I’m a weird foodie sometimes. While I like to explore new eating places and experience new foods, I also have the tendency to revisit a restaurant several times within a short period of time just because I really like it. It happened to me again recently after I visited Sushi Express at Citylink Mall for the 3rd time in 1.5 months, lol. I ‘swore’ to the husband I’m not going to eat at Sushi Express for the next 6 3 1 month. He took it with a pinch of salt, lol. Let’s see :p Oops, I’ll not be reviewing Sushi Express for now as I didn’t take any pictures when I was there all 3 times. They were just moments of our fun eating and indulgences without the ‘I-need-to-blog-about-this-place agenda’ haha!
Anyway, yes, I was craving for Japanese food again and we happened to be at Bedok Mall. We spotted Itacho Sushi which we hadn’t been to before because we were always put off by the long queues. And since it was 4-ish in the afternoon, it wasn’t packed at all which was perfect!
Many of their sushi came in single portions i.e. 1 piece so you can just indicate the quantity you want for each item on the order chit and hand over to any service staff.
Just so you know. It’s easy to clock up more than $10 per person anyway unless you’re a super small eater.
Ha, I’ve been telling the husband many times that this is the Japanese way to eat sushi but he still likes dipping his sushi into the soy sauce (with tons of wasabi) as though it’s some sort of savoury gravy. Tsk tsk.
Scallop with Lobster Salad, Duck Breast Sushi
The scallop was so fresh and sweet! And the lobster salad was quite flavoursome too. A good pairing indeed. The duck breast was nicely smoked with a layer of really fatty skin. While it tasted decent on its own, I didn’t think it went very well with sushi rice. And what I really loved was that the rice came in smaller portion for each piece of sushi so they wouldn’t fill us up easily with wasted carbs. It also meant we could order more variety to try!
Clams with Butter & Pepper
This was one of the best clam dishes I ever had! The sauce was nicely seasoned and had very well-balanced flavours from the aromatic garlic, fragrant butter and spicy black pepper. The clams were fresh and juicy and were thoroughly cleaned out so they didn’t contain any grit. Must order!
Spicy Squid Leg Salad & Ebiko with Sesame Pressed Sushi, Crab Salad with Egg Pressed Sushi
Pretty ordinary, nothing to shout about.
Salmon Spring Roll, Salmon Lobster Salad Roll
The salmon spring roll was a knockout! Looked similar to the Vietnamese style fresh spring rolls. Slices of salmon were wrapped in rice paper sheets with vegetables and drizzled with a refreshing, tangy, sweet and spicy sauce that really ignited our senses and made our eyes lit up. Sushi had never been this enjoyable!
The combination of salmon with lobster salad was dynamite too. I loved the texture and the flavour that really made plain salmon seem a little more exciting.
Deep Fried Shrimp Gyoza with Green Tea Salt
These gyozas were quite crispy on the outside and not overly greasy too but some parts of the skin were a tad hard and chewy. It was the first time I had gyozas with green tea salt but the salt was a little too light for my palate to do much justice to the dumplings. Maybe it was meant to be like this so we could taste the natural sweetness of the shrimp filling inside.
Roasted Egg with Curry Lobster
Not bad as a snack to munch on. The egg was firm and meaty and tasted a little sweet like standard tamago. The curry sauce was a little starchy and tasted like those from a packet.
Vegetable Tempura with Japanese Cold Soba
Cold soba is such a comforting food. The tempura were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The soba broth was full-bodied but not overwhelming or overly salty hence making this dish really light and refreshing.
Scallop with Flying Fish Roe & Cheese
We tasted processed cheese in the dressing but felt it was a mismatch with the scallop. Pity.
Spicy Salmon Hand Roll
The hand roll didn’t look exactly like the picture on the menu that was supposed to be a little more red in colour. This looked like a canned tuna roll to me, lol. The husband thought it was a little dry.
Cold Sea Cucumber
Regretted ordering this. Instead of being crunchy and springy, this was rubbery and chewy. The flavour of its marinate tasted kinda weird too and wasn’t good enough to mask out the briny taste of the sea cucumber.
Salmon Spring Roll
This was so good, we just had to order again! Yum.
Same for the clams! This just gave me this warm and fuzzy feeling in the tummy. I would regret if I left the restaurant without a second helping, lol.
And we purposely left some soba noodles to soak in the clam broth. This was utterly delicious! Much much better than eating with the standard soba broth. If you order the clams, do get the soba noodles too and have them this way like what we did. Too good to miss!
Overall, our meal cost just under $60 which was not bad considering we had so many different dishes and some really outstanding ones. Satisfying meal indeed. Will definitely be back again. Who knows, it might be a new round of 3 visits in 6 weeks for me. Lol, fingers crossed!
Itacho Sushi
#B2-42/43, Bedok Mall
311 New Upper Changi Road
Tel: 6227 8911
Facebook page
Opening hours: 11.00am to 10.00pm daily