If you are a fan of Marché, the Swiss-run restaurant at VivoCity, or even its imitator at The Heeren, chances are you would love Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar. Shokudo shares the similar concept of having several cooking stations under one roof, charge cards and themed dining, but with Japanese cuisine instead.
The 15,000 square foot eatery opened just weeks ago at the new basement extension of Raffles City Shopping Centre. Attracted by the fact that I can choose from over 230 dishes, I hurried down to check out the place. Many other people had the same idea, and it was only during my second visit that I managed to get in after a relatively short queue.
The design is colourful, modern and tasteful, with various areas of themed dining. The walls are dominated by murals of Tokyo city scenes overlaid with graphics of Japanese girls.
(Update: Asprah left a comment informing me that those aren’t really Japanese girls, but long-haired Japanese male rockers!)
(As I was rather enthralled by the art on those walls, I did some snooping around and found the artist’s website where you can see all the commissioned arts he did for Shokudo. here’s the link.)
There are even a few colourful neoprint machines at the centre of the restaurant! They sure are a hit with the younger crowd.
You would find the rosti here too, which is a signature potato dish at Marché. But other than that, the food is vastly different. In addition to traditional fare such as sushi, sashimi, teppanyaki and tempura, there are many more unusual creations.
Even for Western dishes such as burgers and pasta, they would be done Japanese style. The burgers come with eggs served sunny side up and – check this out – miso-flavoured beef patties!
So there I was, walking through the melange of various cooking stations, not knowing what to eat. There were so many choices and everything looked tempting to me!
Then, I spotted a queue at the omelette station. Normally, bland-tasting omelettes wouldn’t attract me much. But this time round, my Singaporean mentality kicked in. “if there’s a queue, it must be good la!” moreover, it was fun watching the chef cook the omelette in his cute square-shaped pan.
The dish is served popiah-style, with the omelette wrapped around the ingredients and cut into different segments. Delicious mayonnaise is then drizzled generously over it.
S$5.80++
Rating:
What you see here is the unagi (eel) omelette. I swear I am not exaggerating here, but boy, it was lip-smackingly good! I certainly had not expected it to be that good. I mean, there is only so much you can do with an omelette right? It was a little sweet, a little salty, and bursting with flavour all at the same time. I strongly urge everyone to go for this – we even got ourselves a second helping!
Besides unagi, you also get to choose from other ingredients such as crab meat, cheese, bacon, ham, sliced pork and mushroom too. Wow, I’m so going back to shokudo just to get a taste of the omelette again!
S$6.80++
Rating:
If you are in the mood for something more conventional, go for the Japanese hot plate. Besides the unagi seen above, there’s also beef, seafood or chicken (for the chicken lovers like me) to choose from. It’s nothing particularly out of the norm, but tastes good nonetheless.
S$4++
Rating:
Okay, this is just too funny to leave out. For something that goes back to the basics, and by that I really do mean the basics, there’s the fried tau gay (bean sprouts). I couldn’t believe it when my friend came walking back to our table with a whole platter of fried tau gay! And it actually cost 4 bucks!
This is followed by dessert! Dessert choices include cr�pes, waffles and even tofu cheesecakes. Always a fan of waffles, we went for the waffle with a scoop of gelato. Why gelato? Because the Japanese are a health-conscious bunch and gelato has much less fat than regular ice cream!
S$5.80++
Rating:
It’s a long wait, though, as the waffle is made from scratch on the spot. But it’s well worth the wait. At my next visit, I’m having the tofu cheesecake. I’ve never had one before!
As I was going around checking out the food stations, one particular station piqued my interest. It’s a pizza station! These Japanese pizzas are wafer-thin and certainly do not resemble the common pizzas!
This is a plastic replica of the pizza. Look just how thin it is! I was rather pleased to see these plastic food replicas at every food station here, the way many restaurants in Japan have them!
I really enjoy the wide array of Japanese food here. There are so many different dishes to sample such that even the fussiest eater (and by that I really mean me) would find something he or she loves. I’m already looking forward to my next visit!
Raffles City Shopping Centre
252 North Bridge Road #B1-44E
Singapore 179103
Tel: +65 6837 3793
Service:
Feb 19, 2008
15
wow, the food looks so good! shall drop by to try it soon :D
Feb 19, 2008
182
I didn’t notice this, even though I was at Raffles Place just last week. Thank you for pointing out. I may check it out months later when the queue gets shorter….hopefully.
Feb 19, 2008
3472
nicole: It’s a great place for both big groups and small groups. I think you would love it there :)
py: We didn’t really have to queue during the lunch hours even during the weekend. I think the crowd tends to come in the evening.
Feb 20, 2008
1
Wah! I’m certainly going when I come back!
Feb 20, 2008
3472
Go for it!
Feb 20, 2008
29
I will definitely visit Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar, all the food u recommend is so good.
But some of the food like the bean sprouts look black and gross.
The pizza look pathetically small. I might need 4 of them to get the burp out from my stomach siaz…
Feb 20, 2008
14
yay, you managed to visit the “Jap Marche”!! My goodness, so much choices…I wouldn’t know where to start! Everything (other than the tau gay) looks great! I should pop by with my bf who is a big fan of jap food! Notice that you didn’t feature anything on sushi or sashimi…was it because they weren’t available or they didnt look good enough to be featured?
Feb 21, 2008
2
Went there last week over the weekend. Quite a disappointment. Went there for lunch (1:30 – 2:30pm). To summ it all up (60mins in shokudo – 15 mins eating time / 45 mins queuing time and waiting time).
Ordered a few dishes and spent most of my time waiting for my dish. I think they are understaffed and they can’t cope with the numbe rof customers.
Food wise – slightly abv average and quite pricey. For the price they charge, we are better off going to a proper jap restaurant.
According to the Japanese mabager, their grilled fish and hambargar is quite popular. I waited 20 mins for my grilled saba. The other yakitori, shitake mushrooms were already cold when my grilled fish was ready. I gave up on the hambargar. Pizza is tiny…
Other dishes I tried – Chicken stew – shortest queue but super salty. Gyoza is a disappointment. Ordered a few other dishes but not much impresssion.
My impression of the place- nicely done in terms of ambience, decor etc but the waiting time is ridiculous.
Maybe it was an off day for them or becoz Sunday Times featured an article on them and they experienced a surge in customers.
I might give shokudo another chance but I will go during off peak / late lunch etc.
Total bill = $40 plus for a few side dishes, grilled fish…quite pricey. I feel like I am in a high class food court. The price is definitely not justifiable. We are better off at Food Republic @ Wisma’s Jap restaurant.
Anyone had a similar experience as myself?
Feb 21, 2008
5
Looks good. I had a shock when I saw the extremely long queue during Valentine’s Day. It’s even longer than the one at Donut Factory. Will drop by someday, thanks for the intro! :)
Feb 21, 2008
3472
neo: Haha the bean sprouts dish is definitely not my recommendation! I posted it only because I found it so hilariously cute that my friend ordered it. The pizza may be small, but at least you would have room in your tummy for more goodies!
Joyz: They have sashimi for sure, right by the main entrance. Not too sure about the sushi though; I don’t recall seeing any, but I’m assuming by default that they do have it. In any case, I thought it would be more fun to feature the more interesting dishes!
Mel: Yeah Life! featured it in The Sunday Times during that weekend, hence explaining the crowd. I was there queuing with my family but we had to give up halfway. But the following weekend when I was there during the afternoon chow hours, the crowd wasn’t that bad. I found the prices to be affordable, except that I wasn’t expecting a service charge to be levied since it was all self service.
Jacelyn: Hope you enjoy your visit! The queue would be shorter now that the special occasions are are over. Do try the omelette!
Feb 22, 2008
14
The food looks so so tempting!! I gotta go there to have a try!! haha! Cool!
Feb 23, 2008
11
just went recently ..find it nice.only the grill food not so good
overall not bad..will be back again:)
Feb 23, 2008
50
Hi Hi,
Quite a few friends intro the place to me but somehow can’t seem to find the right time to go there…its quite crowded…thanks for showing the beautiful artworks…having seen them, i have finally decided we would just take half day leave, queue there regardless of how long is the queue and try it once and for all….haha.
Feb 23, 2008
1
Im just back from the restaurant… bad bad experience with the reservation table system. we took over a table immediately after a group had left. we got the staff to clean up the table, left our reservation tag on the table & left to get our food. we were back at our table & happily having our food.. just before i could finish my handroll, a couple came up to us & claimed that table belongs to them! they insisted the table was theirs even though we explained to them that we indeed came b4 them as we even got the table cleaned up before we left to get our food. i din wan to create a scene & left to look for another table. of cos i wa fuming mad becos i had to carry my handroll with me & seek the restaurant people’s help to find us another table. from the reaction of the mgr, it seems ours weren’t the 1st incident.
another minus pt was the hygience std of tis restaurant. the tray they used for my handroll was full of dust!! i used my finger & swipe across the tray. wow! i was stunned! i got the staff to change the tray. BUT they took the handroll which was already on the dirty tray & put in the new tray???? i look in digust. when i paid for the bill, i filed my complaint at the cashier. the cashier directed their incharge to us. i simply told him wat happened & suggested that they shld really do something abt the table system & of cos the most impt is the hygience std of the restaurant!! plus, since everything is so so so self service, they shld do away with the service charge.
Feb 24, 2008
1
It looks delicious.
Feb 24, 2008
2
Not all of their items are fantastic…
eg. the crepes are too fluffy to be crepe, more like pancakes…
omurice with hamburg…hamburg tad too dry and the omu rice was so-so
tempura’s coating not as crispy
the nices ones that i tried were:
potato salad, nice and creamy, with fresh veg and ya own selection of sauces
matcha drink was good! very thick..
beef stew thingy..nice fresh slices of beef with well-seasoned flavour immensed in them..
one thing i don’t understand is the 10% service charge..heh
Feb 24, 2008
2
addons: the service at omurice station was really bad..was told to return after 10mins..when i returned, the staffs clearly forgotten my order and told me to come back another 15mins..to which i replied, have to wait so long? the rude staff retorted back “have to wait” without showing any signs of apologies..
if you want to go there for dinner, make sure you head there earlier..i went ard 5+ on weekdays w/o queue and when we left at ard 6+7, there were so many people queuing to get in..
Feb 25, 2008
2
Less crowded after valentines’ etc? Think not. Less crowd becoz of the bad experiences. Anyway dont think I will be there anytime soon. There are better choices available. At least I get served and waiting time is reasonable.