Turning Japanese

As part of my resolution to try out new restaurants, I started looking for family-style establishments where I could bring the brood and eat good food without busting the household budget. This weekend we tried out a Japanese restaurant at Cuppage Plaza in Orchard called Izakaya Nijumaru. 

I saw an old review from renowned Singapore food blogger ladyironchef:

'Izakaya Nijumaru is a great hidden gem with good Japanese food at very affordable prices.'

Well that's a good enough endorsement for me, so off we went to Cuppage Plaza.

We entered this rather old building and looked for the restaurant - you'll see this bright green can't miss it sign and you'll know you've arrived.

It's a bad menu. All words no visuals. But if you frequent Japanese restaurants you'll find most of the standards here. We went for the Oyakodon, Kastsudon, Hire Katsu Sets and Chawanmushi. 

It's fairly small and all the tables and seats are really close to each other. When you're inside you'll be immediately transported to Japan. 70% of the customers who were there at the time were all Japanese.

This is a shot of the Hire Katsu set. Quite affordable given that it was SGD11.50 in 2010 and only increased price to SGD13 in 2012. It wasn't as good as the one at Tonkichi but given that the one at Tonkichi is around SGD23, I'd say it's still pretty good value for money. The Oyakodon was pretty good too, and for SGD8, I'd say it was a steal.  

Feeding oranges to the baby. She loved it because it was quite sweet. She also loved the sticky rice, soft tofu and the chawanmushi.

We're definitely adding this restaurant to our list of favorites.

Izakaya Nijumaru

5 Koek Road #02-09 Cuppage Plaza Singapore