the sushi bar, ngee ann city.
heard that the sushi bar had just opened a new outlet in ngee ann city, and best of all, there was supposedly no queue! given the number of times i've queued for the sushi bar at their original outlet, that was reason enough to go. i haven't been back to the sushi bar since they implemented the gst and service charge, though it used to be my go-to chirashi place. their chirashi is good, but with the extra charges, it just wasn't as appealing as other places (which offer the same thing at similar prices, but coming as a set and having less queue to boot).
i went with R on a thursday night, having made a reservation on the day itself. it seemed that the reservation was unnecessary though. the decor was similar to the far east plaza outlet, but much more spacious- i can no longer hear the next table's conversation! the menu and prices were similar, but with some new additions.
of course, i got the aburi kaisen chirashi ($26.90), because aburi anything is usually awesome. we also got the aburi salmon roll ($14.90) to share.
of course, the chirashi was good, but it was marred by their lacklustre service. i asked to change my tuna to salmon (for an additional $1), but when my food came, i noticed that they hadn't replaced my tuna. i informed the server, and he took the bowl away. when it came back a few minutes later, the tuna had been replaced, but in a haphazard manner. the pictures were taken only after we spent some time rearranging the slices in a more photogenic way. extremely slipshod- does it take that much of an effort to plate up nicely before serving? besides which, it was an error on their part that they forgot to do the replacement. gave me a very bad impression that was only slightly saved by the fact that the chirashi was good.
i'm also slightly miffed that they choose to charge for a change from tuna to salmon. the other places do it (even offering white tuna) at no extra surcharge. oh well.
i have to say, though, that despite sounding like a good idea, it's actually quite unnecessary to torch some of the sashimi, because it seemed to have not much of an effect. the torching was good for salmon, but the mekajiki, yellowtail and scallop didn't benefit from it. i guess some types of fish aren't meant to be torched. if i do return i think i'll just get the regular chirashi.
R got the wagyu and foie gras don ($39.90) and she liked it. i tried a bite and it was pretty good- very different. i'm surprised that a japanese sushi bar does beef so well. though their service was again not up to scratch. they had quite a few different variations of wagyu don, one with truffle sauce, and when we asked regarding the difference, the server couldn't answer us properly. he gave us some vague answer about it having a stronger flavour (?) and a mushroom sauce (??).
honestly, i don't know if i'll come back. the lack of queue is great, but there are other better chirashis around, at a better pricing and with much better service. the aburi salmon roll was just as good as i remembered, so if i come back, it'll probably be for that. the sushi bar used to be a slightly cheaper alternative to other japanese places, no frills and all (that's why i didn't mind the nonexistent service), but now it's more mid-range. still, a good place for a chirashi fix.
the sushi bar
#05-34/35 ngee ann city
