Suju Japanese Restaurant @ Mandarin Gallery

Ippudo and Wild Honey were simply impossible for weekend walk-ins. It was Saturday lunch time, HY and I tried to walk into Wild Honey but was told of a 1 hour wait. Up one floor at Ippudo, the crazy, hungry queue can be heard even before you see it. For the sake of novelty, I decided to pass on Jones the Grocer. However, we were still left with Suju Japanese Restaurant that is still in the soft opening stage and hence no queue at all. The menu was concisely fitted in a single page. The extended menu will come with the official launch sometime in February. At the moment they are primarily serving chirashi, katsu don and oyako don sets. A couple of desserts ends the menu page. After this meal, I thought that Suju is a potential Japanese restaurant that is worth a return trip. The reward for being adventurous, a satisfying lunch for HY and me.

At the Counter Seats

We chose our seats right at the counter top where we have full frontal view of the all Japanese chefs preparing our lunch for us.

Chilled Japanese Beans

As we were sipping our green tea, the chef manning the counter presented us with 2 small dishes of Japanese beans as an appetizer. The Hitori musume (yellow beans) and the Karakake mame (green beans) were chilled and salted to taste. They are simple but to the folks who liked steamed nuts/beans, they're tasty.

Our Don Sets

HY chose the Oyako Don Set. Set inside the bowl were well flavored and tender chicken. The egg was still moist and fill the gaps between the pieces of chicken meat. The moist egg texture is usually what I look for in a god oyako don. This oyako don was the closest I have eaten in Singapore to a popular oyako don that we had in Kyoto.

I had Suju's Kurobuta Katsu Don Set. Apart from the perfectly fried Kurobuta, there was some fried vegetable; a slice of yam, pumpkin and a lady finger. Inside the crispy bread crumbs, the tasty pork juices were still well retained. Suju'd bread crumb Kurobuta was indeed marvelous. Apart from that, I liked the deep fried pumpkin for the sweet tasting filling amidst the savoury of the other ingredients.

"Enchanted" Tofu

As the saying goes, 'Save the best for last'. Dessert freaks behold. This Annin Tofu enchanted HY and me. We stared at each other with a silent nod of approval as we tasted a mouthful. Almond fragrance with a rich milky smoothness. I'll definitely come back for this if not for the rest of Suju's food.

Suju uses bronze cookware to make sure that their food are uniformly cooked. The bronze cookware is by no means fully bronze. It's just the exterior that is bronze. The inner layer or the core material is still stainless steel (to provide strength). Bronze has a much better conductivity that allows heat to be quickly and uniformly transferred to all parts of the pot.

At the moment, the service staff and the chefs are all Japanese. It's the standard politeness and the very obliging Japanese restaurant hospitality that made my lunch experience so enjoyable. But I wouldn't know if Suju will start to 'localise' after the official opening.

333A Orchard Road

#04-05/07 Mandarin Gallery

(65) 6737 7764

Singapore