Rakuzen

Hello!
I am back! (: It's been raining on & off since I woke up this morning and I think I understand what some people term "Singapore/ tropical rain" because rain in countries outside of SEA isn't like that (or at least I haven't seen it)!

Today I shall share some (blurry) photos of Japanese food that my family had at Rakuzen not too long ago. My sister decided to go to Rakuzen to celebrate her birthday so we happily trooped along (:

I think Rakuzen's menu is slightly similar to Sushi Tei's - especially the sushi pages! - but there are definitely more set meals to choose from!

We ordered a sushiya salad ($15) with sesame dressing to share and all of us liked it very much. I think it has to do with the dressing! I don't regret going with the waitress's suggestion despite my initial desire to try to the Rakuzen dressing.

Their dragon roll ($16) looks very much like Sushi Tei's but I think Sushi Tei's tastes nicer because the meat in the roll is usually served warm (: Kinda makes eating it nicer because it feels like the sushi has been freshly made, but that's just my own opinion. All dragon rolls are supposed to look alike hence the share the same name so I guess it boils down to personal preference as to which dragon roll is better tasting.

Sashimi mori ($68) was another dish that we ordered to share. My brother is in love with sashimi so we kind of ordered this specially for him (: I like the variety and it's good to have something for everyone!

If you want to get your money's worth when dining at Rakuzen, my advice is to go for their sets! (: If I'm not wrong, each set comes with

a side salad and

your main meal which in this case is a tempura and salmon set? It's called a Rokkaku Bento ($38) and it's good for two to share (on top of some side dish) if the two are small eaters! Sorry for the blurry shot!

If you want to play it safe, you can always go for the chicken terriyaki set ($21), which somehow never fails to disappoint.

If you are my brother who likes sushi and udon and want to have both in one seating, then you can go for the mini udon zen set ($19), which will probably fulfill what you want. As you can see from this photo, there are other side dishes like chawanmushi and diced watermelon for your dessert so it's quite a wholesome meal in that sense.

Unagi lovers will probably go for the unagi zen set ($25), which in my opinion is quite worth it because there's a little bowl of sashimi to accompany the set above too! The unagi was decent sized so you probably won't feel too hungry after eating this.

Beef lovers can go for the gyu. houba zen set ($16) which consists of slices of beef cooked on a leaf that is sitting atop some charcoal (: Think the portion for this set is pretty small so you can definitely finish it!

Of course, if you aren't a big eater and would like to have non-set dishes, you can always go for individual dishes such as the chicken katsu don ($14) or

the yasai ramen ($24). I think this is the most pricey bowl of vegetable ramen I've come across but in its defence, it IS a substantial bowl of ramen with lots of condiments and noodles! You are also allowed to choose your soup base so I guess it's not a bad deal. Definitely comfort food on a rainy and/ or cold day!

Okay that's all for today (: The last 12 days of the year is going to be jammed packed with festive meet-ups, cook outs and what not but I'm sure they'll be enjoyable and fun! Am looking forward to it! Enjoy the final stretch of 2011! (: