Warmly welcomed and served by their polite and courteous service crew, we were impressed with the strong understanding of their menu, knowing what to recommend and introducing their seasonal fresh catch with such fervour. With an appetite for adventure, cy happily told the service staff  'I'll leave it to you to choose our dishes'.

Specialising in robatayaki, or robata in short, it's a trending style of cooking in restaurants, where traditionally seafood and vegetables are slow-grilled over hot charcoal. Subsequently, most dishes that are suitable are also placed on the grill. Slightly different from the usual where diners would seat round the grilling area (like teppanyaki style), this had comfy seats where food was served to you fresh from the grill.

Grilled Squid and Scallop on Stick

First served with hot towels and complimentary amuse-bouche for a taste of their warm hospitality, we were pleasantly surprised with the charcoal-grilled squid and scallop on sticks. Fresh and tender, it was grilled just nice with a slight bounce in the flesh and a light taste of seafood lingering in your mouth. Simple yet nicely done to start off our meal with great anticipation! 

These two were their seasonal catch, painstakingly introduced at each table for every diner by their service staff holding a tray of their specials going around. Sparking off a photo-taking frenzy when served, the presentation of it won us over already, impressed by the amount of effort they put into display given the price tag of it. Extremely fresh with its meat coming off the bones easily, it was very fine and tender, without any of the fishy taste that I'm always afraid of for fish dishes. Cooked just nice so that it didn't get too tough, it was served without any sauces and covered only in salt, it gave the natural taste of the fish, with its freshness shining through. Cy is usually picky about his fish, but this managed to satisfy his picky palates!

A classic Japanese dish, a first bite into it got us all nodding with satisfaction. Japanese pancake with mainly cabbage, eggs, Japanese mayonnaise, topped with bonito flakes. The vegetables were cooked soft enough for my liking so that you don't taste the raw juices of it flowing as you bite into it, yet retaining a slight crunch to it.  

We loved the generous serving of bonito flakes for that added savouriness and it had just enough mayonnaise to make it sweet and creamy, yet not jelat. A classic dish done well!

Craving for some hot soup to go with our meal, we decided to go with the Tonkotsu base, another of their all-time favourite hotpot selection. First mouthful got us cringing at the taste of it and exclamations of 'whoa this is super salty!' came along. For ramen lovers, this would taste pretty similar to the tonkotsu ramen soup base. Though good to go with ramen or some rice, it was too salty for it to be taken on its own. The base was rich and flavourful, and blended very well as we dipped rice into little bowls of soup (somewhat like porridge). We expected the flesh of the pork ribs to come off the bones easily, however they were a tad too stiff.