Happily, this week started with a bang again. Upon the recommendation of my friend Mr Bang, who always knows about all the good deals, lunch today was at Umami Dining Lounge, situated at Liang Court. This restaurant is part of Social House, which is billed as the largest party club in a shopping mall – in line with this, the restaurant feels and looks like an extension of a night club i.e. dim lighting, velvet-covered banquettes, and lots of dark wood paneling. I almost felt like I was in a (high-class) KTV lounge!
As Umami was having a one-for-one set lunch promotion with DBS credit cards till 31 Oct, with set lunches priced at a very reasonable $18 and $25, we decided to go for the $25 set. This comprised of three courses, with about 3 options for each course. Rather unimaginatively, we all chose the same options: an assorted sashimi platter for the starter, grilled sanma for the main, and cheese mousse for dessert (YJ deviated here and had the homemade custard pudding).
The sashimi platter was decent, with 2 slices each of ika (squid), salmon, and tuna – nothing spectacular in the way of freshness or sweetness, but with a nice touch in that the sashimi was served on sliced rounds of lemon which gave a refreshing zinger to the palate. Impressively, the platter came with real grated wasabi, which is always a good sign that a restaurant takes its food seriously.
Our main of grilled sanma tasted as good as it looked, very considerately filleted so that no fiddly grappling with the tiny bones was necessary. The oily and strong-flavoured flesh was delicious although the skin was not quite as crisp as I would have liked. Perfectly complemented by a petite bowl of Japanese rice (my only complaint was that there was not enough rice! It was that delicious), pickles, and a robust-tasting miso soup.
Desserts were not really fantastic, but still alright. Our cheese mousse dessert was not quite what we expected, since we were imagining something akin to Japanese cheesecake beforehand. But since it was light and smooth, we polished it up, which rounded off the meal well.
We were all happy with the extremely good value lunch, since the quality of the food was high for the price we paid. The only gripe we had was that as our party consisted of 3 persons, the restaurant was not flexible enough to offer us 4 sets for the price of 2 (unlike at Satsuma Shochu and My Humble House), which marred our impression of the service level a little.
As Umami was having a one-for-one set lunch promotion with DBS credit cards till 31 Oct, with set lunches priced at a very reasonable $18 and $25, we decided to go for the $25 set. This comprised of three courses, with about 3 options for each course. Rather unimaginatively, we all chose the same options: an assorted sashimi platter for the starter, grilled sanma for the main, and cheese mousse for dessert (YJ deviated here and had the homemade custard pudding).
The sashimi platter was decent, with 2 slices each of ika (squid), salmon, and tuna – nothing spectacular in the way of freshness or sweetness, but with a nice touch in that the sashimi was served on sliced rounds of lemon which gave a refreshing zinger to the palate. Impressively, the platter came with real grated wasabi, which is always a good sign that a restaurant takes its food seriously.
Our main of grilled sanma tasted as good as it looked, very considerately filleted so that no fiddly grappling with the tiny bones was necessary. The oily and strong-flavoured flesh was delicious although the skin was not quite as crisp as I would have liked. Perfectly complemented by a petite bowl of Japanese rice (my only complaint was that there was not enough rice! It was that delicious), pickles, and a robust-tasting miso soup.
Desserts were not really fantastic, but still alright. Our cheese mousse dessert was not quite what we expected, since we were imagining something akin to Japanese cheesecake beforehand. But since it was light and smooth, we polished it up, which rounded off the meal well.
We were all happy with the extremely good value lunch, since the quality of the food was high for the price we paid. The only gripe we had was that as our party consisted of 3 persons, the restaurant was not flexible enough to offer us 4 sets for the price of 2 (unlike at Satsuma Shochu and My Humble House), which marred our impression of the service level a little.
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