Osaka/Kyoto/Nara Dec 2014 Itinerary: Part 6: Day 5

Day 5: (Osaka/Nara Day trip)
AM: Sushi Breakfast at Endo Sushi (Central Fish Market branch)
PM: Nara Day Trip
Evening: Explore Umeda

AM: Had a really tiring day yesterday from the traveling in Kyoto, so woke up a little later than usual. Headed out from hotel to Endo Sushi at around 10am (was definitely way too late for fish auctions but hope it wasn't too late for some sushi breakfast!) Took the JR line to Noda station to walked over to Osaka Central Fish Market where Endo Sushi is located.

I reached Endo Sushi around 10.30am, and waited a short while before being entering the restaurant (there were just a couple of people waiting for their turn before me). I was ushered to a counter seat, where I can watch the sushi chefs busy slicing fish and making sushi with their hands.
I was given an English "Maze" menu where I can choose a sushi platter comprising 5 different pieces of seasonal sushi items- each for 1080 yen. 
This is Set 1 (From left: Eel, Sea urchin, Sea bream, fatty tuna, yellow tail) shown with a hot piping bowl of miso soup. I really like how fresh and chewy the fish slices that tasted so heavenly when paired with Japanese rice. I really enjoyed the Toro (fatty tuna) one, especially how the fatty chucks of the fish melt in your mouth. They also serve miso soup with small clams that is so sweet and fragrant and a definite must order to go with your sushi meal. 

Itacho Sushi @ JCube

The Itacho Sushi outlet at JCube is currently having a happy hour sushi promotion for the month of November. Between 2.30-5.30pm and after 9pm, diners are entitled to purchase selected sushi in their happy hour menu for just $0.80. Yes you heard me right, EIGHTY CENTS!

So I popped by one Friday afternoon to have some late sushi lunch. I was actually surprised that there weren't many people enjoying this special offer, the restaurant was relatively empty and I could enjoy my food in peace. Perhaps not many people are aware of this promo. So after some careful rationalizing (I had to restrain myself from writing the entire sushi menu into the order slips), here was what I ordered:

• 1x Salmon Sushi


• 2x Roasted Blue Fin Tuna with Soy Sauce


• 1x Smoked Duck Roll


• 1x Avocado Tuna Cheese Roll


• 1x Green Roll


• 1x Grilled Pork Sushi


• 1x Salmon Lobster Roll (which costs $3.30)

The bill came up to $10.85 including GST and service charge. It would have been much cheaper if I could resist ordering the $3.30 salmon roll, but anyway, if you purchased above $10 you will be entitled to free flow green tea.

The happy hour menu depicted each sushi item with nice colourful garnishing and long, thick slices of fresh fresh atop Japanese rice. I'm happy to report that the actual thing, matched quite closely to their pictorial representations. Considering that they are serving eighty cents sushi, I would have thought they would be stingy on the fish slices and serve small portions in general. I would say the sushi is decent, but it is quite obvious they reserve the fresher, more luscious and fatty slices of fish for their regular menu. The salmon sushi was decent but really paled in comparison to the salmon roll. But then again, if you want EIGHTY CENTS sushi, you need to trade off a little quality. At least the sushi was not stale or unacceptably inferior.

So if you need to satisfy your sushi cravings and are on a tight budget, add this place to your list!

Sushi Tei, Ngee Ann City

Sushi Tei is one of my favourite Japanese food restaurants; I somehow find their bowl of katsu-don very comforting and hunger busting. While they strive to produce fresh quality Japanese food, I always find myself intrigued by their ongoing special menus.

Sushi Tei has recently returned to Ngee Ann City, having moved up to Level 5 and taking up a whole lot of space. I would think it will be easier to get seats in their new location. And to celebrate their triumphant return, Sushi Tei has a special "We Are Back!" menu only available for a limited time and only at this particular outlet.

I had a bowl of Chasyu Don ($9) from the special menu. Tender roast pork slices, served atop rice are slathered in a nice sweet dark sauce. The egg served in this dish is really good, the egg yolk is molten- literally in a semi solid-liquid form that brings me such joy to savour.

Sushi Tei also has another set of promotional menu that changes with the seasons. This Lobster Salad Roll ($8.80) can be found in its current "Early Summer Promotion" menu. I really enjoyed chomping on the fresh lobster bits and crunchy roe topping with the sushi rolls.

For dessert, we got Matcha and Yuzu Sorbet ice cream ($3.40 per scoop) from the regular menu. Following the advice of RERG, we ordered individual scoops of ice cream instead of the many bells and whistles parfaits offered in the We Are Back menu. The Yuzu ice cream was very refreshing, packed with tangy citrus yuzu flavour and bits of the fruit. The matcha ice cream was packed with green tea goodness, but I thought the ice cream was a little too "icy", it could have been smoother and creamier. Or maybe I'm just being overly fussy.

Sushi Tei serves out decent and fresh Japanese food fare at mid range prices and I am a big fan of this chain. They have an extensive delicious regular ala carte menu, but do look out for a few surprises in their changing seasonal menus.

Ellenborough Market Cafe

Thank you Jasper (Six&Seven) for bringing us here to enjoy a scrumptious dinner buffet spread (and for finally breaking my months long streak of going buffet-less). I lose control at buffets, yes I am one of those inconsiderate people who pile their plates with everything in sight, unless the food is exceedingly underwhelming. Fortunately, the food and spread served here are definitely decent!

The Ellenborough Market Cafe is located inside the Swisshotel Merchant Court Hotel, just walking distance from Clarke Quay MRT (take exit B!) The restaurant has a nice colonial style decor- very nice and homely. There are two buffet stations- one near the entrance serves fresh, raw seafood, desserts and the other main station inside the restaurant offers the rest of the spread. Here are some highlights:

Japanese/ Korean food counter- There's free flow sashimi, freshly cut slices of salmon and tuna that are perpetually swept off the serving plates by eager sashimi lovers. Be prepared to face hoardes of hostile uncle and aunties bent on removing every single sashimi slice from the place. A sushi chef also furiously prepares various sushi pieces which are also constantly swept off the plates. I don't envy the sushi chef's job; if he is not cutting up sashimi, he's rolling up sushi, or being stared down by impatient uncles and aunties. There was also some korean salad served with hints of kim chi which was rather meh.

Cold seafood counter- There are raw oysters, mussels and steamed prawns to choose from. I was suffering from a severe oyster craving, hence the pile of oysters on my plate. Oysters were quite fresh- didn't have any stomach upset the next day hehe. Prawns were big, juicy and succulent.

Nonya food counter- A wide variety of authentic nonya dishes like Ayam Buah Keluk, Chap Chye, fish, Nonya otah. There is also a Kong Ba Pau counter where the chef will prepare the soft steamed buns with braised pork on the spot. There is also a Nonya dessert counter which serves out an assortment of mini bite size kuehs kuehs placed in erm, bird cages.

Hot food counter- The two must try dishes are Butter Fish with Broadbean Sauce and Stir Fried Slipper Lobster in Black Bean Sauce (above). The fish is an excellent dish with great texture and flavour, and its quality is comparable to those served out in expensive chinese restaurants. No wonder the fish meat is quickly polished off the plate once it touches the table. The slipper lobster is also another dish that is not exempt from diners' relentless stomachs. The lobster meat is very fresh, retains QQ texture and goes really well with the black bean sauce that is not overly salty. Do examine the lobster shells carefully; you would want to pick the piece with the meatiest section (like the one shown above) and not some random shell part with no meat. This uncle in front of me actually took his time digging into the catering dish to locate the fattest, juiciest lobster meat (like digging gold in black sauce) and ended up hogging the queue. (He obviously didn't care what people behind him thought). And if you can't do without your greens, do grab some Stir fried seasonal vegetables in abalone sauce, also available here.

Durian Pengat- The famous, MUST TRY durian dessert served here. It is essentially thick, luscious durian cream, pureed from high quality durian flesh. Each mouthful is bursting with fragrant, bittersweet taste of durians pulp and cream. Durian lovers would TRULYMADLYDEEPLYABSOLUTELY adore this. I was somewhat tempted to haul the whole vat of durian pengat back to the table, but I managed to restrain myself.

Dessert counter- Sorry, I was too lazy to arrange the items nicely on the plate, but you get the idea- this place serves an assortment of cakes and pastries. I was too full to stomach everything by then, but there were also local desserts and ice cream available!

BTW, they do serve coffee/tea, just ask the friendly waiters around. I also thought the waiters were quite prompt in clearing the plates; by the time you return from another round of food stacking, the dirty plates from your table magically vanishes!

The price of a buffet dinner for one adult is about $60 (after the addition of GST and service charges), which can be a little steep. But considering the spread of good, fresh food available, it's worth the occasional food binge fest.

Sushi Dai @ Tsukiji Market, Tokyo

Tsukiji Market (築地市場, Tsukiji Shijō) is this huge wholesale market for fresh produce. It is also home to the largest fish market in the world and this is the place where almost all sushi restaurants in Tokyo buy their freshest fish parts to be served on the day. The tuna auction is a must-see activity that is limited to 120 people and starts at 5am. As my friend very aptly put, must go early if not no FISH to catch. So we woke up super early, got into a taxi and arrived at 4.30am. But by then, the fish auction places were all. gone. So we did the next best thing- check out the sushi restaurants at the market.

The travel guidebooks recommend two places for sushi: Daiwa Sushi (大和寿司) and Sushi Dai (寿司大). These sushi restaurants are guaranteed to get the freshest fish (since they are situated close to the market) and having fresh sushi breakfast here is a part of every tourist's itinerary (that is if you can drag yourself out of bed, since these places typically open at 5am). Both Daiwa Sushi and Sushi Dai are located along the same narrow shop lane, with just perhaps two other shops separating them. Upon seeing the queue at 4.40 am  (maybe about 25 people), we just blindly joined in since we know there is a long wait to get into sushi joints here. Initially we wanted to try Daiwa Sushi, but we got distracted by the queue and just joined in, not realizing the queue was for Sushi Dai. (especially since both rivals have the word "大" in them!)

So here are some observations- there isn't any queue at Daiwa from 4.40am to about 6am: the queue only starts snaking when tourists flood the area, hungry for some sushi. Daiwa has a bigger area and more seats, so the queue isn't so bad early on and the waiting times are faster.

On the other hand, Sushi Dai operates from a really small space and the queues start forming even before it opens. The service staff very professionally splits the queue into two, one just outside of the restaurant and the other queue outside the main road to prevent crowds from spilling over the entrances of other neighbouring stalls. Although we got there before their opening at 5am, there was already a hoard of Japanese people queuing. It seems the locals are willing to wait and queue at Sushi Dai than go to the queue-less Daiwa sushi. Not sure if this is an indicator for the better restaurant and since we only tried Sushi Dai, I can't tell which is better than the other.

This was a picture taken outside the glass windows of Sushi Dai. As you can see, Sushi Dai cannot accommodate many people at one go (maybe 10?) and also explains the long queueing times for Sushi Dai since turnover rates are quite slow. We waited for almost 1.5 hours before being ushered to our seats (and that was despite entering the queue at 4.40am!). Apparently, people do wait for up to 3 hours just to get in and have a taste of heaven.

We had the Omakase Course (Chef Recommendation) for 3900 yen where the chef will select 10 sushi items based on their "best" and freshest seasonal catches for the day. You will also get to choose one more additional nigiri sushi item from an extensive list which includes fatty tuna, eel, shellfish, seasonal fish. The set also includes sushi rolls, tamago and miso soup.

I am not exaggerating when I say the sushi served here is ORGASMICALLY good and fresh! I have never enjoyed sushi so much anywhere else before stepping into Sushi Dai. Munching on each and every piece of sushi served here gave me such a positive, heartwarming sensation I have never felt before. I bet you are rolling your eyes at this point, but there was a strange calmness that overwhelmed me as I chomped down the sushi; my surroundings were tuned out and I just felt so light and happy. Eating good sushi is just pure joy!

The sashimi on top of each sushi is really really fresh. For instance, the first item we were served- the Fatty tuna (pictured above) came in a big, fat thick slice in all its pink glory. (It's from the nice fatty parts of the tuna belly). The fish literally melts in your mouth and the rice is slightly warm. I was also very amazed by the texture of the rice- when they enter your mouth, each soft and chewy grain of rice just separates so easy. It's really unlike the usual cold, dense and sticky sushi rice I have tasted elsewhere. Every sushi is very well balanced- with the perfect balance of wasabi, fish and rice. No other seasonings or soy sauce is needed. I was actually told dipping sushi in soy sauce is an insult to the sushi chef- it means the sushi isn't flavourful or well balanced enough.

I would love to upload all the photos I've taken, but I realised many of them are not very focused (still not very good at handling my camera) but I will post some highlights here. We were basically served a large variety of fresh sushi, like tuna, mackerel, flounder, eel, sea urchin and even shrimp, one after another.

Another fantastic tuna sushi- Marinated Tuna. This part wasn't as fatty as the first one.

Mackerel. Just so good- not too overwhelmingly fishy.

Octopus- they were just so amazingly fresh, chewy and crunchy!

The sushi rolls were fantastic! Each roll had their own unique flavour, very different from each other.

The miso soup was so so flavourful! The secret of good miso soup does not just lie in the quality of miso paste used- they also boil fresh fish bones into the soup to give it additional sweetness and flavour!



I really enjoyed my sushi experience here in Sushi Dai. The sushi served here was simply indescribably divine. (I actually still had the nice happy, heartwarming feeling hours after the meal). Making sushi is really an art- a combination of serving the freshest fish sashimi atop great chewy rice with the right balance of wasabi.

And I must say the sushi chefs here are always happy and cheerful. They are always smiling and are unperturbed by the raving crowds waiting outside. If they are sick and tired of making sushi, it doesn't show at all. But I guess happy chefs = happy food!

As much as I hate waiting for food, I must agree that the sushi here is definitely worth the wait. I'm not sure if I'm ever going to get sushi this fresh and good back in SG and I'm not sure if I will ever walk into another sushi restaurant that can top my experience here or even wow me anymore, and that's really depressing.

If you do intend to have fresh sushi breakfast here, you really need to get to the shop really early, maybe even join the queue before it opens so your wait will be shorter.

Address: 5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo, Tokyo. Website.

Standing Sushi Bar @ Shinjuku, Tokyo

It was only towards the end of my stay in Tokyo that I realized there was a cluster of Japanese eateries located in Shinjuku West. Just take the JR West exit to Keio shopping mall, hit the street level and across the road is this Electric street area dominated by a huge Yodobashi (an electronics retailer). Wander around the area and you will realize there are many eateries set up here to cater to the people working in the nearby office towers.

Decided to satisfy my sushi cravings at this Standing Sushi Bar outlet. I noticed this chain restaurant has quite a number of outlets around Tokyo and the set menus vary with each outlet. For this particular outlet, they were serving lunch set menus: 580 yen for 8 piece sushi, 1 seaweed roll and miso soup, 980 yen for 12 piece sushi and miso soup  and a premium set costing 1280 yen for 10 piece premium sushi and miso soup. I took the cheapest set menu, then hopped over to the next door udon shop for seconds. =)

As the name of the restaurant implies- you have to STAND while eating your sushi. The place is really small and cramped, enough to squeeze perhaps 15 standing diners around the mini sushi bar. You are literally rubbing shoulders with the diner next to you, but for good sushi, who cares? It was a really new experience for me! You are really close to the sushi chef, just separated by a piece of wood and the glass enclosure for fresh fish, so you can observe the chef preparing sushi. The turnover is quite fast too, so you are expected to finish up your meal fast and leave to allow new customers in.

Sushi chef blowtorches a fresh slab of sashimi, presumably to be used for one of their seared sushi items. WOAH.

Here are the 7 out of the 8 piece sushi promised by the set. For 580 yen, it's a steal! (It includes another seaweed roll and miso soup, not pictured). The sushi served here is decent and fresh. This has got to be my most bang per buck lunch meal in Tokyo. I took a look at their regular menu and a normal two piece ala carte sushi item will set you back by at least 200 yen. And if you notice, the variety of sushi in this set isn't too bad either- it comes with a variety of fish (tuna, salmon, snapper), squid, prawn and even a piece of tamago (although I rather they replaced it with another sushi hehe).