Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger

If there's one thing anyone can say about the cost of good Japanese food, it is costly. Ten-Jyaku falls into that category of being a rather pricey Japanese restaurant. Though not the most expensive that I've come across, a good meal here comes with a bill not to be shrugged off. Well, maybe if you make 5 figures a month, that's something else. This place is located just next to überburger along Millenia Walk. The decor of the restaurant looks gimmicky with cane framed enclosure columns that surround dining tables looking to me like extremely inefficient use of space in a prime rental location. It does serve its purpose of turning the heads of pedestrians that happen past and surely enough, we got interested enough to "check it out". The interior does make an interesting business lunch/dinner location if you need to make some impression and your pockets are fairly generous. On top of that, you get waitresses clad in kimono, socks and those wooden japanese slippers.

Honestly, I've not heard of this place until recently when I passed by the location on the way to the next door. I've no idea if it's any good, but to hazard a guess, they ought to be noticeably better than many if they want to stay in business in a district such as its. This dinner was officially business, but I am guessing that it will also be the last it will happen in such a place. LOL.

We decided that since this is work related, we'd take it slow, try to move off sets and main courses and see how this places turns out. Dinner started with appetisers(pufferfish and vinegared seafood) and most of the rest consisted of sushi, a bowl of plain noodles, prawn teppanyaki dish and egg.

This is the marinated pufferfish. I was actually expecting fugu sashimi, but I guess not that many places here serve that evidently. This one tasted just like the one at Beppu, which means it tasted like a mix between ba kua and dried cuttlefish. Well, I'll know never to order these things again. It doesn't taste bad really, it's just something that I didn't think as justified for its price.

Assorted Seafood

Octopus

The above are described as Vinegared dishes in the menu. I am assuming that they're in the way of appetisers since they are vinegared with lemon slices to whet the appetite. Check out the dainty portions. Yeah, I said dainty. The Assorted Seafood as you can see in the top photo doesn't contain much assortment. What we basically got were octopus which is available in the second dish, scallop and a prawn. However, I must commend that the taste was good. The octopus wasn't rubbery at all and the taste permeated the tongue from the first bite. Despite being vinegared and with lemon, you still get to taste the flavour of the meat which felt really fresh. The scallop comes lightly seared on the exterior but is actually raw in the interior. Didn't get to try the prawns though, but it looks good too. You can also see that some effort has been made on the part of presentation of the dishes.

Tuna rolls in seaweed

Tuna and Salmon sushi

Californian Maki Rolls vs. a solo Mr Uni Sushi

From the name of this restaurant, one may have surmised that there could be something special about their sushi here. Which is a correct assumption actually from what I experienced. What they serve here, does contain a distinctive mark of quality which does not appear in most of the less costly Japanese eateries. I also assume that it is also the reason why they charge so much for it here apart from having pretty earthen/stone tableware. Most of the freshly made sushi here cost from $8 and upwards. The uni sushi standing alone up there is a mouthful of $18. Ouch! But hell it was good. The uni was smooth, creamy and light. It's something that I didn't get enough of, but at $18, I really need to exercise moderation. And also to my surprise, they Californian Maki rolls tasted a lot better than what I've had elsewhere. This was one where I could really feel the ebi roe burst with flavour in my mouth when I chewed on the sushi. I'm telling you that what they serve here are fresh(which is really important for raw stuff) and good tasting. There is no doubt about that.

Prawn Tempura

The prawn tempura wasn't terribly exciting, but it was good stuff and most people love prawns. That's good enough a reason to order it. It was also the most expensive item which we had ordered @ $28 for 5 pieces.

Dashimaki tamago

The Dashimaki tamago is probably the most expensive fried egg I've eaten. Ever. I have no idea how many eggs were made to make this stuff, it's just fried egg and I'm not sure it's ten dollars worth of egg in there.

Wheat noodles. Uninteresting stuff.

Altogether, I would say that Ten-Jyaku provides for a pleasant dining with a simple menu that doesn't confuse you with too many options. The service of the place was polite, but far from prompt considering that this place wasn't very packed and there are a few servers around which seems to be always busy and not taking note of needed attention. If you're looking for a fairly quite place to dine with a nice sashimi bar and fresh tasting sushi, this place deserves some consideration if you're cool with how much things cost. The above food with a small bottle of sake ran up $183.00. Ack!

Regurgitated by LiquidShaDow at 1:53 PM    

Digested Pages : from Davey Jones' locker, japanese