Ikoi Japanese restaurant review

Ikoi Japanese Restaurant

 One of the most interesting things about Japanese food is the way its prepared, and this AUTHENTIC 

Japanese restaurant is no exception. Who gets to drink soup from a teapot? or slurp down a bowl of  green tea rice? (Which is really Rice in green tea) Seriously! The minute you step into the place it feels like a transportation to a whole other country (Perhaps japan).  Ducking under the Noren Curtain hanging in the doorway, you're immediately greeted with shelves and walls full of cute japanese ornaments and pictures of other guests who've stepped through the very same path. 

     The waitresses are all in their Kimonos and you are immediately greeted with a high chorus of irasshaimase! The place is relatively small in size, but it just adds to the warm and cosy charm of a small shop in Japan. Now, the restaurant offers an all you can eat ala carte buffet, of which food items consist of everything in the Menu. I'll leave the items on the menu as a surprise, though you might have to ask the waitresses about what some of the food names mean (Since its all in japanese)

     

Mystery of the day:
Green tea? Seafood soup? WHAT IS THIS?!

The first thing they'd serve you would be a pot of what looks like green tea, which is already confusing on its own. But on a closer inspection, you'd realise its a different thing altogether. It's Seafood soup! as the waitress told us, Its a broth made of seafood and honestly, it'll be one of the best soups you'd ever taste. The flavours are clean and not overpowering like how some other seafood soups are like. One word sums it all up - Pleasant. 

Chawanmushi that's so soft you could die.

Fried everything that's nice

Okay, this I gotta say. It looks unoffensive enough, and sounds normal. Wild Japanese Yam? sure. no problem. It comes in tiny, tiny slices, topped with crisps of seaweed. Delicately pick one slice up with chopsticks and take a small chunk of it, and you will experience the strangest thing EVER. Its slimey, even though it has the texture of a chinese yellow pear. As in, the thing OOZES with slimey stuff with every bite. seriously!

Looks like the waitress blindfolded herself and poured
tea in the wrong place

What do you get when you cross Matcha, salmon slices and rice? THIS. I was actually pretty disappointed with this one. I thought it'd be more of an interesting, pleasurable experience, but this just goes to say that Things DO taste as weird as they sound. It was waaaay too salty, and bitter. The green tea mixes horribly with the rice, and there's a really weird aftertaste that stubbornly lingers on your tongue. Although I guess the risk of the adventure proved to be kind of fun. I mean, No one, and I say no one, would have ever eaten this for dinner. (Unless it was an accident of course.)

Alright, so that's the end of this review, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking for today. If you ever want a nice, exotic, non-cliched restaurant to take all your rich friends to and show off, here's the place for you.  You can find this place located at a cosy corner in Hotel Miramar, Singapore. Good day to you!

Hungry bunny over and out!

Weird Japanese sweet #4 (Puccho white strawberry)

Does this not pull on your curiosity strings or what?

     Yes, another Puccho candy that's as ridiculously flavoured as its other relatives. Now...in white strawberry flavour (Or pineberry as some people call it) I had to get it the second I laid my eyes on the thing.
   So, anyway. This does taste like strawberry, but its slightly more sour and has an interesting citrus taste to it-which is really quite uncommon in normal strawberry flavoured candies. Initially, I had thought it to be some sort of gimmick, that it was really just plain ol' ordinary strawberry flavour, BUT NO! A glance at the ingredients list told me otherwise. For there, printed in the tinniest black font was the words ' White strawberry puree'. Really, this company goes all the way to get you a unique treat. Go on, get it if you've seen it on the shelves but doubt its tastiness.
   Or maybe you're one of the people who walk past it thinking its ordinary strawberry. If so, well, there IS a slight difference. Slight. But it is there, so why not add it to your collection of Pucchos?? Mine's growing bigger and I have not regretted any of it yet.

Hungry Bunny gives this a 7/10 for its intriguing quality. Or maybe an 8/10 for tasting really good. ah whatever, get it and see for yourself!! Over and out~

Weird Japanese Sweet #3 (Puccho Soda and melon gum drops)

Puccho puccho puccho~!

What sweet sounds like a pokemon name? It's Puccho of course! well, yeah, you could get any other old normal flavour of high-chew-like sweets from 7-Eleven, But hey, Melon soda flavoured? I just had to buy these.
  BTW, I got this from a shop in Malaysia, so it's not exactly a common find.
  Not only is the packaging totally cute and awesome, the flavours are SUPER addictive, and you can't ever bring yourself to stop popping a few of these gum drops into your mouth. Seriously! This is something you do not want to miss out on. If you see this, get it at once. Though I could mention that they should have made the gum drops bigger, but oh well, all the more cuter it would be if they looked like little wine gums.

P.S. Okay, so I finished the whole thing before I could take a picture of the sweets, so yeah, the bottle's empty.




Hungry bunny Over and Out-

Weird Japanese Sweet #2 (Japanese Cigarette sweet)

hmmm...influencing on little girls to smoke?

I came across this peculiar looking box while I was 'sweet hunting' at a small convenient store. Honestly, it didn't look that appetizing, but the cute packaging got to me. See, these are really old childhood sweets here in Singapore, and are kinda plain and boring, being chalk-like and white with no colours and everything, but they do give a sense of nostalgia in some way. Why not? a nice road trip down memory lane with only the cost of 30 cents. Don't hesitate to pick these up and be a kid again, you know, holding the white stick between your index and middle finger, 'smoking' your lungs out while enjoying a nice strawberry taste on your tongue. Well, of course, being me, I just chewed the whole thing up as I couldn't be bothered to wait out half an hour sucking on the thing.

Saba fish(Grilled mackerel) at Holland Village

Oily deliciousness

If you're a huge Saba fish fan, my advice to you is to head on to Holland Village's coffee shop for a nice, cheap good meal. I mean, seriously, would you look at the grease on that fish?Perfectly fried to a crisp golden brown, this dish is the best saba fish I've ever tasted that comes at a reasonable price