Mao Mao and I met for dinner at Raffles City. I was late and found Mao Mao walking around Robinsons. When she saw me, she blamed me for being a bad influence and caused her to buy some clothes while waiting for me. What the?!
We went to Shimbashi Soba at the basement of Raffles City. I had eaten at original shop at Paragon when it first opened. But that was some years ago and I have not eaten at this restaurant for some time. I didn’t know there was a branch in Raffles City.
Soba cha ($4.50 a pot)
We had 2 pots of soba cha, tea from soba grain. Mao Mao liked the tea and said that it had a smoky flavor. When compared to the roasted barley tea, the soba cha is more smoky while the roasted barley tea smelled like coffee. Unlike the roasted barley tea, the soba cha is best when hot.
Aona goma cream kake ($6.80)
We ordered 4 types of side dishes. First was a simple dish of boiled tou miao with a creamy sesame sauce. The portion looked small but there’s actually quite a lot of tow miao. I quite like it because there wasn’t a strong vegetable taste and the sauce masked out the rest of it. Mao Mao felt it is a good thing that I am eating vegetables and kept asking me to eat more of it.
Salmon yukke ($9.80)
Next we had the salmon yukke which was very nice. There was actually quite a lot of salmon even though at first look, it seemed very little. But when Mao Mao and I started eating, there always seemed to be still some salmon left in the dish. We mixed the raw salmon with the raw quail egg. The salmon was fresh and very nice. There was also some slight spiciness. Mao Mao felt they added some Japanese chilli oil and I thought I tasted some sesame oil as well. This will be a dish that I will order if I dine at Shimbashi Soba again.
Nasu & cheese yuba tsutsumi age ($9.80)
Mao Mao wanted to try this – eggplant and cheese wrapped in beancurd skin and deep fried. There were 3 pieces of it plus a deep fried lady finger and a saucer of what Mao Mao called the Japanese thousand island dressing. I don’t really fancy it although truth be told, it actually tasted quite ok. I felt it was not as worth the money if you compare it to the salmon yukke which was tastier and a larger portion.
Tori karaage ($7.80)
The chicken karaage was quite nice and came piping hot. Mao Mao made a comment about it but I can’t really remember. Something about the coating was different from the normal chicken karaage.
Hiyashi kamo soba ($20.80)
Mao Mao and I had a bowl of cold soba each. You can’t see it in the photo but there’s actually quite a lot of noodles. I felt this dish was enough for a normal eater but Mao Mao and I were feeling greedy. The soba was freshly made. At the Shimbashi Soba restaurants, there is a small room near the entrance where people could see the chef making soba noodles. While Mao Mao and I were in the restaurant, we saw the chef making the last batch of soba noodles for the day. Because the noodles were handmade, they were not as smooth or powdery as those dried prepacked noodles found at supermarkets. The noodles were chewier and the slightly coarse texture meant the sauce was able to stick to the noodles so you can get a bit of the sauce with every bite. The cold soba dish we ordered came with 5 slices of roasted duck, a poached egg, some spring onions, wasabi and soba sauce. I mixed all of them together in the bowl. It was cold and salty and refreshing. I can imagine eating it again in this current hot weather.
Cream anmitsu ($9.80)
For dessert, Mao Mao and I shared a cream anmitsu. There were a lot of ingredients in this dessert. There were soba balls, fruits, Japanese jelly cubes, red bean paste and a sprinkling of black beans, all topped with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. We were also given a small pitcher of brown sugar syrup which we poured over the ice-cream. I felt the creamy vanilla ice-cream goes well with the red bean paste. Mao Mao liked the red bean paste as well as it wasn’t too sweet. She also liked the soba balls which were chewier but less sticky than normal rice balls.
Shimbashi Soba
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-06/07 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: 63378852
ya…looking at the photos…you both DID order A LOT! got reputation to maintain i suppose…heheheh