My Jap-foodie-GF read about Kanda Wadatsumi from an article by food editor Tan Hsueh Yun on The Straits Times. As such, we decided to check the restaurant out for dinner on a weekday.

Since the unit space of the shophouses along Tras Street is long and narrow, after walking a short stretch after stepping through the main entrance, we entered the main space to see a medium-sized sushi counter (with 6 seats) on our immediate right and a row of tables on our immediate left. And for a change, we had made reservation to sit at the table instead of our usual counter seats.

And taken from their website, the restaurant’s concept is based on ‘Kanda Wadatsumi’, a popular Japanese restaurant in Kanda district (a traditional center of Tokyo, Japan). They are backed by Zengyoren Japan Fisheries Association which represents all coastal fishermen in Japan. As such, part of the theme of the Wadatsumi is to bring assorted dishes from various seasons of the year into Singapore. We came in July and the theme was Sanriku Fair where we were treated to dishes from Iwate and Miyagi prefectures (of Japan).

And from the menu (pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), we ordered:-

1) Omakase course set menu, $120 comprised of:-

(A) Hoya (above) – A Miyagi prefecture. When the staff introduced the dish, I was a bit hard of hearing. Probably because it’s my first time hearing (and trying) sea squirt. Well, it wasn’t too bad. I had imagined it to be hard and crunchy, but it had a unique flavour and was not as crunchy.

(B) Jikasei goma tofu with uni (above) – Homemade sesame tofu with sea urchin. It wasn’t as smooth as I thought it would be based on its smooth exterior, but this wasn’t too bad. We learnt that kudzu powder was used to firm up the mixture of ground sesame and water.

(C) Nihonsan tomato sarada (above) – I liked that the tomato salad was served with 2 slices of perfectly seared tuna belly. A refreshing dish. Yum.

(D) Sashimi (above) – Comprised of medium fatty tuna (chutoro), sardine and clam (seasonal item).

(E) Ni anago nipponsan kyurisoe (above) – Simmered sea conger and cucumber with bonito sauce. We were supposed to get a tempura dish in our omakase menu, but we requested for it to be changed. And thus, we were presented with this.

(F) Han maguro toro touban yaki (above) – Seared tuna’s belly on ceramic plate. So while I don’t like to be served a pure vegetable dish for my omakase meal, I certainly did not mind this. Colours introduced into the dish with a good variety of vegetables.

(G) Yaki uni (above) – Clay pot rice with sea urchin & wakame. An Iwate prefecture. Baked sea urchin is a tradition in Omoe district that began about 80 years ago. Fishermen’s wives got the idea of baking the sea urchin as a way of preserving it since it was difficult to preserve the freshness of a catch while transporting it in those days. And the taste of baked sea urchin was different from raw sea urchin. Instead of soft, it was more… Crunchy like roe? The staff assisted to mix the ingredients within the claypot, to which we requested for them to mix it with only half of the served rice. Which was a good thing we did because there wouldn’t have been sufficient ingredients to be mixed with the entire claypot worth of rice. It’s just us. We like the ratio of ingredients to rice as 1:1 or even 2:1. Haha. And it was nice that they wrapped our unfinished portion with aluminium foil into rice balls (onigiri) for us to bring home.

(H) Asari miso shiru (above) – Miso soup with Japanese clam.

(I) Kuzu pudingu (above) – Arrowroot pudding.

2) Dashi maki tamago with mentaiko, $15 (above) – Japanese egg omelette with cod roe.

3) Maccha shiratama aisukuriimu, $8 (above) – Green tea rice dumpling with ice cream. And I am so glad we decided to order this from the a-la carte menu. The black sesame ice cream was so good!

So for an omakase menu which is priced in the low $100, the food at Kanda Wadatsumi was pretty good. While they are not a kaiseki restaruant, I liked that they offered dishes like the claypot rice. A dish which is typically served as the last course (just before dessert) for a kaiseki meal. This gives us diners more options. Keke. In fact, having dined at a fair number of Japanese restaurants, Kanda Wadatsumi is only the second place that I know which serves this claypot rice dish.

However, having said how good value-for-money it is, I doubt I be heading back anytime soon. Kanda Wadatsumi makes a good place to try at least once. But there isn’t anything else (on the menu) which looks exciting enough to entice me back for more. Unless I have a craving for the claypot rice which they have in other interesting flavours (like sea bream head claypot rice or deep fried octopus claypot rice) or if I am interested in the exotic dishes which they are bringing in from the various seasons.

Related posts:

Dinner @ Kaiho Sushi // CLOSED Dinner @ Ooi Japanese Dining // CLOSED Lunch @ Sushi Dai // CLOSED Dinner @ GOTO // CLOSED Dinner @ G-ONE // CLOSED