A friend recommended me this place sometime after Lunar New Year, told me that it was a buffet, that it was a Japanese buffet, that the price was reasonable, the food was good and best of all, was in a central location downtown right next to the River.
I had not known that there was such and such a Japanese buffet in Central Clarke Quay.
I had not even known that there was a Japanese restaurant, but there it was- on the 3rd floor- Mitsuba The Japanese Restaurant.
So it seems that the restaurant has two kinds of buffets.
There's the Regular, and there's the Premium.
The Regular has a fair bit on the menu- you're looking at a selection of Negiri, Makimono, Temaki, Grilled Dishes, Deep Fried Dishes, Teppanyaki, Noodle/Rice dishes and Sashimi.
But it would be the Premium that makes the buffet here feel doubly special, where, for $40 more, at $99.90, you get Foie Gras, Hotate Gai Sashimi, Crayfish, Wagyu Steak, Lobster Bisque, Teriyaki Lamb Steak, Iberico Pork Rib, and Raw Oysters.
At another time, the draw for the Premium Buffet would have been the Foie Gras, the Wagyu Steak, the Lobster Bisque, and the Teriyaki Lamb Steak.
But today was not a day where we wanted to indulge in Foie Gras- all we wanted to have was sashimi and some of our favorite stuff- so we stuck to the Regular.
This evening we were seated by the counter.
Pros and Cons; pros being that you could get your sashimi real quick, cons being that there was nothing of the view.
One of the very first dishes we ordered was the Sashimi Moriawase.
I wouldn't have minded just the Sake (Salmon) alone but in life one must try different things, yes, and so on the plate there was Salmon, Tuna, Hamachi, and a fish that I think is the Mekajiki.
I'm familiar with the Salmon and the Tuna. I've had the Hamachi before, but the Mekajiki is new to me and although at first I was a wee bit wary, I grew to like it after a few bites.
It wasn't as fishy as I'd thought it would be.
After this there came the Nigiri.
Like the Sashimi Moriawase, even though there's only one picture, we took more than one plate.
The Sake Aburi and the Sake Mentai Aburi was just too good.
Sake Aburi (and it's various toppings) are one of my recent favorites when it comes to sushi. I don't mean it recent being recent- it's been just over 10 years that I started appreciating Salmon Belly Sushi- but it has definitely become one of my favorites, and I'm glad to have it whenever I can.
Not all places have the same standards though.
Some are incredibly dry.
Some are so flaky the salmon drops off midway whilst picking it up with chopsticks.
The ones here at Mitsuba, thankfully, were none like that.
I don't know how many plates of this sushi we took, but we went for the Sake Mentai Aburi, the Sake Truffle Sushi, and in terms of plates, I'm pretty sure there was more than one.
The Sake Truffle Sushi was quite good, actually.
At first we wondered whether the taste of truffle would be strong enough- it gets a bit disappointing otherwise- and this one was.
Strong enough a taste, at least, to let me savor the salmon bits as I picked them out with my chopsticks one by one.
It was quite a variety of food we had this particular evening.
Amongst the deep fried there were the Ebi Tempura and the Tori Karaage. I can't remember whether we took the Takoyaki, the Age Gyoza or the Korokke, but no surprise if we did.
Gyozas are one of my friend's favorites when it comes to casual Japanese cuisine and we don't usually let a chance slip by without having some.
Same goes for the Takoyaki, where if it weren't that filling, we could have eight balls, four each on our own.
My pictures show there was a Ikura Chawanmushi- this one was exceptionally good, I remember, where the steamed egg held a slightly different taste from the usual ones we eat elsewhere- and this little cup, I'm very sure we had one each.
Besides the steamed egg, we also ordered a couple dishes from the Teppanyaki, namely the Bifu Yakiniku (the beef), the Meltique Bifu (also beef), and, surprise of surprise, just for me, the Nasu Miso Itame (eggplant)- a vegetable that I particularly love and will always go for whenever the mood strikes.
I had thought that would be all but then we ordered another dish of Hiyayakko Tofu, another plate of the Nasu Miso Itame, a Sashimi of Tako (cuttlefish) and then we ended the mains of the meal with a pot of soup that they call Dobinmushi.
I wish we had had enough space to go for we got full enough to go for the Makimono- I'm always looking forward to the colorful California Maki, or some of the Temaki handrolls, or even the Noodle dishes where the Mentaiki Spaghetti and Paitan Ramen sounded good.
But then we were getting full (Sashimi can really fill you up quite easily) and since I'm never the type to miss out on dessert, especially if it's ice cream, we went straight for dessert, and had two ice creams each.
