Came here for dinner a couple of months ago on a Monday evening and can I say that this place has now become one of my new favorite places to dine on Japanese cuisine?
There's a wee bit of ordinariness to the menu when you first look at it, yes, but it doesn't take long before you realize that it is this familiarity- this ordinariness- that makes the charm of this place here on the ground floor of Capital Tower.
I had been told that this was a buffet.
An ala carte buffet.
And it was.
For a price of $58++ per person (adult), you could come here on weekdays after 6pm, on Saturdays between 11 to 3pm, or after 5.30pm onwards.
And if you wanted to bring the kids, you could, too.
Never mind that EN Dining at the edge of Shenton Way on 168 Robinson Road opposite the former CPF Building has more of a corporate, business-like feel than a family-like one.
Never too early for Japanese food (and culture).
There was quite a lot that we ordered this evening.
So much so that I cannot remember exactly what it was that we had and have to rely entirely on the pictures that I snapped that evening.
One of the first few things we ordered was the sashimi.
If I'm not wrong we had the tuna and the salmon, maybe more salmon than tuna, because even though I've heard tuna's the more coveted choice, my palate is more familiar with salmon than with tuna.
Another thing I'm pretty sure we ordered was the Salmon Harasu Yaki, which is grilled salmon belly with salt, and even though our portion looked kinda sleek and small compared to the rectangular-sized one shown on the menu, there was no letting up on the taste, and we know we are going to order more of this the next time we come.
Middling appetites like mine mean one needs a bit of strategic planning when eating here.
Because even though I'd really love to, there is no way I am going to be able to try out everything on the menu and still have enough space for more of the foods I like.
There is also no way I can finish a Kani Fried Rice, a Beef Garlic Fried Rice, a bowl of Kitsune Udon and a plate of Mentaiko Spaghetti all at the same time.
So there were no Noodle dishes nor Rice dishes that day.
A bit of a pity- I would have loved to try out the Mentaiko Spaghetti.
Am sure the codfish roe, as popular as it may seem these days, would've made the pasta taste especially well.
It wasn't that bad a decision to miss out on some of these mains.
We had more room for other foods, like the Renkon Chips, the Ebi Tempura, and the Truffle Fries.
I liked the Truffle Fries and the Ebi Tempura- the fries were fragrant and crisp, the tempura batter of the prawn was hot- but, if you ask me, it were the Renkon Chips that drew me in way, way more.
Maybe because I'd always been attracted by deep fried lotus root chips and there hadn't been any opportunities to try.
The chips here were light, crisp, crunchy and tasty with just that little hint of salt- perfect as a snack, and perfect for the restless, peckish person that I am (these days).
Best part, they weren't oily or greasy either.
So good were they that we decided not to finish them all at one go but nibble on them slowly, steadily even as we worked through the rest of our dinner on the table.
One of the best dishes we'd ordered this evening was the Tori Nanban.
So it might sound commonplace and ordinary- I mean, it's just pieces of chicken- but can I say I was taken aback by the size of each piece when the plate arrived on our table?
That even though I'm familiar with Tori Nanban and Tori Karaage, and that even though Japanese-style Deep Fried Chicken is one of the most oft-seen staples when it comes to casual Japanese dining, for some reason, most of the chicken pieces that I've seen at other places tend to be rather small.
Not so here.
The pieces at EN Dining were huge (no small chicken thigh) and so well fried were they that we fell in love at once with the crispy yet thin delicious chicken skin and we happily munched through them all.
We were starting to feel rather filled by this time, and no surprise, for we'd eaten our way through two platters of sushi, a serving of beef, and a serving of Negi Chashu.
Ordering the sushi had been a deliberate choice.
It didn't matter to us whether they could be found elsewhere at other EN outlets or even at other places.
We have a special liking for Maki, and we were going to have that.
The hard part, of course, was trying to decide what we wanted to have. Should we go for something familiar, like what we like, and what we always have, or should we go for something different, something we haven't tried before?
It was hard trying to decide between the Ebi Fry Roll, the Samurai Unagi Cream Cheese Maki, the Teriyaki Chicken Maki, or even the Salmon Gaga Maki.
I mean, one of us wanted to try how cream cheese with unagi (eel) tasted like, then the other thought teriyaki chicken in sushi didn't sound too bad.
In the end we went for none of what we thought we might have, and went for the Avocado Maki, and the Salmon Mentaiko Maki.
It was a good choice.
The avocado maki had crabstick, egg and cucumber, complete with slices of cold avocado, and a little bit of flying fish roe.
Then the salmon mentaiko maki had, well, mentaiko cheese sauce over gently torched salmon, and also, flying fish roe.
If we had thought that filling ourselves up with sushi was a good idea, deciding to have the beef wasn't too bad either.
I had liked the idea of it being prepared shabu shabu hotpot style but then there were all these vegetables, which, whilst refreshing and delicious, I was sure I couldn't finish.
So we opted to have our meat grilled.
What I remember most about the beef was the marbling.
It's not always that I get to see that many streaks of (white) fat in a single slice of beef.
But it didn't overwhelm.
There was just the right amount of fat, the right amount of meat, and the right amount of skill- as demonstrated by my friend who worked the grill rather well.
We decided to close dinner with a dessert of matcha ice cream and vanilla ice cream (which I didn't take picture) but before that, before deciding to call it a night, we went for the Negi Chashu.
Because it sounded interesting.
I had thought we would go for the Beef Carpaccio (here they serve it with citrus soy sauce) but Braised Cha Shu with Leek and Spring Onion done in the traditional Okinawa style seemed like a wiser, more unusual choice.
So we went along with that.
It reminded me a little of the braised pork belly in Kong Bak Pau- you know, the one that's got a thick layer of fat, is made with soy sauce, which you stuff between plain white steamed buns- but cleaner, lighter, and perhaps, healthier.
I don't usually take braised pork, much less braised pork belly, but I took this one, and quietly I wished I had enough space to hold in more.
Next time.
Next time I'll try to have the Mentaiko Spaghetti, the Chicken Wings, the Soft Shell Crab, the Rainbow Maki, and more of the Salmon Harasu Yaki.