Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Chiharu

Crazy is when you have 5 people sharing more than 40 dishes among themselves. There's nothing kiasu about it. In fact, it just proved that the Weekend Chef Treat Omakase lunch (ala carte) buffet spread was good. And unlike the typical hurried buffets, we totally enjoyed the relaxing pace...until the last hour when we were kan cheong to complete the menu. Special thanks to the accommodating staffs who helped us in achieving the feat!

There were 7 types of dishes to choose from; cold (appetizers), grilled, deep-fried, warm, salad, main (carbs) and desserts.

The starter of a plate of fresh sashimi was almost perfect. This was followed by an selection of assorted sushi of equally fresh cuts of maguro, sake, hamachi and ika. I should note that both the sashimi and sushi are limited to 1 serving each, per pax.

My favourite cold dishes were the Kamo Roast Yaki (Roasted Duck Breast), Hiyashi Tomato and Chiharu Karupacho. I've never had carpaccio done this way. The hamachi slices were mixed with crunchy daikon shreds and soaked in zesty ponzu sauce. An interesting combination that can be emulated in my very own kitchen, I believe. Throw in some soba while I'm at it, wouldn't you agree? Subarashi!

We strategized to optimize our capacity by limiting orders of the ubiquitous grilled and deep-fried dishes to 1 portion each. If the stomach was as elastic as rubber, I would have ordered more of the compact but tender Tori Tsukune (Grilled Chicken Meat Balls) and the Tebasaki Shioyaki (Grilled Chicken Wing), which was lightly coated with salt. A nice touch.

From the warm list, came a dish that, to me, had defined my Chiharu experience. The Gyu or Beef Teriyaki. As the name had suggested, there was nothing fancy about it. Just a piece of meat and a sauce. But the execution was as good as ala carte buffets can get. The medium well cuts were moist and went really well with the sweet teriyaki sauce. It was so good, we had seconds. The sauce complemented the soba and udon too, an experiment we conducted while waiting for more dishes to come. By the way, both the zaru soba and udon were wonderful, given the al dente texture.

When it came to desserts, I was hoping for matcha and goma ice cream because to me, these two flavours generally gauge the quality of desserts in a Japanese restaurant. Surprisingly, neither was on the menu. Instead, we were offered what I would consider as novel flavours such as raspberry, passionfruit and tiramisu. Being the reluctant alcoholic that I am, my favourite that day was definitely the creamy and slightly intoxicating Baileys ice cream.

This restaurant of a thousand spring is definitely worth a revisit.

Sashimi

Sushi

Some of the cold dishes

Hiyashi Tomato

Satsuma Age Yaki (Grilled Fish Cake)

Tenpura Moriawase

Gyu Teriyaki

Some of the main dishes: Zaru Udon, Nori Chazuke (Seaweed Porridge), Zaru Udon

Salads

Desserts

Chiharu
779 Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 269758
Tel: (+65) 6769 1929
Website: http://www.chiharu.com.sg/

We conquered Chiharu's Omakase lunch menu:
Camemberu
Keropokman And Momo (Part 1)
Keropokman And Momo (Part 2)
Xiu Long Bao

15 comments:

Petite Lass said...

Whoa! This is so tempting! Must try Chiharu in my next stop to Singapore =D

Selba said...

Is it franchise?

If not mistaken, I remember Unka's gf mentioned once that she finds that Japanese desserts are stuck with green tea ice cream, mochi and azuki beans, so this is restaurant is showing that they do serve other kind of desserts :)

ladyironchef said...

hahaha i missed a great lunch! cos not that cheap, den that time I low on budget. lol!

allie said...

I would like to try out the Gyu Teriyaki :)

Chaokar said...

Oh my, I like !

Bkt Timah ay, I used to go to Rochester Park for a good choice of dining too.

minchow said...

Nothing crazy about this!!! We'd be crazy NOT to try it, if we had the opportunity! We really gotta up our game over on this side of the causeway....

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

shud go serve my bbq steak with teriyaki sauce nxt time hmmmmm

gfad said...

I miss cencaru stuffed with sambal!!

The hiyashi tomato looks so refreshing. Do you know how to make ah?

Camemberu said...

Haaaa FINALLY we get to see your Chiharu post! :D

Mmmmhh....it was really good.

Rebecca Saw said...

Ahh...atr trip to Sg on the books..

Miss Tam Chiak said...

40 dishes! -claps- truly foodie! it looks good!

backStreetGluttons said...

have you finish eating yet, such a small dot in da ocean yet with so Huge feast everyday.

~Christine~Leng said...

you r increasing my crave for Jap food again Nic :)
love to have those sashimis!

HairyBerry said...

petite lass, u should! :) there are a few interesting restaurants along the road too! :D

selba, i dont think this is a franchise. perhaps that's the beauty of it! :D haha, actually, there are many types of Japanese desserts. but i believe the most famous one is green tea. :)

ladyironchef, we can always do chiharu again. i'm sure everyone will be interested! hehe

allie, me too! i wanna have again too!

chaokar, ooohhh, i've only passed by rochester park once. must go there again lah. hey, do check out chiharu the next time u come to sg!

550ml jar of faith, in that case, let us all get crazy and stuff ourselves silly! hey, let me know if u r coming. we'll go eat like crazy!

joe, ooohhh, that will be great! i'll be waiting for the salivating pics!

gfad, i heard that mum's place serves a really good cencaru with sambal. maybe u shd check it out! haha, i dunno how to make the hiyashi tomato la. i'm sure there are some nice ingredients in the sauce, hence the refreshing taste. served chilled helps too, me thinks.

HairyBerry said...

camemberu, hehehehehe...i'm glad that i've finally posted it too! that was an incredible brunch la. thanks so much for suggesting the place!!

thenomadgourmand, hopefully can meet up la. let me know if u r coming! :D

jaime-la-nourriture, hi5! haha! i guess the next time, we should break a new record! 50 dishes perhaps? this time, no fried stuff. just the stuff that we like..hehe

backstreetgluttons, i guess we've only just begun..haha! lotsa good stuff here, me thinks. but of course, cant eat like this everyday la...bad for my wallet and health..hehe

christine, hahaha, u must check out some of the new Japanese restaurants in town! i heard they are quite good. oooh, i love the sashimi too! :D