hokkaido izakaya, wisma atria.
finally had the chance to check out japan food town at wisma atria. so many japanese food clusters have opened up as of late! the concept seems pretty similar to suntec's eat at seven, but with a couple more choices. in fact, there were so many choices that we (okay, i) was undecided about which to choose. in the end we decided on hokkaido izakaya, which was also one of the more filled restaurants (some of them looked suspiciously empty).it being an izakaya, i was assuming that they'd be open until quite late, but when we were about to step in, the waitress told us that they had no more tables (!) even though we saw that there were bar seats available. S then asked if we could have the bar seats, and she said yes, but again attempted to dissuade us by saying that last order was 9pm (it was probably about 8.45 then) and that it'd be warm for us sitting there since it was in front of the grill. makes me wonder if she wanted us to leave just so they could close up early...
anyway, the thing that caught my eye off the menu was wagyu roast beef don ($19) off the set menu, but S distracted me with the maze niku soba ($15), which sounded exciting because goma sauce!!! i was torn between the two, but eventually got the don anyway because, as my friends said, that was the thing that caught my attention first anyway. (mental note: that's a good strategy for deciding on what to order.) we also decided to share a butter tamagoyaki ($10) off the a la carte menu.
our food came after a brief wait. glad i decided on the wagyu beef don- it was actually pretty decent for the price. happily enough, it also came with hot miso soup and appetisers- pickles and jellyfish. interestingly enough, it came with two sauces- a horseradish one (i think) drizzled on the beef, and a sweet, sticky one below on the rice. also liked the dab of grated horseradish on the side of the bowl- it added a kick to the entire bowl. the rice was also pretty good, though there was too much of it and i ended up not finishing it. it's the kind i like- each grain separate, giving it texture.
J saw that there were complimentary appetisers on the neighbouring table, but there were none on ours, so she decided to ask if we could have some. glad that she did, too, because the free eggs turned out to be really awesome! we were all expecting something like keisuke's hardboiled eggs, but they weren't. S cracked an egg (really hard) and was shocked to see splatters of egg white- they were runny, oozy and glorious. i had my egg with the don- so good with the rice! most restaurants would charge upwards of a dollar for an onsen egg, so it was a nice touch. i was so tempted to have two, especially with the rice, but decided against it, because we still had...
... the tamagoyaki, which came when we were all almost done with our food. sitting at the bar meant that we could watch them prepare our food, and we were all watching the chef making the omelette and hoping it was ours. it was worth the wait, though! it came piping hot, and the waitress buttered it just before she served it to us (so that's what they mean by butter tamagoyaki). to be honest i don't think it actually needed the final slather of butter- it was good enough without it. oddly enough it came with extra butter on the side, and some cheese curd like thing, but i didn't need it. it was a totally egg-overloaded meal, but who cares. eggs are awesome.
the food was simple, but pretty good. plus: prices were decent. i can see myself coming back. service was a little too harried, though.
hokkaido izakaya
wisma atria
http://www.japanfoodtown.sg/stores/hokkaido-izakaya/
