Dinner @ Sushi Sabu-Roku
August 19, 2017 in Japanese
Months back, I learnt that the sushi chef at Tamaya Dining left to open his own sushi restaurant. And I immediately shared the news with my IGGF (InstaGram GirlFriend) so that we could check out the place together. However, she got a little too anxious and went ahead without me as she couldn’t wait for me to be back from my holidays. Sob.
So when my IGGF raved about Sushi Sabu-Roku, I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed because she and I share the same taste. So yes, my IGGF said she could return and have dinner with me. However, that didn’t materialize because 1 week before our scheduled dinner, the restaurant called my IGGF (who assisted with the reservation) and asked us to change our timing from 7pm to 6pm as they received reservation for a big group for 8pm. And do note that the restaurant asked us to change and not if we could change. Like what!?!
And since my IGGF was very disappointed with the way they handled the booking, I decided to check them out with another friend as I was still very much curious about their food.
So 4 months later, I called to make reservation for a weekday dinner as I was interested to have baby gizzard shad (shinko) which I knew was in the season from their instagram.
Reaching at 7.30pm, we were the last pair of customers to arrive at the restaurant for dinner. And for that, we were seated at the end of the counter, furthest away from chef-owner Koji Koike.
And from the dinner menu (pages 1, 2, 3), my friend and I ordered:-
1) Omakase, $250 comprised of:-
(A) Appetiser (above) – Flat greenling, egg plant and seaweed.
(B) Dish #1 (above) – Threeline grunt (isaki). And it being grilled on skewer, the fish was oily with a nice smokey aroma.
(C) Dish #2 (above) – Mackerel.
(D) Dish #3 (above) – Shellfish (ishigakigai) from Hokkaido, served with raw eggplant.
(E) Dish #4 (above) – Corn from Hokkaido.
(F) Dish #5 (above) – Big eye snapper (kinmedai). The skin was unfortunately grilled till burnt.
(G) Dish #6 (above) – Tempura assortment of shrimp (ebi) and onion, and green chili.
(H) Dish #7 (above) – Grilled white asparagus.
(I) Dish #8 (above) – Soup with tuna belly and fish cake.
(J) Dish #9 (above) – Sushi assortment of striped jack (shima-aji), squid, medium fatty tuna (chutoro), big eye snapper (kinmedai), marinated tuna (maguro zuke), sea eel (anago) and sea urchin. Somehow, from the fourth piece, the rice in our sushi became smaller. Not sure if it was because we enquired how many more pieces there was. And the only reason we asked that was because dinner was painfully draggy. Definitely not because we were full.
(K) Dish #10 (above) – Honeydew and grapes.
Unfortunately, dinner was a huge let down. Ingredients weren’t worth the price tag and the interval between the dishes were painfully long. My friend and I got pretty impatient towards the end of our dinner because we would be waiting for our dish but head chef Koji san was deeply engrossed talking to his regulars; Waiting for 5 minutes is understandable if he needs to go one round when making everyone’s sushi. But we were waiting for more than 10 minutes with head chef Koji San not doing anything related to food preparation. It seemed that they have not adapted to what’s needed with the increased capacity. Was talking to the staff, and she happened to mention they recently added more chairs to increase capacity from 8 to 10.
And it was a great disappointment that I specially came for baby gizzard shad (shinko) after seeing many post pictures of theirs on Instagram and we were served none.
Will I recommend Sushi Sabu-Roku? I won’t totally cross them out yet. I am still trying to believe that it was an one-off incident that my friend and I had a bad dining experience. Instead of coming for their dinner menu, I would encourage one to try their lunch menu instead. Which I would return to try. Not anytime soon though. Maybe next year, same time. And I’ll be sure to state clearly in my reservation that I want to try the baby gizzard shad. Yes, by hook or crook.
SUSHI SABU-ROKU
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36 Circular Road, Singapore
6532 0050
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Overall: 6.5
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Opening hours:-
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Food/Beverage: 7
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Tue – Fri : 12:00 – 14:00 (Lunch)
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Ambience: 7
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Mon – Sat : 18:00 – 22:30 (Dinner)
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Value: 5
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* Closed on Sun
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Service: 7
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UPDATE 1: Restaurant has been renamed as Sushi 36.
UPDATE 2: Restaurant has been renamed as Sushi Koike.