Kushin-Bo

Since I walked-in without reservation, I had to queue for 30 minutes in the "no reservation" line. And no, this is not a complaint. Considering the weekend, the holiday and the peak hour (6.15 pmto be exact), I was lucky that it took only 30 minutes.

The "Dong Dong Dong, Kushin-Bo" jingle has been playing on my mind for quite sometime now and so, when Jacq and Jeremy asked me to join them at Kushin-Bo, I said yes without any hesitation.

I've heard so much about this buffet restaurant but not the food though. But when I saw the spread, I thought it was quite diversed and complete. Taste-wise, well, let's just break it down one by one.

I started off with the colourful selection of makis (rice rolls) including the fish roe maki, fried salmon skin maki, kani (crab) maki, tuna maki, lobster salad maki and shrimp maki. The ingredients used were fresh and I particularly enjoyed the fried salmon skin maki as the crispy skin went very well with the rice. The paprika dusted tuna maki tasted rather interesting with a touch of spiciness. All walloped without any soya sauce and wasabi dipping.

Next on my list was the selection of sushi. The unagi (eel), maguro (tuna), ika (squid) and sake (salmon) sushi were quite generic. Despite the freshness of the ingredients, there was nothing particularly interesting about them.

The grilled meat (on iron plate) or teppanyaki was well cooked. After choosing the choice of meat to be grilled, the plate was clipped with my table's number and queued to be cooked by the chef. Once cooked, it was brought to my table. I should have taken this with the Japanese fried rice and curry sauce.

As I looked around, I realised that most patrons were particularly interested in the snow crab legs as there was a least one plateful of the crustacean's legs on every table. A rare find, that I'll say. So, it was only appropriate that I immediately checked out the sashimi (raw seafood) section to get a hold of some of those craved legs. Legs aside, the kajiki (swordfish), tuna, sea bream, prawns and scallops were again, quite fresh, judging from the texture, colour and taste. A cup of green tea at this point was needed to ease digestion and to kill those bacterias (if any). The snow crab legs were fleshy and tender but I don't quite fancy the over-saltiness of the juice, though.

Another must-have that was seen on every table was the nabemono (claypot soup dish). At Kushin-Bo, nabe came in form of folded paper instead of a claypot. The special folded paper was filled with vegetables and choice of either seafood or beef. Once my order was placed, the chef prepared the mini-stove, placed the paper on top of it and poured in the miso-base soup. I enjoyed this dish as the beef and the miso soup complimented each other very well. Vegetables such as cabbage provided extra texture and flavour.

I've also spotted the cha-soba (buckwheat and green tea noodle) and took a bowl as I've always enjoyed cold soba. To add extra flavour to the noodles, I added sesame, seaweed and scallion. It was a good combination but I wished the soya/mirin sauce came chilled.

The fried section featured a variety of tempura (fried battered vegetables or meat) including kakiage (julienned vegetables), oysters and prawns. I couldn't help but to try the fried prawn, soft shell crab and smelt (I think) with fried rice, dressed Japanese-styled curry. The ensemble became a complete "mixed rice" dish by itself. Curry was bland, though.

Kushin-Bo is also famous for their "surprise" limited dishes which are offered at certain "unknown" timing. This is when patrons rush to the section where the specialty is being offered. Kind of reminds me of "Supermarket Sweep". Well, this is understandable as the specialties offered include baby lobsters and grilled saba (mackerel). Towards the end of the meal, as the crowd was thinning, we managed to grab 2 grilled baby lobsters. Unfortunately, the lobsters were overcooked and tasted rather bitter.

The array of desserts was quite diversed, ranging from green tea cake to eclairs to mochi (rice cake) to fruit tarts to sorbets to cream puffs. Of all the desserts, I only enjoyed the green tea and cheese cake which tasted tangy and slightly bitter at the same time. The rather bland green tea ice cream completed my meal for the night.

Beverages were aplenty ranging from green tea to coffee to cappucino. My advise is to consume just green tea as it eases digestion, so that you can try out more dishes.

For S$39.80++ (weekends and public holidays), the quality of food was commendable. Service was very good too despite the huge crowd. For the uninitiated, there's also a step-by-step eating guide to ensure patrons are able to try out (and be aware of) almost every dish available (think of a guided tour in Disneyland).

Kushin-Bo
#03-002, 3 Temasek Boulevard,
Suntec City Mall.
Tel: 62387088 (Reservation is highly recommended)