Lunch at Irodori @ Riverview Hotel

*Pris and I decided to meet for lunch at Irodori Japanese Restaurant, since she mentioned that the Japanese food here was good, and I have yet to try it for myself. Irodori Japanese Restaurant is located at 382 Havelock Road #03-01 Riverview Hotel, Singapore 169629 and the number for reservations is 6737 2002.

The open concept dining area was already filled with diners when we met up before noon. We were seated and served the Cold Tofu starter - with some salted vegetables and Japanese soy sauce, a tantalising appetite-teaser while we browsed the menus to order from this ala carte buffet setting.

We had the Enoki Mushrooms next - a tasty portion of slender stems and tiny caps, somewhat crunchy, and even a tad salty, in my humble opinion.

Then the Crispy Chicken Winglets - deliocious little winglets grilled / fried to a crispy golden-brown, and the tender meat within is tasty too.

Next, the Beef Slices - succulent and tasty, especially with the sweet flavor of onions infused into the flesh and gravy. 

And the Lobster with roe - we were only allowed to have one each of this item. For the lobster lovers, this was definitely a favorite with us - springy fresh lobster meat, tinged with natural sweetness and the crunchiness / crinkling bursts of roe atop added a unique texture to the dish.

Now, good old Chawanmushi aka comfort food - something I cannot do without at a Japanese restaurant.  Taste-wise, this one was rather bland but the smoothness was noted, so I just swallowed while it was hot.

We dug into the lightly-flavored, tasty Soba soup - another bowl of smooth, warm food that felt good in the tummy. The soba noodles were soft yet springy, and the soup was scrumptious.

After that, we had the Shisamo - pregnant fish - aromatic fish filled with roe, hence it was a sumptuous taste-cacophony of flavors and textures. I felt guilty afterwards though, after *Pris reminded me that these fish were killed when pregnant and served as food. I guess this shall be the last time I order this delicacy.

Moving on, the platter of Sashimi platter that we could not do without. Fresh, succulent and tasty, the tuna, swordfish, snapper and salmon slices were devoured rather quickly with squeezes of lemon and wasabi. We had another platter of this item, especially the Salmon and Swordfish sashimi.

After that, we enjoyed a small assortment of fried stuff - Tempura - shrimps, carrots, lady's fingers and brinjal / eggplants. Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, this dish was rather appetising, especially the shrimp (ebi) tempuras.

Next, the Udon soup - I suspect that they cook this in the same broth as the Soba soup dish above - equally tasty, and the udon noodle was silken smooth and bouncy. I was never a fan of udon, but this one made an exception.

Then the Deep Fried Tofu with a little bit of roe on top and bathed in some soya sauce. I had actually ordered the Agadeshi Tofu but they served me the wrong thing. As I waited a long time for this order, and even reminded the staff a few times about my Agadeshi tofu, I did not bother to request for a chance because who knows how long later they would serve my Tofu? Not bad, this wrongly-served dish - tender, sweet and melted in the mouth.

Finally, we concluded the meal with ice-creams! Nothing like thick, flavorful Japanese ice-cream to end off a savoury meal beautifully - the Green Tea (matcha) flavor and Black Sesame flavor were both awesome, and we were happy at the sweet ending to this buffet lunch.

Each of us paid SGD$50.00 for the lunch, satiated and satisfied.