Read many good reviews on Nogawa and I wanted to see whether it’s as good as it appears to be. Apparently, Chef Nogawa is one of the most (if not the most) respected Japanese chefs in Singapore. He’s like THE godfather of the sushi chefs in our dining scene. Even my all time favourite idol (MM Lee!) has eaten at his restaurant! How cool is that.
You are probably thinking that a meal here will cost a bomb. That’s probably true for dinner or if you order the premium stuff but for lunch, there are many affordable set lunches and Shake-Don ($15++) is one of them.
The flakes of cooked salmon were very moist and went well with the savoury sauce. I’m so not a fan of fish roe because it reminds me of cod liver oil (which I was forced to eat when I was a kid!) and this hasn’t changed my mind.
Go all out and get the Chirashi Sushi with Chawanmushi ($35++) which is a feast for the eyes. The chef get to decide what goes into the bowl based on the day’s freshest ingredients. So what you see here may not be what you get!
Superbly fresh sake, maguro and hamachi sashimi.
Brimming with tamago, crabstick, anago (saltwater eel), fish roe, and assorted sashimi, I love how pretty this looked!
Food aside, I want to grumble about the service. We were the only diners on a Friday afternoon so there’s really no excuse for such bad service. Or is it because we are not regulars?
The menu has no description of the various items and being the fussy eater that I am, I wanted to know what’s shown on the pictures. When asked, the waitress just nonchalantly replied ”some fried stuff”. Hello? I can tell it’s fried but what is it? Chicken? Veg? What? A little initiative on her part to clarify with the chef would be much appreciated.
And that’s not all. You know I mentioned how much I hate rushing? Another waitress rudely informed us “we closed at 3pm” before stalking off. Poor friend had to finish the rest of her meal in a hurry! Can’t they tell us politely earlier since we didn’t know?
Utterly unprofessional for a restaurant of Nogawa’s standing! Food was just a notch above average so I don’t see why I had to pay for such lousy attitude when many other good Japanese restaurants abound in Singapore.
oh yes yes! i alwaes sweep the roe to one side or give it to my fellow foodie lol! i get what you mean by cod-liver-oil-ish! hah.
oh mann.. terrible service is a real turn-off eh, somehow just makes customers feel like they aren’t really valued. =X but they must have treated your idol reverently =)
thanks for the review! shall try that place out, may be similar to Ikoi in terms of good food bad service kinda experience.
cheers.
Haha I will treat my idol reverently too! If I ever get to meet him, but not very likely though =(
I haven’t been to ikoi but heard the standard has dropped? Ya, bad service is always a shame when the food is good..
Hi, been following your blog for some time
. Yes, I agree Nogawa’s service std has dropped, ever since Chef Nogawa went back to Tokyo to open his restaurant(he only comes back once a month I think). Strangely, since he left, his well-trained service staff have also ‘disappeared’, replaced by some greenhorns, sigh….
Hi Angelia! Thanks for following =) Oh I didn’t know Chef Nogawa has gone back to Tokyo. They really need to improve their service even if the boss is not around..