Nagomi

Nagomi located at Cuppage Plaza, serves fresh seafood flown in from Japan and imported Japanese liquors.

The place seats less than 30 persons. Basically, it's omakase style, meaning you allow them to decide your menu depending the seafood they have, although they will first enquire if there is any food that you do not eat. I did notice that some japanese diners were shown a japanese menu, but locals would do fine allowing your menu to be decided on your behalf.

You are served a small amount of appetizers - macaroni and tuna with mayonnaise on the left, and seasoned vegetables on the right.

Shoyu for sashimi, and the other one for oysters which I actually forgot to use. The small cup was for the sake that I ordered. You are given a tray full of sake cups and you choose a cup of your liking. My first time doing that so I felt a little sua ku and embarrassed for not knowing.

My sake served cold. I chose the smooth over dry.

First up was japanese tomato - sweet and juicy. Tasted pretty amazing with the salt.

My god! These have to be the best oysters I had in my life. My experience with oysters had been so-so, so I usually steer away. But these were the best - extremely fresh and succulent, with nary a hint of fishy smell.

Our sashimi platter, which the owner explained to us the kind of seafood served. Counter-clockwise from top left: uni, scallop, maguro, snapper, and I can't remember the last 2! The uni was really good, just like that ones I had in Hokkaido!

Can't remember what fish this was, but it had a very soft and fine texture inside. Went really well with the salt.

Braised pork belly. Well braised and sinful.

I remember the name of this one - Mehikari, a kind of solefish. This was steamed and light in flavour. I like the soft texture of the meat.

Grilled beef. Beef slices were tender and aromatic.

Lastly, we had chicken broth porridge, which was savoury and hearty.

The owner came over and informed us that this was our last dish and if we would like more food, but we declined.

Finally, for desserts we were served fresh peach from Japan. These were really sweet and juicy, the way you would expect Japanese fruits to be.

At $260 for 2, it is worth every single cent for the quality of the food. I think this is my best Japanese meal in Singapore thus far (Kazu serves yakitori, so that's of another category). Certainly worth coming back for more.

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Fremantle Seafood Market

Had supper at Fremantle Seafood Market over at Clarke Quay. We chose the indoor seats, although there were outdoor seats where you can indulge in alcohol. Do note that indoor area may not open till late; we were told it closes at 10pm, but we still saw people streaming indoors around 10pm.

We ordered our drinks - I had the Mai Tai which was basically a rum cocktail, while SparklingOrStill had his ginger beer.

We ordered the Frolic platter for 2. This was huge and took up almost all the space on our little table. It consisted of shrimps, mussels, jellyfish, oysters, sashimi, squid, smoked salmon, smoked trout, olives, mozarella-stuffed tomatoes. All the seafood were very fresh, although SparklingOrStill thinks the oysters weren't that good. I seldom eat oysters, so am no expert here.

We ordered the grilled fish to share. Herein lies the problem - we have no idea if this fish is barramundi or white hamachi. We had a pretty blur waiter who recommended barramundi, but we chose hamachi in the end. But when the bill came, it stated barramundi instead. Nonetheless, we loved this dish. The fish was succulent, tender and sweet. It came on a bed of mashed potatoes and sauteed lotus roots and carrots. The lotus roots were crunchy and a unique side you seldom see.

I love escargots, so we ordered one. I would prefer it to be served in its shell, but here, they served it on toast with butter, herbs and pine nuts. It was still good and very buttery. The escargot did feel a little small, though.

We heard the fish and chips were good too, so we ordered to share. Indeed, the fish was also very fresh and flaky. The batter did not have any 'oily' smell to it. The chips were good; they were not over-fried and you can taste the potato within each chip.

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