It has been a while since I felt compelled to write about a place as soon as I can. And yes, I wasn’t pleased with my recent dining experience at Sushiro. But for the record, it’s not entirely the eatery’s fault. These days, many seem to get carried away about wanting to show they’re one of the first few to check out a new place, or wanting to show they are ‘in’ by giving the impression that they are dining well.

After seeing drool-worthy shots of Sushiro’s chirashi (rice bowl) on instagram with many using words like ‘best’, ‘yummy’, ‘awesome’, ‘will come back for more’ in their raves, I was curious. Now… If one have been following my reviews of Japanese cuisine closely, one would know I am not a chiraishi person. I mean, I do eat chiraishi since I have a girlfriend who loves her chiraishi and would bring me to her favorites. But I won’t go hunting for them, specifically. However, Sushiro was located at Thomson Plaza. And that’s in my area!!! So I thought “Why not!”

Reading that there’s always a long queue with some suggesting on instagram that it’s best to come at odd hours, I decided to drop by on Sunday mid-afternoon. And I got my crossfit coach to head down with me cause he’s probably the only person I know who eats at odd hours (since he conducts lunch classes). And!!! I figured with him being a big protein loader, we would order a lot. Which means I get to try many dishes. Yeah! Haha.

However, when Coach and I arrived at 3.30pm, we were taken aback to see they were closed. But it was really my bad for not checking properly. Apparently Sushiro closes at mid-day to take a break. However, what I wasn’t expecting too was that they occupied a kiosk unit. So yes, that explained the long queue too as they have limited seating capacity with only 15 chairs.

Coach and I ended up snacking elsewhere before coming back at 5.30pm as Sushiro reopens at 5.45pm for dinner. And at 5.30pm, a queue had already formed! Thankfully we were the 14th and 15th person in the line. Couldn’t imagine if we had to wait for second seating.

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

1) Mekajiki, $6.80 (3 pcs) (above) – Swordfish belly.

2) Salmon explosion temaki-zilla, $6.80 (above) – Temaki meaning handroll and zilla being upsized, this was Sushiro’s upsized handroll. I didn’t really like this though. The salmon sashimi was served marinated, but not with soya sauce. And it tasted slightly weird cause the sauce was… Sweet? But if one does the mathematics, 3 pieces of salmon sashimi cost $4.80 at Sushiro. At $6.80 with more than 3 slices of salmon used for the handroll, this was of better value. If one can get past the marinate, that is.

3) Japanese style glazed duck with onsen egg on rice, $14.80 (above) – Wanting something different, I went with the duck. And because Coach and I were sitting at the counter, we got to realise the portion was small before our dishes were served just from watching the chef prepare the food in the kitchen. Despite that, I still couldn’t help but feel disappointed when my rice bowl was served. Those on instagram should have clarified that ‘ingredients were overflowing’ because the bowl was small, and not because of generous serving of ingredient. o_O And this was so so. I didn’t manage to see the egg preparation, but with no stove, I highly suspect the onsen egg was achieved by microwaving. But that’s my guess. In any case, if one dine during lunch, one has the option of making this into a set by topping up $3 for additional shiro miso soup and salad, or $5 for shiro miso soup, salad and sashimi.

4) Bara-chirashi don, $12.80 (above) – Assorted seafood cube over sushi rice. Frankly, when this was served, I felt really guilty towards my coach. It was a really small bowl containing roughly 1 cup of rice (Trust me, I am quite good at eyeballing the portion of my food). So one can imagine how small the portion was. It did not fill us up. I overheard the guy who was sitting beside me telling his girlfriend that he was still hungry. And yes, he was eating the same bowl of chirashi as us. I guess all the non-realistic raves on instagram did Sushiro a big disadvantage. We came with high expectation, only to be left extremely disappointed. And cause we were sitting at the counter where we witnessed the action within the kitchen, I wasn’t impressed to see the sushi rice kept in a large plastic tub. I would have preferred if a hangiri (Japanese wooden tube) was used. But okie, maybe it’s a little over the top to expect that from them. But when eateries decide to go with an open-kitchen concept, they should know better that they will be subjected to discerning eyes of patrons.

I guess it’s no surprise that I won’t recommend Sushiro. I mean, it makes no sense to queue for 15 minutes (or longer) for a rice bowl that doesn’t fill one up. And the food at Sushiro is certainly not worth making a special trip to Thomson for.

Though to be fair, I saw others ordering the sushi which portion looked fine and the price was reasonable. So if one is at Thomson Plaza and only wishes to eat sushi, one can check out Sushiro if the queue at Sushiro isn’t as long as compared to Sushi Tei which is at Level 2 of Thomson Plaza.