bukit Timah called Osteria Italia? It's near Old Holland Road.

The food is really quite good, particularly the lamb rack. The price is decent too. The food's not as good as in Italy, but certainly better than most restaurants in New York's Little Italy.

Unfortunately the owners have no idea how to market their food (look at the name). I suggest you try it before it goes under.

Anonymous said...

ah, i didn't find the sushi at this joint particulary memorable. they're pretty hit and miss for their grilled items too(the eel doesnt work for me). But they do this grilled scallop dish which comes with butter and mentaiko mayo(i think) on it, on top of a small fire and thats pretty damn good. The grilled oyster is done the same way too. I found the yaki fry and croquette there to be pretty decent as well.

Anonymous said...

Yeah the sashimi at Yumeya is nothing to write home about, though i liked the pieces of white fish (think this is mackeral/saba?!).

But Yumeya's cooked food is great, the prawn tempura came drenched (!) in the sauce which you normally dip into, but it packed a greasy punch and it was really cheap ($10 set lunch). Grilled fish was not bad too.

Of the Yoyogi-Hakata-Yumeya stretch my vote still goes to Hakata for being a good all-rounder.

Yoyogi has appalling service; they seem to have a practice of chasing you out of the restaurant by presenting you with the bill ASAP. The food is unmemorable too, so that's out of the running for me.

J.D.