Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant, Singapore

Matsusaka BeefOh geez - this was another major reaming in the past few days. We knew that this place was expensive (270 Orchard Road #01-15, 6737-1160), after having browsed their menu at the door a year or two ago but never entering. Tonight we were in the neighborhood and weren't very hungry, so we figured what better time to finally come here to try it out; the logic being that if we weren't that hungry, we wouldn't order that much, thus keeping prices down.

In retrospect, I laugh at how ridiculous that sounded. Our biggest mistake: sitting down at the sushi bar and telling our chef to start us off with one of his recommendations. What came first? A plate of very thinly sliced sea bream, which was very refreshing, although I felt it necessary to go very light on the accompanying ponzu sauce, lest it overpower the taste. Next we asked him for "something aburi," seeing how the row of sushi chefs frequently seared items behind the bar. Our guy suggested beef, to which we agreed. Notice how he just said "beef." Yes, those thin slices were very tender and dressed up to become very tasty, but it wasn't until the end of the meal that we realized that that "beef" was Matsusaka beef.

Kanpachi SashimiMind you, all of this time, we weren't really conscious of the prices, and just kept ordering a few more various cuts of sashimi and a closer of ochazuke. When the bill finally arrived, my eyes popped out of their sockets upon seeing the total break through the double-century mark (with the first two aforementioned items accounting for about half of that). Oh crap! [striking forehead with an open palm and shaking head] While the initial strategy did hold true in that we really didn't order that much to eat (only about six items between the two of us), we failed to realize the cost of those individual servings.

To their credit, I guess they do have a number of much more affordable meals available here, so that's just what we get for sitting down at the bar and asking for recommendations without a menu. And I suppose that the high cost can be justified by the imported seafood, ultra-meticulous sushi chef skills, and the uber-intensive service (there were so many wait staff around that our plates got changed a countless number of times). Sure, it was good. And yes, it was healthy. But clearly we can't afford to come here again, and will be relegated to eating instant noodles for the rest of the week as a result. [stumbling away with a limp]

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Care to share how much was the meal as I m interested to try and see if I need to eat instant noodles for a week or a month to save for this meal. :)

JF

Anonymous said...

JF,it's double century mark, ie $200! A lot of instant noodles to eat, man.

Anonymous said...

Oh dear. Japanese restaurants' omakase are hardly a good place to be at if you had to watch your budget.

If you do have to eat instant noodles, try any flavour from Nongshim. There's this brand from HK called Noodle King, resembling the egg noodles you like at Mak's in Hong Kong. It's not the usual curly instant noodles that you might find and there are pictures on the cover.

I believe you can find both brands at Carrefour. They also have cup noodles so it comes in handy if you are really hungry.

Happy cooking!

Anonymous said...

While I have yet to try Tatsuya, I must say that Kathy's recommendation on Noodle King is really good. I love it, especially the wanton noodles (blue cup)

Anonymous said...

no worries dude, i spent ~340 buck with my friend the other time we went. just enjoy the food,, but isnt Kazu just as expensive?
btw have you been to Kaisan at raffles hotel? here's my review:


when i asked ” this is not wasabi, this is wasabi paste! can i have the real wasabi” and she said “we dont normally serve real wasabi, bacause most customer cannot tell the difference, if you want you need to request”… i dont fuckin’ believe my ears for this kind of shit, especially from a so called high end place like kaisan,, and i’m never going back, i’m not recommending my friends, AS SIMPLE AS THAT!!

imagine LV starts selling fake leather bags, and they gave an excuse that “oh, most cant tell the difference anyway.”

imagine savile row selling super 100s suitings and passes it off as super 150s, and tell us that ” most cant tell anyway,”

this is BULLSHIT.

the food at kaisan is good, quality is fresh, but if i’m fuckin paying 10-20 bucks for service charge and the high prices for food, then at least i can get real wasabi WITHOUT having to request for it?!

and quite a few staff cant speak proper english (i was told they’re from china)… not that this is a big complaint.. but certainly not expecting this from a high end place

cant imagine that they try to scrimp things like wasabi !!…

dissapointing.. if you want to know better places for jap food, let me know.

ike.

Anonymous said...

Went with my boss to the new place on the 4th floor above Brewerkz at Riverside Point; Tsubaki. Awesome. It's only been open since Monday, we were the only two there (the place is huge, 20,000 sq. ft.)we asked the GM to hook us up with the full spread of drinks and food for between $150-200 per person. The food just kept coming and coming; sashimi, soba, lava stone teppanyaki, yakitori, sushi, pickles, crab cakes in miso, all paired with either a different sake or shochu (had an awesome shiso shochu). The whole kitchen (all Japanese) came out to greet us. I can't speak highly enough of this place, really top notch stuff. When the KTV that is going to be attached to it opens in October it's going to have, hold on....wait for it.... Jacuzzis in the private rooms! How nasty and depraved is that?!

Anonymous said...

Tatsuya! Love the place, love the bill even more!

Anonymous said...

Tatsuya is my favourite Jap in Singapore - my best friend and I will go and splurge on our birthday month and her hubby likes to go there for his b'day. My last meal, recommendation menu for 2, came to $500 - awesome food and my guest (who paid) still raves about the food months later. Yummmmm