Sunday, March 19, 2006

Unknown Jap place at Quayside

C says:

We had dinner with A&C (yes, same initials as us) on Friday night. We were supposed to go to Ichibantei at Quayside, but we got sidetracked by a new restaurant (apparently run by the same Ichibantei management) next to it that had just opened. Neither of us could decide which to go to, so we flipped a coin and the new one it was. Unfortunately the name escapes me, even after spending the last half hour googling and yahooing. If it’s any help, the restaurant occupies what used to be Tamade (*sniff* the place brings back fond memories for A and me…).

I thought the food was ok, typical Japanese fare but nothing to scream about. It didn’t help that they were out of 2 things that we wanted to order – tuna sashimi and some unagi dish. A and I shared a zaru soba which was ok, but we’ve had better zaru soba in an unassuming Japanese joint in the basement of Raffles City. The squid tentacles fried with butter were quite nice, and karaage (deep fried chicken) was served with a rather interesting sour-salty sauce.

After dinner, we went over to Ichibantei for their soft ice-cream, which was yummy. I had a look at the Ichibantei menu while waiting for the ice-cream and now I’ve got a ramen craving. Wonder when we can go back to try the ramen and have more ice-cream…

A says:

We didn’t have the $36 shabu-shabu buffet, which would probably be the only thing worth it on the menu. Food was remarkably average. Nothing bad, but nothing special at all. Could probably get the same things much cheaper elsewhere.

The ice cream place looked fun though. Looking forward to going back there. Highly doubt we’ll go to the unknown jap place again (even if it did take over Tamade’s spot at Quayside).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe the restaurant's name is 'Ai'.

Anonymous said...

Ok, apparently the place is called “Ai Japanese Casual Restaurant” and it’s run by the Ichiban-Tei owners.