Dinner at Ichiban Boshi Japanese Restaurant @ Takashimaya Shopping Centre

391 Orchard Road #02-13 Ngee Ann City, Singapore 238872

Tel: 6735 1816

Website: http://www.ichibanboshi.com.sg/en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ichiban-Boshi-Takashimaya-372225886221404/?rf=513927881954879

Ichban Boshi is a contemporary Japanese restaurant serving up modern and quality Japanese food at wallet-friendly prices. It has been around for years, and I am glad that standard is still pretty consistent, and that my favorite items are still around (you know how restaurants love revamping their menus and removing lots of all-time favorites!).

The Takashimaya outlet is located somewhat "outside" - from level 2, you need to exit the glass doors and cross over to where the taxi stand is. You know where Sushi Tei used to be? Anyway, so Ichiban Boshi is proud that no 2 outlets are the same in design  and ambience, as well as their specialty menus, however the high quality and wide range of sushi / sashimi are guaranteed.  Hmmm well, let's see.

Service was polite enough, but not excellent.  About 2 or 3 waitresses had to keep coming around to confirm and double confirm my orders, and then the bill was erroneous as well. Other than that, ambience here was quite all right - pleasant, comfortable.

I started with a Ozeki Fizzy Fruit Sake (SGD$16.00) which is a crisp and sweet Japanese wine with delicious hints of grapefruit, really easy on the palate and makes one happy just to indulge in it.

Foodwise, it was a difficult decision as I was eating alone, and there were so many things I wanted to eat - both on the menu and from the sushi belt; the dilemma was real.  In the end I decided to go for a Tokusen Sushi Mori and Kani Jiru Gozen set (SD$29.90) -  assorted seared sushi (salmon, scallop and yellowtail), sweet shrimp, bluefin tuna, sea urchin and salmon roe sushi, served with chawanmushi, snow crab miso soup and fruit.

Sadly, Sea Urchin (uni) was not available for that day therefore I asked them to replace it with my favorite Lobster Salad Sushi.  I always enjoy their Lobster Salad sushi - sweet and springy, mixed with mayo and delicious, but I was actually looking forward to trying the sea urchin as well. Oh well, next time maybe.

The Snowcrab Miso Soup was a generous portion, filled with snowcrab of course - rather fleshy, but hard to get the flesh out because of the lack of appropriate utensils. I had to struggle a little with my fork and chopsticks. The soup was saccharine and very lovely.

Chawanmushi came with seafood at the bottom, and salmon roe at the top. I enjoy this smooth egg custard dish with popping salmon roe with each bite.  The fruit were wedges of freshly-cut orange.

Finally, the platter of assorted sushi! Fresh seafood atop sticky Japanese rice; my favorite were the seared items especially, for the combination of sweetness and smokey hints. Each morsel was delectable and this was a very filling set (I didn't even finish all the rice in the sushi).