Cheap Sushi at Itacho Sushi

I've walked past Itacho Sushi (#B2-18 ION) many times and without fail, there's ALWAYS a queue. I understand that most eateries in Singapore, a food paradise, has a queue but i thought it was absurd for Itacho Sushi to have a queue even though meal times are over. Perhaps, sushi can be eaten as breakfast, lunch, tea dinner and snack.

One day after yoga, i was alone. I took a glimpse at the queue, no one was a single patron. So i skipped the queue, walked right in and asked if i could sit at the sushi bar. I knew there would be random single seats around not taken. 

Here's why everyone's queuing.

Limited to 2 pieces per person for every discounted sushi on this menu card, the salmon with soy sauce was a steal!

$0.40

The salmon was fresh, lightly seared and glazed with sweet soy sauce. It was tender and melted in my mouth. I regretted not ordering my allowance of 2 pieces.

After the salmon, i had high expectations. Cheap and good! It's so rare! The binchou tuna with citrus sauce was a little disappointment though. While the tuna was fresh and is unusual of the deep red colour, the citrus sauce was lost on my taste buds. Unlike the soy sauce with the $0.40 salmon.

I then flipped through the regular menu and it offered a good range of grilled dishes, rice, udon, fried nibbles, and soups. There is a wide variety with 5 choices of tamago (Japanese egg) as a snack! Starting from $2.40, there is seaweed & crab, curry lobster, spicy salmon, Tobiko & corn, shrimp.

On the menu, you can find food at extreme price ends. It can be as cheap as $0.40 for 1 salmon soy sauce sushi to $9.80 for 1 live ark shell sushi.

However, you can find something similar to the ark shell at a cheaper price. The roasted squid leg sushi was slightly chewy and juicy.

$1.20

You can also get sake to go with your food. The cheapest you will find is $20 for 300ml to $280 (good for 2) for 1800ml (good for a party).

Avacado crab meat salad ($6.30) was a popular choice to have some greens.
I would do away with the mayo the next time though.

It's not quite a fancy place to bring a date. If you want to wine and dine Japanese style, try Hide Yamato at MBS. At an average of $150 per person, you get fine china while at Itacho Sushi, you get plastic plates that are wet and grimy. Yucks!

 Despite those flaws, Itacho Sushi is certainly not one of those mid-level sushi chains like Ichiban Sushi or Sake Sushi. On its menu, you are able to order a tad more "adventurous" items like in the high-end restaurants. You can try the cod liver ($9) which is NOT like the cod liver oil we drink as children, dried puffer fish strips (not poisonous) and abalone with guts ($30 for 4).

I was alone, so the most adventurous i went octopus sushi with green tea salt. Which was utter disappointment because it came on a wet plate and i didn't think the green tea salt was merely a side dip! See picture above.

That wasn't as adventurous as i wanted to be! So i ordered my last dish, sweet shrimp cream miso soup. Miso soup with cream! I wondered how that would be like.

I regretted my choice.

$3.60

It was abit like fish soup with milk, but thicker and saltier. There were no ingredients but 1 chewy tapioca like cube. I didn't even finish half of it.

While the quality of sushi is good here, the service is bad, so are the hygiene of the serving plates.

While Akashi at Paragon still remains my mid-high Japanese restaurant where i swallowed my first fish sperm, giant tuna eyeball and newly born eel, i think i would visit Itacho Sushi again. This time, i'll just order 2 serves of every cheap sushi.