Hamoru is located within the fairly new Food Republic at Suntec City. Amidst the usual offerings at a Food Republic, like the prawn noodles and chicken rice, Hamoru is actually a Japanese restaurant within the food court, with its own separate seating area. A was a little hesitant at first (maybe he didn’t trust “food court” Japanese), but after seeing a particularly interesting offering on the menu, we decided to give it a try.
That item was the Shiok!!! Maki. A creation of the restaurant, this features grilled eel and avocado with sushi rice, wrapped with slices of salmon then seared with a blowtorch, and finally topped with cod roe and a wicked mayo-based sauce. Quite a mouthful just to describe, but this was amazing. I would come back here just for this dish. They don’t skimp on the ingredients, and the seared salmon is incredibly flavourful, and goes very well with the creamy mayo sauce. And at $15 for 8 pieces of sushi, it’s not expensive considering all the ingredients.
Speaking of their aburi skills, we also tried their aburi salmon, for $3.50 a pair. Portions are slightly smaller than the Sushi Tei ones, but it made up for its size by the burst of aburi flavour. Very good; better than the one at En Dining that costs twice as much.
We ordered a couple of other dishes to go with their garlic rice – a stir fried ginger-miso pork, and a grilled giant squid. The garlic rice was good, albeit a bit heavy on the garlic. The pork was a tad too gingery, even for me. We ordered the squid grilled just with salt (you can choose between salt grilled, and teriyaki sauce), which was nice and smoky when it first arrived. Unfortunately it was served with a salad with sesame dressing, so after a while the dressing soaked into the squid and made it a bit soggy.
Halfway through the meal, I noticed the additional menu on another table, and reached over to take a look. It turned out to be a yakitori menu! Argh! If I had known they served yakitori, I wouldn’t have ordered the pork or the squid. Undeterred, we ordered a couple of skewers for future reference – a chicken liver, and asparagus wrapped with bacon. The asparagus was pretty good, quite salty and the asparagus was nice and tender. The chicken was out of this world. Lightly brushed with teriyaki sauce, a nice charred smokiness and best of all, the liver was perfectly cooked so it was still a bit runny inside.
This was quite a find, and I’ve already spotted a few other things on the yakitori menu that I’d like to try. They’re not as cheap as I thought, because prices quoted are per stick, not per pair, but still fairly reasonable compared to some other joints.
A says:
The Shiok!!! Maki is exactly that. It wasn’t crowded since it was a Monday night and the service was excellent. Definitely tops amongst the many things to eat at Suntec.
Hamoru Japanese Restaurant
Suntec City Convention Hall, Unit 16 (Food Republic)
Tel: 6820-8569
Open: 10am to 10pm (Sundays to Thursdays), 10am to 11pm (Fridays, Saturdays and eve of public holidays)
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