Reasonably priced quality Japanese rice bowls @ En Sakaba
We have been to JEM, a shopping mall at the western side of Singapore several times. Each time we past a Japanese restaurant on the ground flooor but never got to try it.
Last weekend, we were at JEM again, and finally decided to check out En Sakaba. It is actually more of a casual bistro offering a variety of Japanese influenced tapas that are best paired with sake & beer. With indoor and outdoor settings, it is really a great evening chill out place for sake beer and tapas.
On this occasion we were there for lunch to try their good value quality rice bowls. Their rice bowls range from around $14-$20 on average. Our 2 boys are big eaters and really hungry that day, so they each went for 2 rice bowls, while DH, DD and I had one each.
We started our meal with 2 appetizers to share. We decided on the Hitoshima oyster fritters. Each serving came with 3 oysters. So we ordered 2. The oysters tasted good but were not big. The oysters I had in Hiroshi were definitely much bigger and juicer.
Our second appetizer was the Beef Truffle Carpaccio. The beef was thinly sliced and lightly seared. The meat were well marbled and tender. The Truffle flavour with the lightly sour sauce went very well. A dish which all in the family said was good.
Our boys both went for the Kaisen Chirashi Don and Yakiniku Onsen Tamago Don. The Kaisen Chirashi Don came with generous slices of fresh seafood.
DD also had the Yakiniku Onsen Tamago Don. The beef was well marbled and lightly. served. The Onsen Tamago was of the right consistency. All three enjoyed this dish.
DH was another hungry person. He went for the Tonkitsu Karamiso Ramen and Cha Siu Fon set. The ramen was a spicy ramen that he liked. The rice bowl came with simple Japanese style pork slices.
I went for the Negitoro Don. It came with an Onsen Tamago too. I have grown to like this minced tuna dish and recently have been ordering it wherever I go. The dish here is well done and the rice was a nice vinegared rice. Incidentally, the Kaisen Chirashi Don which the kids had and with vinegared rice too. The Onsen Tamago here added an additional nice rich flavour to this rice bowl. At $15 per bowl, I find it cheap especially with the generous mince tuna that they gave.
Overall, it was an enjoyable and reasonably priced meal. But I must say that while the rice bowl was reasonably priced, the drinks were expensive. A glass of coke, for e.g. was $5! Most casual restaurants would have charged only about $3. Our whole meal came up to about $150, bearing in mind that our 2 boys had 2 rice bowls each. So for regular eaters, at this price, you can feed 7 people here.