Oh So Oishii! 🇯🇵

Decided to try the Deluxe Tendon since it’s exclusive to this outlet. In addition to the usual oozy egg, prawn and chicken, it also comes with snow crab, squid and conger eel (we thought this was a smaller unagi fillet as it still has that familiar brackish taste).

Would probably stick to the Special Tendon next time, although the chicken pieces seem thinner (and are thus less juicy) than I remember.

While I personally prefer the overall experience (food and service wise) at the original outlet, I like not having to wait in line for almost an hour more. Hopefully it’s just teething issues.

This beef cut is on the chewy side, so go for the more premium ones if you prefer a more tender/fattier bite. Seasoning wasn’t as punchy as the pork’s but still tasty.

Added $1 for the onsen egg.

Opted for the most basic set and was surprised how generous the portion was. Some bits of the pork fillet were slightly chewy, but I liked the sweet-savoury glaze lightly coating the slices. Added $1 for the onsen egg.

Picked this set menu featuring a beautifully char-grilled cod fillet till flaky and moist. Was hoping for a slightly bigger portion for the price but I know that good quality cod is pricey. You will also get a tofu side dish, chawanmushi, soup, rice, pickles and onsen egg so it's a pretty substantial meal.

Generous portions, well-seasoned and perfectly grilled. No minimum two skewers per order rule here so you can just try the ones you like.

Just like the other skewers, this was also well cooked so you still enjoy this innards' chewy bite. Very moreish!

Steamed then charcoal-grilled fresh eel atop pearly Hokkaido rice. Repeated dunking of the deboned fillets in the signature tare sauce while grilling gave it a caramelised lacquer that brought out the sweetness of the fish. There are three suggested ways of enjoying this: on its own, with condiments, and with the dashi stock – I enjoyed this most with a touch of wasabi.

Although this 125-year-old unagi specialty concept hails from Japan, the eels are actually sourced from a sustainable farm in Indonesia. I’m not a big fan of freshwater fish, but this didn’t have that distinct muddy taste. 👍🏼👍🏼 Wish the char-grilled flavour was more pronounced though.

Unagi party for three! Supersized bowl with the same accompaniments: soup, pickles, dashi broth (tastes very similar to the soup) and condiments (wasabi, seaweed strips and leek). You'll probably save a bit with this instead of ordering three medium bowls.

Prefer punchy flavours? Then this Osaka-style unagi bowl with onsen egg, mentaiko and Japanese yam is for you. The creamy coating on the rice grains from the runny egg yolk was enough for me, but you can mix in the blitzed yam for even more!

This Fukuoka-style dish comes in a bamboo steaming basket in which grilled eel and kinshi tamago (shredded egg crepe) are added on top of Hokkaido rice then quickly popped into the steamer. I liked the earthy flavour that extra step imparted to the rice, but this also meant extra cooking time for the fish, which was a wee bit drier than the usual normal cooking style.

The set with chawanmushi will set you back $24.80 – it's tasty and super wobbly, but probably not worth the extra $5!

The service here was way above average and I felt deserved special mention. I dislike hoity-toity places where there's a disparity in service quality (usually between big spenders/regulars and average commoners 👋🏼👋🏼) but there's none of that nonsense here. We encountered four different waitstaff and they were all smiley, polite, genuine and efficient. Super pleasant dining experience!