Hamoru Japanese Restaurant, Food Republic @ Suntec

Food Republic seemed to be making noticeable effort in bringing up the standards of local food courts and setting a benchmark for the other chain outlets. This applieed to both the quality and the cost of having a meal. 

I've been lunching at Hamoru for the past 2 consecutive days. This shop is sending a message to other claimants to serving Japanese food in food courts that they seriously need to do a whole lot better. Prices here get can get steep for work lunch though. While it's a bar above regular food courts, one should not expect top tier quality. Was surprised that they actually serve foie gras, otoro and uni. Hmmmm.....

Lunch day 1

Shiok maki

This looked local, name aside. Didn't look elegant for a maki. But it turns out to be pretty tasty. And pricey at $15 a pop. There's unagi and avocado in rice topped with strips of salmon, blanketed with some cheesy mayo and ebiko. The roll was then torched for the char. Nice.

asari (shortneck clam) soup

I was recommended this by the waitress and it turns out to be clams in a miso soup. Wasn't bad with the cold weather. There's quite a bit of clams hidden at the bottom. The only gripe wa that the miso flavour was as rich as I expected. There's an option to have ramen/soba in them for a top up of additional $2.

chicken liver

I was a little apprehensive when I saw their chicken liver so pink and dripping blood. Was the first time ordering these from a Japanese grill and to my surprise, this is more like foie gras. Liver was soft and creamy compared to the Chinese styled cooked chicken livers. Nope, they didn't exactly melt in your mouth. $2 a stick. Actually not bad despite it's slightly gruesome appearances.

foie gras

There's also foie gras at $8 a stick. This was more expensive than Kazu. There's no question that Kazu does this better. An Israeli colleague of mine also happens to be having them for the first time in his life. I think he's found himself a new sin. The crisp on the surface of the foie gras here was lacking and the insides didn't disintegrate as smoothly as I hoped, but what the hell.

Lunch Day 2

shiro maguro

The menu describes this as white tuna. Meat appeared to be marinated and lightly flavoured with shoyu. The texture of the meat is quite firm and on the whole, not bad tasting. Does anyone have any idea what's the difference of this from the regular tuna?

grilled saba shio

This soba shio wasn't a large piece. In spite of the grill, it retained quite a lot of juice. Salad on the side was topped with a citrus and sesame dressing which is quite appetizing. On the whole, quite decent if not remarkable.

cha soba

This was disappointing. Not that I expected top quality soba to be had here but the noodles were seriously, limp. Neither the soba nor the dripping sauce were sufficiently chilled. Do not order this if you enjoy soba.